Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Mocha chip ice cream

When I was growing up, the mocha chip ice cream from Purity was one of my favorites. The secret is using finely flaked chocolate instead of larger chocolate chunks or chips, which makes a surprisingly big difference in the fullness of the flavor; I wish that would catch on with more ice cream companies. Besides that, it's just the coffee ice cream from the Weinstein book, and it's at least as good as I remember it.


1 c whole milk
3/4 c whole coffee beans
3 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
2 t flour
1/2 t salt
1.5 c heavy cream
1 t coffee extract
4-5 oz dark chocolate

Heat the milk and coffee beans together in a saucepan until simmering, then cover and turn the heat down and let brew for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until light, then stir in the flour and salt. (If it's lunchtime, I recommend cooking the reserved egg whites with some thinly sliced portabellos and arugula, and using that along with some black bean dip and cheddar as a filling for a quesadilla type thing.)

Now that you're done with lunch, scoop the coffee beans out of the milk and reserve (any good ideas for what to do with them?). Slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture, then pour back into the saucepan over low heat. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens, which mine never actually did--instead it went through a transition where the white creamy foam on top dissolved into the rest of the liquid, then another transition where the egg yolk just barely started solidifying on the bottom of the pot without thickening the liquid above it. That seemed like a good time to call it quits, so at that point I poured the mixture through a strainer into a mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the cream and coffee extract, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a few hours.

Grate the chocolate in the food processor or by hand. Churn the ice cream for 10 minutes, add the chocolate, and churn for another 8 minutes until it looks and tastes exactly like a Purity mocha chip milkshake. Scoop into a quart-sized tupperware and freeze for a few hours until dinnertime.

No comments:

Post a Comment