While visiting friends on Vancouver Island I thought it would be a great idea to bring along my ice cream making supplies and put together a homemade ice cream with their two daughters, Amy and Lydia.

Each girl was going to be able to pick their flavour and then we would make two batches of ice cream, or atleast that was the plan.  Lydia took about 5 seconds to decide which flavour she wanted, Moosetracks Extreme, where as Amy needed more time.  Now I just had to figure out what was in moosetracks extreme and what my plan was for chocolate ice cream.

Up until this point I had only made vanilla based ice creams so although I knew it wasn’t going to be hard I still had to figure it out.  Thanks to Amanda’s Cookin I was able to find a quick and easy custard base chocolate ice cream.  All it needed at that point was some things mixed in and we had moosetracks extreme.

Saturday afternoon Lydia and I hit the kitchen to put together our custard base ice cream.  While the milk was heating up I had her start on the separating of the 5 eggs, something she had never done before, but quickly became a pro.

As a huge fan of chocolate, Lydia would much rather have eaten the chocolate shavings than put them in the ice cream but we managed to cut up enough for the recipe, with a few tastes along the way.  Once all the chocolate was added and the custard had thickened up the ice cream was ready for the fridge to later be frozen.

The ice cream bowl had been freezing since the night before so when we pulled it out that night to start freezing it was ready to go.  When I told Amy and Lydia it was time to freeze the ice cream I said “Come up and watch the ice cream freeze in an instant” which turned out to be quite the wrong statement.  After staring at the mixer for over 5 minutes I let them go back to their movie and said I would call them when it started to thicken.

After close to 30 minutes I knew there was a problem because the ice cream was still runny and not getting thick at all.  I have made numerous batches with the same equipment and this has never happened to me before.  Unfortunately the girls were not going to get their ice cream before bed and because of the delay we weren’t going to be able to make a second batch for Amy.

They headed off to bed while I mixed the ingredients for both girls ice cream and then put it in the freezer, hoping it would be frozen by morning…

Bright and early the next morning the three of us got the ice cream out of the fridge that was loaded with peanut butter cups, marshmallows and almonds and each had a bowl.  Lydia proclaimed that this was the best ice cream she had ever had, something that made me happy considering the efforts to get it to freeze the night before.

Slowly as everyone woke up that morning they were given a bowl of the ice cream all agreeing that this was a great batch.  Even though we only had a chance to make one batch it was very yummy and I think the girls had a good time trying out our homemade ice cream.

Marshmallow Madness

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

5 ounces bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar

pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mini marshmallows

Slivered almonds

Peanut butter cups, chopped

Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium sauce pan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly.  Remove from the heat and add teh chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth.  Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream.  Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (170°F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.)  Add marshmallows, almonds and peanut butter cups and let set in the freezer

Tags: Almond, chocolate, Ice Cream, Marshmallow, Peanut Butter Cups

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Ice Cream. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.