Chocolate Ice Cream

Trader Joe's Giant Chocolate Bar

It is 30 degrees F (feels like 20) outside right now which is unseasonably cold for Portland but here I am making ice cream. Perhaps it is the sunny days or maybe the holidays. Ever since I purchased my ice cream maker, I have made several batches of avocado gelato and a few others but avocado is my all-time  favorite. To most people including Marcel, this is a very strange thing to make so he keeps asking when I can make something that he can eat, say chocolate. For some reason, I do not like baked or cooked chocolate. Cookies, brownies, and cakes made with chocolate do not appeal to me. I eat them from time to time but I’d rather eat a chocolate bar, usually with at least 70% cacao, sometimes with almonds or hazelnuts. Good quality hot chocolate warms my heart as well.

This recipe was taken from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. This time, I followed exactly what it said. It took a lot of self-control for me to stick to the formula. Actually, I did make one minor change. He suggested Dutch-processed cocoa but I used my favorite brand Dagoba which is technically not Dutch-processed but this is one of the best out there, in my opinion. They are from Ashland, OR and as you know, I love supporting  my “local” purveyors. For the chocolate bar, I used Trader Joe’s. Not the best but certainly better than most mass-produced chocolate. Valrhona would have been my first choice but I didn’t have any in my pantry. This resulted in a chocolate ice cream worthy of this statement from Marcel – “We can start an ice cream business”. The man knows his chocolate.

You can buy the book from Amazon.com for a reasonable price, borrow it from the library, or even better preview it on google books.

Combining the chocolate mixture with the custard

When freshly churned, it resembles soft-serve ice cream

Frozen ice cream