Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

 When thinking about one's favorite dessert, ice cream comes to mind for most folks, from kids to adults.  There is some mystery about the construction of excellent ice cream, magic even, that prevents most from giving it a shot.  However with some inexpensive equipment and readily-available ingredients, the home chef can whip up an enviable batch with both ease and only a modest investment in time.
The Basics
Ice cream, as differentiated from gelato, must contain a minimum of 10 percent butterfat.  Gelato is made with milk rather than a combination of milk and cream, and thus may have a lower butterfat content.  Your basic store brands of ice cream generally have a butterfat content closer to the minimum required, and premium brands (think Haagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry's) generally have significantly higher butterfat content, approaching 20 percent or more.  Why does butterfat matter?  Fat does two things:  it conveys flavor (especially for fat-soluble flavors) and provides that creamy mouth-feel associated with excellent ice cream.

In my view there are four major components of ice cream that determine its final form:

1. Butterfat (see above..)
2. Flavoring - The amount of flavoring added will impact the dessert.  Are you going for subtle and complex or a wallop?  Are you mixing flavors and textures?
3. Sugar content - the sweetness of the ice cream is an obvious variable.  But ice cream can be to sweet and overpower the flavoring, or under-sweetened, preventing the full impact of the flavor to come through. 
4. Overrun -  This is the measure of air, by volume, whipped into the ice cream.  By law ice cream may have overrun of 100% of the volume.  That is to say, in a half gallon of ice cream, one quart can be the liquid base, and on quart can be purely air.  Obviously, the brands with minimal overrun (a natural by-product of the churning process) are considered more premium and have a richer flavor and texture.

 Recipe
Ingredients for about a quart

• 1 cup half and half
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 2/3 cup)
• 3 egg yolks
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

 This is a very easy recipe to remember as many of the ingredients come in three's: three cups liquid, three tablespoons, three ounces, three egg yolks, 3/4 cups, etc.  Note, for the liquid we are using the maximum fat available.  For a slightly lighter outcome, you can substitute milk for the half and half and table cream for the heavy whipping cream.  But what's the point!  Go big and eat in moderation.

Steps for the ice cream base

1. Put the cream in the fridge.  Heat lightly the half and half in a small saucepan with the sugar, salt, and cocoa.
2. When the liquid is hot enough (around 110 degrees) the cocoa will melt into it.
3. Break up the yolks and slowly, while whisking, add the chocolate liquid to the yolks to temper them.  Reintroduce the yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining liquid.  Whisk.
4. Add the chips to the liquid, whisk to melt.
5. Continue to heat the mix until the temperature reaches 160 degrees.  This heating thickens the mixture and the temperature kills any pathogens that the eggs may have brought to the table.
6. Cool mixture in the fridge for at least four hours.
7. Introduce the 2 cups of cream and the vanilla and whisk.  This mixture is your ice cream base.

Ice Cream Machines

There are two varieties of machines:  Those that have a bowl insert that must be frozen overnight, and those that have an internal compressor that cools a la minute.

The former is cheap and effective, but the requirement to freeze the insert prevents making multiple batches in one sitting.  With capacities for these machines maxing out at about a quart per iteration, you are somewhat limited.  This is the version we have and used in this recipe:

Cooks Illustrated rated this compressor model as it's top rated:

We love Cooks Illustrated, but the reviews of this model on Amazon are mixed.  My favorite, and chosen by my ice cream maestro Drew, is this Cuisinart model which is comparably priced:

 In any of these cases, slowly add the ice cream base while the machine is on and churning.  I churn for a scant 20 minutes, until the mix is granular but not climbing up the sides more than an inch.  This limits overrun and maximizes density and thus flavor and mouth-feel.

Move to a container.  It will be VERY LOOSE.  Don't worry.  Freeze for at least four hours.

This is what is looks like about 30 seconds from leaving the freezer:

Here is the video of the process:


Jeff.