Chocolate Ice Cream

[Knicke]

Here's what I'm after: a good quality, rather dark, chocolate ice cream recipe. Simple-sounding, I know, but I haven't found one I like much yet. I'd like to use this recipe as a jumping-off point. I have ideas for ice creams much in the style of certain haute chocolates (choc. and tea, choc., coconut and curry, etc.), but I need a good base recipe before I start on that madness.

Can anyone point me to a good one?

[Chris Amirault]

I am a very big fan of Craig Clairborne's recipe in the original NYT Cookbook. Very basic, great texture and flavor, and we've adjusted it for darker chocolate very successfully.

Finally, I'll be the first to state the obvious: use really, really good chocolate.

[Poffertjes]

Such as Drostes.

Going home in two weeks, looking forward to the homemade chocolate ice cream!

The smell or thought of Drostes or homemade chocolate ice cream brings back such good memories....

[Busboy]

I'm quite the little chocolate slut for the stuff made from Todd English's Olives dessert cookbook. He uses brown sugar, which gives it a great richness and a pretty much undeniable mouthfeel. Use with caution.

[SethG]

I don't have the book with me, but Pierre Herme's version is delicious. He's very much against the use of cocoa powder or eggs in chocolate ice cream. I can give you measurements later if you want them, but his version basically involves really good bittersweet chocolate, milk, milk powder, and sugar. Very different from the usual ice cream. But it tastes more like real chocolate than most other chocolate ice creams I've tried.

[Knicke]

SethG, sounds intriguing! Is that the "Desserts" or "Chocolate Desserts" book from Herme?

[SethG]

SethG, sounds intriguing! Is that the "Desserts" or "Chocolate Desserts" book from Herme?

←

It's from the chocolate book. Several of us have discussed it over on the Herme thread in Pastry & Baking. Here's a picture of Elie Nassar's ice cream that I've hijacked for you:

Edited June 17, 2005 by SethG (log)

[Knicke]

YUM!

You might have predisposed me to trying that recipe first....

[abooja]

I, too, am looking for a great chocolate ice cream recipe. I've read here and elsewhere that Pierre Herme's recipe is great, but I'd like something that is custard-based, more along the lines of a Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream. I found Cook's Illustrated's recipe lacking, and David Lebovitz's recipe far too rich, even after adding more cream and milk. I couldn't eat more than a largish scoop before feeling ill. I could eat a half-pint of HD (a full pint, back in the day) and feel refreshed and satisfied, not nauseated.

Is the perfect recipe out there? How about the perfect chocolate? Which brand would most closely match the chocolate used by HD? I've tried several, all very decent chocolates, but none came close.

If I ever find this perfect recipe, I would like to add chocolate coated almonds to it in an effort to replicate the now-defunct HD's chocolate swiss almond. I'd also make a version with candied sour cherries to approximate the chocolate cherry ice cream of DH's youth. So far, it ain't happening.

[pastrygirl]

Add booze. I take my basic custard recipe, thin it a little (more milk), add chocolate and a good dose of liqueur to keep it soft (adding chocolate makes it harder). Chambord is very nice.

[Chufi]

I made the chocolate ganache icecream from Dorie Greenspans Baking From my Home to Yours book last week and it was fabulous. Before that, my favorite home made chocolate icecream was the Cipriani's chocolate icecream from Marcella Hazan's Marcella's Kitchen. That one is very intensely chocolaty and less cloyingly creamy, and uses caramelized sugar to intensify the flavor.

[tan319]

I, too, am looking for a great chocolate ice cream recipe.  I've read here and elsewhere that Pierre Herme's recipe is great, but I'd like something that is custard-based, more along the lines of a Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream.  I found Cook's Illustrated's recipe lacking, and David Lebovitz's recipe far too rich, even after adding more cream and milk.  I couldn't eat more than a largish scoop before feeling ill.  I could eat a half-pint of HD (a full pint, back in the day) and feel refreshed and satisfied, not nauseated. 

Is the perfect recipe out there?  How about the perfect chocolate?  Which brand would most closely match the chocolate used by HD?  I've tried several, all very decent chocolates, but none came close. 

If I ever find this perfect recipe, I would like to add chocolate coated almonds to it in an effort to replicate the now-defunct HD's chocolate swiss almond.  I'd also make a version with candied sour cherries to approximate the chocolate cherry ice cream of DH's youth.  So far, it ain't happening. 

←

The thing is that when you're making chocolate ice cream you don't really need that fat from egg yolks.

You could add a couple for the texture but with eggs you're obscuring the chocolates flavor.

I think Haagen Daz adds cocoa.

I use Valrhona Guanaja 70% chocolate

Milk

Dry milk

Heavy cream (very little)

Trimoline (you can get at a wedding supply, bakers type place, often called neuvoline

Suar

stabilizer

This will make one forget about HG

Good Luck

PS: A good ice cream maker helps.

[abooja]

I've read that about egg yolks and chocolate. Obscured chocolate flavor wasn't the problem, however. David Lebovitz's recipe tasted very strongly of chocolate. I did like the addition of cocoa. Perhaps I'll retry it with fewer egg yolks and a bit more milk. Looking back at the CI recipe, it completely omits salt, which is a big mistake. I know I added some anyway, but likely not enough.

I have a bunch of eggs, cream and milk laying around the fridge right now that I should do a side-by-side comparison of the altered DL recipe and Pierre Herme's. But I only have the one cheapo Cuisinart ice cream maker, at the moment. This should take a while.

[djyee100]

Alice Medrich's bittersweet chocolate ice cream from her Bittersweet cookbook has an excellent flavor. http://www.finerkitchens.com/swap/forum9/5...OLATE_ICE_CREAM

Another dark chocolate ice cream I like, from Lou Seibert Pappas' Ice Creams and Sorbets (bottom of the webpage): http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgu...chocrec04.shtml

One of my friends doesn't like the eggy, creamy side of ice cream, and she wanted intense flavor, so I sent her Alice Medrich's recipe for Sicilian Chocolate Gelato: http://www.surlatable.com/product/recipes/...olate+gelato.do

ETA: The online version of dark chocolate ice cream from Lou Seibert Pappas' Ice Creams and Sorbets made some alterations in the ingredients list. The ingredients for the original recipe are: 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped; 2 cups Half & Half; 2/3 cup sugar; 5 egg yolks, beaten; 1 cup heavy whipping cream; 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Edited July 16, 2008 by djyee100 (log)

[abooja]

Thank you. I may just give that Alice Medrich recipe a try.

[Okanagancook]

T. Keller's chocolate ice cream in the machine.  Egg yolks, sugar, cream, chocolate....what's not to like.  I added some chips of chocolate at the end of churning.

 

[paulraphael]

I wrote an article on modern approaches to chocolate ice cream a couple of months ago. There's an addendum with more notes, including tasting notes on some chocolate. 

 

The goal was to convey a sense of dark chocolate (as opposed to milk chocolate), and to capture as many of the origin flavors as possible from a single-origin couverture.

 

TL;DR:

Chocolate ice cream is challenging, because cocoa butter is bad for texture. It's rock-hard when it's cold. You can't use lots of couverture and have good texture, no matter how many technical hoops you jump through. You can get a pretty good compromise by supplementing a moderate amount of couverture with cocoa powder.

If you could get high-quality, single-origin cocoa powder, you could achieve the best possible results. Just ditch the couverture. Unfortunately, most cocoa powder available today is just byproduct, even you're buying from Valhrona or Cluizel or Amedei. It tastes good, but it's not interesting. Who even knows what you're getting. They don't treat this stuff like their single-plantation varieties.

 

This seems to be changing. Some companies are starting to offer SO cocoas. Callebaut/Bensdorf has a line (but I can't get my hands on a sample). Lots of smaller chocolate companies are offering them, too, but typically are unable to mill the cocoa fine enough for smooth textures in ice cream. But my fingers are crossed that options will appear soon. 

 

In the mean time, I make chocolate with a mix of couverture and cocoa. It's pretty great. Some of the tricks for best flavor are to eliminate eggs, keep the milk fat below 10%, keep the sweetness down, and to use sugars with maximum freezing point depression (dextrose, fructose). Total solids should be high ... 40–43%. Finally, serving temperature is important. Cocoa butter is more sensitive than milk fat to temperature. If you don't let the ice cream warm up adequately before serving, it will be slow to melt in the mouth and will have a muted flavor release, no matter how much chocolate you've crammed in there.

Edited April 29, 2019 by paulraphael (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I'd forgotten about this thread.  Recently I made some, what I consider, exceptional chocolate ice cream by a Rose Levy Beranbaum recipe.  Now I am thinking about sourcing higher end cocoa for my pantry.  According to 23andme my genome prefers chocolate to vanilla.  Perhaps I am doomed to spin out my destiny.

 

Though possibly a reason I am so enamored of this recipe is that Rose goes more in for eggs yolks and butterfat than my typical frozen collations.

 

[paulraphael]

If 23andme can't calculate your ideal recipe, they need to decode some more genes. 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I will repeat here a trick of mine or rather one of David Libovitz.    Eau de vie de cacao.    But, tantalized by his reference, we were never able to source it.  Not here, not in France.   So we improvised by steeping best quality cocoa nibs in vodka.   Left to sit for a month or so and you have an essence of chocolate.   Ours has been snoozing for maybe 5 years.  Time to start another batch.

But to what end?   Add a splash to chocolate cakes, mousses, ice creams and, wow, to chocolate sorbet!    And a tad for guests and the host/cook if you are so inclined.   

This is an extraordinary flavor boost with minimum expense and no effort.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, paulraphael said:

If 23andme can't calculate your ideal recipe, they need to decode some more genes. 

 

They have offered to decode more genes an additional $125.  Not sure if ice cream is included.

 

[shain]

@paulraphael I wish that I could taste your chocolate ice cream. I never had one that I really loved, they seem to all either taste like chocolate milk or be an unbalanced cocoa sorbets.

Edited July 23, 2020 by shain (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

In line with Paul's eschewing too much dairy, I have switched to making chocolate sorbet.    No dairy but both cocoa and 72% chocolate, plus a splash of the chocolate essence (faux eau de vie  I wrote up above).    This makes a luxurious, scoopable "ice cream" with excellent texture and deep, satisfying chocolala flavor.  

 

(Secret weapon: I serve this with a dollop of softly whipped cream flavored with a drop of anise oil.    This combination is complex and/but refreshing.    Also is superb on flourless chocolate cakes.)

Edited July 23, 2020 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[paulraphael]

14 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

They have offered to decode more genes an additional $125.  Not sure if ice cream is included.

 

 

I'd love for more people to try it. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea ... it's just so different from what people are used to. An artisanal ice cream shop that I consult with tried a less chocolaty version, and his customers found it too shocking. We had to scale back the chocolate/cocoa content a few times before the customers really loved it. His final version was maybe a third of the way between typical chocolate ice creams and mine. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]