Cooking Lesson #1064: Quadruple Chocolate Ice Cream

 …from the Perspectives’ Kitchen

Quadruple Chocolate Homemade Ice Cream

How you doin’? Several years ago Perspectives created 54 (yes, count 'em!) different chocolate ice cream formulations for one of our clients. Each of these flavors started with a 22% butterfat base… that’s a good 6% to 10% more richness than most ordinary commercial ice creams. 
 
Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been sweetened with either sugar or an alternative, and a flavor, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. My recipe chooses to go for an explosive flavor of chocolate—creating Quadruple Chocolate Ice Cream.
 
The origins of frozen desserts are murky at best, although several accounts exist about their history. Some sources say the history of ice cream began in Persia in 550 BC. A Roman cookbook dating back to the 1st century includes recipes for sweet desserts that are sprinkled with snow, and there are other Persian records from the 2nd century for sweetened drinks chilled with ice.
 
Ice cream production became easier with the discovery of the endothermic effect. Prior to this, cream could be chilled easily but not frozen. The addition of salt to water lowered the melting point of ice, drawing heat from the cream and allowing it to freeze. Pretty neat, huh?
 
The technique of freezing was not known from any European sources prior to the 16th century. By the latter part of the 17th century sorbets and ice creams were all the rage made using this process.
 
Marco Polo is often credited with introducing sorbet-style desserts to Italy after learning about them during his travels to China. According to a legend, the Italian duchess Catherine de' Medici introduced flavored sorbet ices to France when she brought Italian chefs with her to France upon marrying the Duke of Orléans (Henry II of France) in 1533.
In 1686, Italian Francesco dei Coltelli opened an ice cream café in Paris, and the product became so popular that during the next 50 years, another 250 cafés opened in Paris.
 
The secret English recipe for making ice cream was written as follows:
 
Take Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten'd, or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt; set in your Pots of Cream, and lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; then take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will slip out. When you wou'd freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Raspberries, Currants, or Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put to them Lemmonade, made with Spring-Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten'd; put enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice as you do Cream.
 
Enough about ice cream’s long and glorified history, let’s make my favorite dessert—ice cream—now!
 
All of your favorite ice cream toppings can go on Quadruple Chocolate Ice Cream, however, there's enough white, milk and dark chocolate chunks in this ice cream recipe that you might not want any toppings at all!
 
Prep time:  15 minutes
Cook time:  10 minutes
Chill time: 20 minutes
Freezing time: 4-24 hours
Yield:  Serves 6-8
 
Ingredients
6 cups whole milk
1-1/4 cup sugar
12 large egg yolks, beaten
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped and melted
3 cups whipping cream
3 ounces chopped dark chocolate
3 ounces chopped milk chocolate
3 ounces chopped white baking chocolate
 
Rock salt and crushed ice for ice cream makers, if using.
 
Directions

1. In a large saucepan combine 3 cups of the milk, the sugar and egg yolks.
2. Cook the custard over medium, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber scraper, until the custard coats the back of the scraper.
3. Remove from the heat.
4. Whisk in melted bittersweet chocolate until combined and smooth.
5. Transfer to a large bowl.
6. Whisk in the cream and the remaining milk.
7. Let cool for 20 minutes.
8. Cover the surface of custard with plastic wrap.
9. Chill 4 to 24 hours.
10. Freeze the chilled custard in a 4- to 5-qt. ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions.
11. Add the chopped chocolates during the last few minutes of churning.
12. Transfer gelato to a freezer container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

ChefSecret:  If adding particulate to your ice cream, freeze the inclusions before adding them to the near-frozen custard. They will deliver better texture in the finished product.

Quip of the Day:  Q. Did you hear they passed a law banning ice cream?  A. Don’t worry, it was ruled un-cone-stitutional!.
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/perspectives-on-food
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