Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

Lately I am hearing and reading so much on having a proper diet and eating healthy and within limit. All these are good things. Good traits to be undertaken. Good habits to look forward. Some of them have helped me to carve out a proper diet for me. To choose healthy options and mostly inspired me to have a regular schedule for exercise. It really helped me a lot for the past few months. Made me fit. I have lost a substantial amount of weight and I feel light and healthy from inside.

But there is one thing I never do. I do not kill my wishes. If I wish to have a pizza or grab a burger or indulge myself into a gelato....rarely I have stopped myself. I believe in guilt free eating. I eat because I love and I enjoy good food more than anything. Good food and good wine. It could have been my tagline...but I am not so much of a liquor person (no matter how much I try).....so I think good food is the limit for me.  

A few days ago I started reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban again. It brought back all those teen age memories. Literally we grew up with harry potter. Those book releases and then counting days and waiting for movies were something that I really miss now. Although the books and the movies are so different...still I love both of them. They are good in their own perspective and of course you have to accept the fact that it is almost impossible to pack all those incidents from books, brick by brick in a movie. However I would have loved the movies more if it had a less serious Harry. In the books, Harry Potter does smile, laugh and does sarcasm...but in the movie Harry is much different. He is a serious super hero...”the chosen one”. And in all these heroic attire somewhere I could not find that silly boy, who hates classes, who hates exams...and whose favourite pastime is breaking the rules.

Then there was this Twilight series. In this case I prefer the books to the movies. No matter how hard I try I just can’t convince myself to like the movies. The books are way dramatic and expressive and romantic compared to them.

 Chocolate Ice Creams are everyone’s favourite. So when I started making ice creams I knew that someday I will make a big batch of chocolate ice cream and eat as much as I like. Sadly I can’t eat as much as I like...but I can eat whenever I like. Besides this recipe is very adaptable. You can add chocolate chips to the custard base to make them lusher. You can also add some chopped nuts. Then you can also add different types of chocolates, like Belgian Chocolate or Mexican chocolate...and they will immediately turn this simple dark chocolate ice cream into Belgian Dark Chocolate Ice Cream or Mexican Dark Chocolate Ice cream. Whenever I make this ice cream I add in whatever chocolate I find tasty. Mostly I add Lindt chocolates, as they are very smooth and velvety. You can add any chocolate of your choice. So let’s make my creamy and luscious Dark Chocolate Ice Cream. 

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

200gm dark chocolate (preferably 60% cocoa)

1/4 cup pure un-sweetened cocoa powder (I used the Nestle pure cocoa powder)

Sugar – as per taste

3 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp heavy cream

1 cup milk (preferably whole milk)

1 tbsp butter (preferably unsalted)

Method:

Mix the heavy cream and milk in a saucepan and simmer on low flame till it reaches its boiling point. Put off the flame when bubbles start to form at the edges.

Meanwhile in a large bowl break the 3 eggs. Add in the sugar and with the help of a wire whisk, until the eggs turn lemony yellow and when dropped from above it creates a ribbon.

Slowly pour in the warm milk + cream into the whisked eggs. Whisk continuously while pouring to avoid any type of cooking of the eggs. If you feel that you have cooked up eggs a little, pass entire mixture through a sieve to get rid of them.

If you are using chocolate bar, then roughly chop it up and put it in a heat proof bowl. Put a saucepan half full of water and let it come to boil. When the water starts to boil put the heat proof bowl with chocolates on it. Add the butter and stir slowly with a spatula until it’s all melted and gooey. Once done put off the flame and take away the bowl of melted chocolates. Immediately add in the 1 tbsp heavy cream and cocoa powder. It may bubble up profusely but continue stirring, until everything well combined.

Now slowly mix in the eggs and milk mixture and then transfer all of them to a saucepan.

Place the saucepan on a low flame and continue stirring until it thickens up. The custard should be thick enough to cover the back of a spatula when raised up. Do not let the custard come to a boil, or else the eggs will start to scramble.

Pour in the custard in a loaf pan or bowl and let it come to room temperature.

If you are using ice cream machine, then make ice cream according to its manual.

If you are not using ice cream machine, then put the mixture in a container, cover the surface with a plastic film and freeze until a little set. Then scoop out the mixture and blend until smooth. Freeze again.

Repeat this procedure for 3 times and then freeze for 6 hours or overnight.

Let it sit outside 10 minutes before serving to be scoopable and then serve.