Chocolate Ice Cream

I've come across recipes from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and I thought what better time to make chocolate ice cream than for my chocolate obsessed bff who was visiting from San Diego. I have made ice cream one time before. A strawberry ice cream which was delicious but seeing that I usually don't make ice cream, I didn't know it was a bit odd for a recipe to not temper the eggs with the cream to cook them.  The strawberry recipe did not call for that so I guess I just ate raw eggs. :( Even though the recipe was tasty I can't eat it again knowing the eggs aren't cooked. It's like when I ate a delicious veal parmigiana and then found out how they make "veal."........never again.  So my second attempt at ice cream was delicious.  He gets two thumbs up for this one. It was soo creamy and chocolaty and was a nice rich custardy treat.  I think after I made this my bff had a cone every night.  I plan on making other ice creams from his book but I think my next mission will be some type of chunky monkey or pistachio ice cream. Enjoy! Also note I did not have dutch process cocoa powder, so I used good ol' Nestle and it still was amazing.

Chocolate Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop by David LebovitzMakes about 1 quart
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

2. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (170°F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.)