Chocolate Ice Cream

It's been an up and down kind of week, the ups being seeing quite a bit of family, and the downs realising how long it will be before I see some of them again. At least I have some very good chocolate ice cream left over to console myself with, and as the weather is finally taking a turn for spring (I've put my hot water bottles away and am hoping that's it for at least the next 6 months) it seemed like a good time to share the recipe.

I got 'Nose To Tail Eating' when it came out, as did all my foody friends, but however much I agree with the theory (I really agree with the theory) in practice I really don't like eating offal and though that's not all there is to this book it's probably why I seldom pick it up. When I do pick it up I always wonder why I don't look at it more often - it's something of a theme that makes me wonder if perhaps I do have enough cook books after all... 

Long story short, with family coming round I wanted a grown up chocolate ice cream and remembered there was a recipe in 'Nose To Tail Eating'. It's the recipe that makes me love the book thanks to its frank admission that they're not yet entirely happy with it (if I remember correctly they nailed it by the time the next book came out). It is still an excellent chocolate ice cream though, and a perfect base recipe for messing about with. I flavoured mine with orange and star anise (I'm sure I saw this combination somewhere else but can't find it now, sorry to someone - I'm not deliberately plagiarising, it just sounded like exactly what I wanted) and was very happy indeed with it. 

The other nice thing about this recipe is that it doesn't make to much - important when it has to be eaten within a few days. It does also require an ice cream machine.

Take 150mls of milk and 350g of double cream, put them into a pan along with a few strips of orange peel and 3-4 stars of star anise to infuse, bring to the boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer, add 70g of 70% cocoa solids chocolate roughly chopped and whilst that melts whisk 5 egg yolks with 120g of caster sugar (or mixed castor and light golden sugar). When that's thoroughly beaten add a little bit of the hot cream mix to it whisking all the while. Now add this to the rest of the cream mix still on the stove. Stir well all the time it's being added (no one wants scrambled egg ice cream). Let it cook for 8-10 mins stirring regularly before adding 50g of 99% cocoa solids chocolate. Take off the heat and let the chocolate melt with the help of a bit of a stir. Once melted pass the whole lot through a fine sieve and into a suitably sized jug or similar. Let it cool until you're happy to put it in the ice cream maker then churn for about 20 minutes, stick it in a tub, and freeze it. It will be ready to eat in a couple of hours. 

No picture, because a Tupperware tub of something brown and frozen just doesn't give any indication of how good this tasted.