Ice Cream Sandwich Deconstructed - I - Alphabet Challenge

This week the best thing I could think of for the letter I was ice cream! And what better way to eat ice cream in summer then as an ice cream sandwich. I had some extra time this week so I decided to make my cookies and ice cream from scratch. I'm going to focus on the chocolate ice cream in this post but you can find my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe here. 

To make this ice cream I recommend using an electric ice cream maker. There are other ways to chill the ice cream base like when we were kids and you used rock salt and rolled it but the ice cream maker was so much easier. Plus, I have it and never use it so figured I should utilize it. 

Making ice cream isn't a difficult process but it is time consuming. You have to cook the ice cream base, then chill it for about 6 hours in the fridge. Once cooled you can spin the ice cream to get the right texture and then freeze it for another 6 hours. The chilling steps can be done overnight so I made mine over two days. 

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream, divided

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/8 tsp. sea salt

3 large egg yolks, beaten

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract  

Directions:

1. Whisk together 1 cup cream and cocoa powder in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil/simmer for 30 seconds whisking constantly.

2. Remove from heat and add chopped chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add remaining 1 cup of cream and whisk to combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and position a fine mesh strainer over it. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks.

4. In a second saucepan over medium heat, whisk together milk, sugar and sea salt.

5. Once the milk mixture is slightly warm, add ½ cup of warm milk to the beaten egg yolks and whisk to combine. Add the milk/egg mixture back into the saucepan, whisking during the addition. This will temper the egg yolks so they don’t turn into scrambled eggs.

6. Continue to cook the custard over medium heat and stir the mixture constantly with a spatula until the it thickens and lightly coats the spatula (when it reaches about 170 degrees F).

7. Pour the thickened custard through the metal strainer into the other ingredients in the bowl. Stir until combined. Discard any custard residue left on the strainer. 

8. Add the vanilla and stir to combine.

9. Place a lid on top and let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight. To speed up the cooling process, you can place the container of the chocolate ice cream liquid base into an ice bath and stir it often.

10. Once the ice cream mixture is cooled to just below room temperature, churn it in an ice cream maker until thick and frozen (30-40 minutes).

11. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

12. Serve!