Dark Chocolate Orange Ice Cream

“We loved the Chocolate Caramel Ice Cream. Thanks. But can you make a Chocolate Orange Ice Cream?”

Dark Chocolate Orange Ice Cream
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract
• Grated zest of 1 orange, preferably unsprayed
• Pinch of salt

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and grate the orange directly over the cream mixture.

Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Add in milk, orange and vanilla extract.

Pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 30 seconds, until smooth.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes about 1 litre

After letting the ice cream set overnight in the freezer, I give it a try. It tastes exactly as it was described to me. A velvety smooth dark chocolate flavor first presents itself. It is quickly followed by the sublime aroma and flavor of freshly sliced oranges that lingers as you take your next bite.

Honey Lemon Ice Cream

½ C. honey
1 t. lemon zest
8 oz. ricotta
8 oz. mascarpone cheese
2/3 C. milk
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean
1 C. heavy whipping cream
3 T. powdered sugar

In a large bowl, combine the honey, lemon zest, ricotta, mascarpone, milk, and pinch of salt.  Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the bean specks inside and add to the honey milk mixture.  Set mixture aside.

In a clean bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks.  Add powdered sugar and whip for another minute.  Fold whipped cream into the honey milk mixture.  Taste the mixture for sweetness.  It should be slightly sweeter than you’d like since the sweetness will mellow in the freezer.  If desired, add more honey.

Place mixture in ice cream maker and follow manufacture’s directions.  When serving, drizzle scoops of ice cream with additional honey.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2 cups half-and-half

¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder

½ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

½ cup smooth peanut butter

Whisk together the first four ingredients in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove from the heat and whisk the peanut butter in until thoroughly combined.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream makers according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Apricot-Pistachio Ice Cream

5 ounces dried California apricots, quartered

¾ cup white wine, sweet

½ cup shelled unsalted pistachio nuts

2/3 cup sugar

2 cups half-and-half

A few drops of lemon juice

In a small saucepan, warm the apricot pieces in the wine. Simmer for 5 minutes, cover, remove from the heat, and let stand for 1 hour. Coarsely chop the pistachio nuts.

Puree the apricots in a blender with the sugar, half-and-half, and lemon juice until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream makers according to the manufacturer’s directions. During the last few minutes of churning, add the chopped pistachio nuts.

CARDAMOM, PISTACHIO, ALMOND & HONEY ICE-CREAM

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
125gr sugar
300ml low fat milk
200ml liquid cream
Vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
Crushed pistachios & almonds
Honey

How to make it:
Mix the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. In a pot, bring the milk, cream, cardamom and vanilla to boil. Pour the boiling milk mixture over the cold mixture (eggs + sugar) while stirring. Return to heat and continue to stir until the cream starts to thicken. This stage of cooking is known as “la nappe” which is achieved between 82-85C. If the cream is not heated sufficiently, the ice-cream will be thin and watery. Remove the pot from the heat and stop the cooking process by place it in cold water mixed with ice cubes. Pass the mixture though a strainer and transfer to your ice-cream machine. Add the crushed pistachios and almonds before churning. Follow manufacturers’ instructions. Half way through the churning, add the honey (while ice-cream is still churning).

*The base recipe I use for ice-creams, including this one, is from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne pastry & desserts techniques. If you don’t like using eggs, you can replace with other binding agents such as gelatine, pectin, agar-agar… I personally do not like using eggs and replaced the eggs with gelatine for this one.

The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments

Based on his blog and his dessert cookbooks, David Lebovitz is one chatty guy. The introduction to his latest book, The Perfect Scoop, is some 2,000 words long and begins this way: “I’d like to start this book with a nostalgic tale.” A few soft-focus paragraphs later, after a bout of pretty word-painting about lazy summer afternoons and hand-cranked ice-cream machines and sentimental grandparents, Lebovitz writes, “That would indeed make a lovely story. If any of it were true.”

Nope. Instead, as Lebovitz relates, his ice-cream world was actually defined by a manic summer job scooping ice cream at a soda fountain. “We gave unreasonably huge scoops,” he writes. “Absolutely enormous. Completely out of proportion to the fragile sugar cones we were constantly breaking as we tried to pack as much ice cream on as possible.”

Too much, Lebovitz decided, could never be enough. He became a pastry chef and worked at Chez Panisse before moving to Paris to give “culinary tours” and blog about Parisian shopping, food, and cultural confusion. The Perfect Scoop, as touted on his blog, is a dip into the Lebovitz world of sugary treats and teasing indulgence:

What a barely-there string bikini, high heels and world peace have in common with mango sorbet . . .
(page 108)

Further evidence of why I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer . . .
(page 57)

My exacting frozen revenge on a childhood bully . . .
(page 96)

Ooh la la. If ice cream is a soap opera, Lebovitz is happy to tune in.

Fortunately for the rest of us, his book is both sensibly sized (less than 250 pages and firmly bound) and solidly written. If you don’t feel like reading the oft-goofy intros to each recipe (that mango sorbet was inspired by an idle afternoon spent watching the Miss Martinique pageant on TV), just get to work following the refreshingly simple instructions for each confection.

Lebovitz follows his introduction with a chapter called “Basics.” Many cookbooks have little chapters like these, typically buried at the back and including a hodgepodge of “basic” recipes for sauces, doughs, and the like. Not The Perfect Scoop. Lebovitz fills 18 dense pages with instructions on making custard (the basis of most ice-cream recipes), tips on buying and using essential ingredients, and explanations of the various types of ice-cream machines and other useful equipment.

Only then does Lebovitz begin slinging recipes. He starts, in traditional fashion, with the basics: vanilla and chocolate. If you judge an ice-cream book by such staples, then these recipes alone are worth the cover price. His Vanilla Ice Cream calls for an entire vanilla bean on top of vanilla extract, but the rich results validate such profligacy. And the chocolate is indeed a perfect scoop, a exact balance of creamy and chocolatey.

From here the book spirals outward into more than 70 ice-cream recipes, more than 50 sorbets, sherbets, and granitas, and entire chapters on sauces and toppings, mix-ins, and vessels. Lebovitz’s concoctions range widely, from America (Tin Roof Ice Cream) to Asia (Green Tea Ice Cream) to Italy (Zabaglione Gelato) to France (Crème Fraîche Ice Cream) to his own eclectic territory (Anise Ice Cream).

Like all cookbooks, some recipes in The Perfect Scoop are better than others. Basil Ice Cream, which pulverizes basil leaves in a blender, is intensely herby; a more delicate version would simply soak whole leaves in cream. Coffee Ice Cream, strangely, stirs fine coffee grounds directly into the finished dessert; the result is unpleasantly gritty. And keep in mind that Lebovitz likes his sugar spiked; the two cups of wine in the Raspberry-Rosé Sorbet recipe, for example, can be cut in half and still produce a very boozy dessert.

Strawberry Stracciatella Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1 pound strawberries
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon kirsch or vodka (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

5 ounces chocolate, melted

Directions

Wash and slice the strawberries. Place them in a large bowl with the sugar and kirsch or vodka (if using.) Give them a stir until the sugar begins to dissolve, then let them sit at room temperature for 1 hour, giving them an occasional gentle stir.

After they’ve macerated for 1 hour, place them in the bowl of a food processor or blender with the accumulated juices. Add the heavy cream, yogurt and lemon juice. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Chill this mixture in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. When the ice cream is getting close to being done, melt the chocolate either via double boiler method or in the microwave (I used the microwave, melting the chocolate in a Pyrex liquid measuring cup in 30 second intervals on 50% power, stirring after each time.) When the ice cream is just about finished churning, while the motor is still running, slowly drizzle the melted chocolate into the ice cream in a thin stream. Try not to hit the machine’s paddle. I found it easiest to drizzle a little chocolate in, then use a spoon to swirl it around while it’s churning. If you find the chocolate begins to clump up, you can drizzle it in layers when you pack the ice cream into its storage container, swirling it with a spoon as you go.

Transfer the churned ice cream to a storage container, and freeze.

Makes about 1 1/4 quarts.

Thai Coconut Ice Cream With Mango Lime Swirl

As the lovely Rachel of Coconut & Lime approaches her 700th post, I’d like to recognize her for being an outstanding member of the foodie community. Her creativity is boundless and her site is simple and beautiful.

So here’s to Coconut Lime! This is a slightly sweet – slightly savory ice cream inspired by Thai flavors. There are two coconut elements (milk and syrup) and two lime elements (kaffir leaves in the ice cream and zest in the swirl). I’ve also noticed her frequent use of mangos lately, so that element completes this tribute.

Thai Coconut Ice Cream With Mango Lime Swirl

1 cup heavy cream
1 14 oz can light coconut milk
1/2 cup light rum
1 tsp coconut syrup or extract
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
2 large kefir lime leaves
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/4 tsp salt
3 large whole green cardamom pods
2 tsp grated lemongrass
6 egg yolks
1/2 recipe mango lime swirl

Combine all ingredients except for egg yolks in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks in a stand mixer until pale and frothy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of coconut mixture to egg yolks while the mixer is on medium speed. Pour egg mixture into saucepan and cook until thickened, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and chill for at least 3 hours, until very cold.

Add to an ice cream maker and freeze until soft set according to manufacture instructions. Fold in mango swirl by hand and freeze for 4 hours, or until hard.

You will only need 1/2 of this recipe. The remainder can be used as an awesome frozen mango margarita mix, or you can make more than one batch of ice cream.

Mango Lime Swirl

1 15 oz. can mangoes in light syrup, pureed in a blender until smooth
(canned really works better than fresh in this application)
the zest and juice of one lime
2/3 cup natural cane sugar

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and chill until very cold.

Cookie Dough Ice Cream – from Sally Sampson’s newest cookbook

Available in Sally Sampson’s cookbook Recipe of the Week: Ice Cream published by Wiley Press

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 sugar syrup (Note: Per Sally – Place 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan and cook, over medium high heat, until the sugar has completely dissolved, about 3 minutes.  Set aside to cool, cover and refrigerate up to 1 month).
1 teaspoon vanilla (Note: I recommend using a really good quality, expensive vanilla. I rather lazily used the McCormicks in my cupboard and I really wish that I had picked up a bottle of Nielsen-Massey.  Next time I definitely will).
1 1/2 cups of your favorite raw cookie dough, such as chocolate chip or oatmeal

Place the milk, cream, sugar syrup, and vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk well.  Transfer to an ice cream maker and proceed according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  When the ice cream is just beginning to come together but has not hardened completely, add spoonfuls of the cookie dough and process for about 5 more minutes.

Cuisipro® Ice Cream Scoop & Stack

Cuisipro® Ice Cream Scoop & Stack

Make delightfully amusing treats with our playful Cuisipro® Ice Cream Scoop & Stack. The scoop & stack creates cylindrical blocks of ice cream that can be decorated or stacked for a colorful and creative presentation. The ergonomic scooper cuts through the hardest ice cream with a simple twist-and-lift action. Push button release. Each scoop holds 3.75 oz ice cream. Dishwasher safe on top rack. Choose from three colors.