Poor Girl Cooks: Ultra Rich Chocolate Ice Cream

Let me start off by saying that my favorite chocolate ice cream in the whole world is Breyer's Chocolate. My parents raised me exclusively on Breyer's, so I started out pretty biased, but recently they've reworked the recipe and it is utterly fantastic. No seriously, go try some, you'll agree.

So in order to be consistent with my nature, I decided to take a good idea and try come up with it myself (I was taught too much Mathland as a child). Anyway, I don't like custard-based ice creams, I wanted a nice Philadelphia style, and for this I turned to David Lebovitz, who is (I've been told) the guru of all things frozen, desserty, and chocolate. Brilliant! So I borrowed a recipe off of his website and gave it a whirl. And then it dealt that favor right back to me...

So first, you heat up some milk and some cocoa on the stove. Regrettably I only had Hershey's cocoa, I think next time I'll use a nice Ghirardelli or something...

Whisk for approximately 300 years while it comes to a boil, then let it simmer while you frantically remember to open and chop the chocolate.

Momma taught me right. Kill the heat on the pot and stir in the chocolate bits until it is delightfully smooth.

Then add the other half of the milk and a splash of booze (shouldn't everything have a splash of booze? [hey, I'm legal, stop your judging]) and stir some more. Then put it in a bowl and chill it overnight.

And I mean it, CHILL IT OVERNIGHT. If you only chill it for a few hours, like Mr. Lebovitz suggests, you'll be doomed to return to your ice cream maker to find a very cool liquid at the end of the churn cycle! And then you'll weep on the inside for lack of chocolately goodness, and you'll taste it and find it bitter, and the whole world will come crumbling down! Or at least, that's what happened to me, but it's been a rough week.

To fix the ice cream (not the week, that's beyond repair) I added about an additional quarter cup of ultrafine sugar and about half of a cup of extra milk. I figured this was safe because the recipe only yielded a quart anyway, and my ice cream maker makes a quart and a half. Surprisingly enough I was right, big shocker to us all, and when I finally churned it again 24 hours later it came out quite well. It's a little gritty, which is to be expected after using sub-par cocoa (Lebovitz suggests running it through a blender prior to churning to help with this, but some of us don't own a blender), but it is the ultra-rich, slightly bitter taste of the Ghirardelli melted into good milk. You could adjust the recipe for sweetness depending on your tastes, but really, I think I like it this way.

Ultra Rich Chocolate Ice Cream
adapted from David Lebovitz's Chocolate Sherbet

2.5 cups of milk (use your preferred fat level)
3/4-1 cup of ultrafine sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (one that you really like and could drink)
4 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 Tbsp of liqueur (he suggests Kahula, I only had rum, creme de cacao would probably be good too)

1.) In a saucepan, warm half of the milk with the sugar, salt, and cocoa powder. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 seconds or so.
2.) Remove from heat and add chocolate, whisking constantly until smooth. Then add vanilla, liqueur, and the rest of the milk. Stir to blend and taste for preferred sweetness (and run through blender if it tastes grainy), then chill in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
3.) Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

Yields 1-1.5qt