Mocha Ice Cream Dreams

Today I performed an experiment in my kitchen. Here is how it started:

A little over a week ago I made some maple walnut ice cream for my father, who could not find it in stores anywhere and was craving it. It turned out to be a success. But not quite up to the perfect standards my dad had set for me. I blame this on using pure ingredients, as I'm sure the maple walnut ice cream of his past contained more than 5-ish ingredients. He did say it was good, just not quite right. 

Well, I thought it was good. Great even. Probably some of the best ice cream I've had in a while. 

It was the first time I used eggs/egg yolks when making ice cream...okay so go ahead and correct me, because technically "ice cream" contains no eggs, but frozen custard ice cream is just so gosh darn long, and let's face it, not as familiar...and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. 

So back to today...I realized I needed to use up the rest of the cream and what better way than to make another batch of ice cream. :) To decide on the flavor, I consulted with my husband. He stated he didn't really feel like ice cream tonight and ultimately was not very helpful. I had kind of thought about making a coconut or a coffee ice cream, and thought he would like neither of them. But he surprised me and said he would eat the coffee ice cream "if it was good." Even if he only has a little bit, it will be a little bit that I'm not consuming. ;) So coffee won out. Mocha to be precise. 

And then I started Google-ing. There are conspiracies about the type of coffee you use, the type of chocolate or cocoa you use and whether or not to use eggs. (and there are also some dairy-free recipes out there!) It is such a difficult decision, because each blog you go to claims to have the best recipe. After looking at about 15 different websites I had Jamaal hand me the manual that came with our ice cream maker. And inside there was a very simple Coffee Ice Cream recipe, with a variation for Mocha Chip Ice Cream. That was it. I didn't have to print one out, I already had a recipe to carry into the kitchen. 

And then I didn't read the directions quite right. I got excited and measured out all of the ingredients and put them in a mixing bowl. The recipe calls for:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons instant espresso or coffee, to taste
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Variation:

• Use 1-1/2 tablespoons each instant espresso powder and Dutch process cocoa instead of just espresso powder
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate bar, roughly chopped into tiny pieces (to be added in the last 5 minutes of churning)

You are supposed to use a mixer to combine the milk, granulated sugar and espresso powder (and cocoa) until dissolved, about 1-2 minutes on low speed. But I also added the heavy cream. Now, if you know heavy cream very well, you know that it can also be used for whipped cream. That means, you beat it, it fluffs up. So as I was mixing it was foaming, and the gosh darn cocoa and espresso wasn't dissolving! So I decided to warm it up a little to get it to dissolve. (and just so you know, I chose to use regular cocoa powder, because that was what was in my pantry, which, I read, is a little less chocolaty, and also doesn't dissolve as easily. While I'm on a roll confessing my divergence I also used 2 heaping tablespoons of both the cocoa and the espresso, none of this decreasing to 1-1/2 business. I want it to taste like a mocha dang it!)

So, I poured the foamy mixture through a strainer into a saucepan and began heating my base. As I'm stirring constantly, I think: "If I have to stir this constantly anyway, I might as well add eggs to the mix." So I found a "premium ice cream" recipe in my Cuisinart booklet, the Decadent Chocolate Ice Cream recipe to be precise, and kind of made it work for me. 

It calls for:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk

And wouldn't you know it, I had exactly 3 eggs! The recipe wants you to combine sugar, cocoa, eggs and egg yolk in a medium bowl and beat it until it is thickened like mayonnaise. But I had already added all but the eggs to the hot milk/cream mixture, so I just beat the eggs as best I could. Then I took 1 cup of the hot milk/cream mixture and in a slow steady stream, beat it into the eggs using a hand mixer. (This is called tempering your eggs. If you just throw them into the warmed/hot milk they would cook like scrambled eggs. This kind of slowly brings them up to a warmer temperature so they don't cook that way, instead they combine with the other ingredients first, to form a custard.) Then I added my egg mixture to the saucepan, and continually stirred over low-medium heat. I had a candy thermometer attached and I kept stirring until it reached 170 degrees Fahrenheit (and it was thickening up.) 

I had set up an ice bath prior, and poured the mixture through a strainer again into the bowl in my ice bath. This helped to cool the mixture quickly. That way I could quickly transfer the mixture into the fridge for the night. 

I can't wait for tomorrow! :)