DARK CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM…for days when life hands you yolks!!

There’s gonna be dessert tomorrow, O when the yolks come marchin’ in…”

These are pretty happy days for the family. Desserts of every kind entice them, and footfalls from the mac attack seem to be never ending! Faux tiramisu, mango mascarpone budini, basil sandwich cookies, flat pathetic macs … the sweet run continues. The last day of mac frenzy left me with something I didn’t particularly relish the thought of … egg yolks , and 6 of them! I’m pretty much an egg yolk hater. I’ve confessed this several times, yet have passion to bake. Eggs and baking go hand in hand most of the time. It’s one thing baking with full eggs, & another thing dealing with yolks. Have you ever had yolks and more yolks building up in the fridge? I know of a bunch of mac attackers that had just those… and I was one of ’em! An involved & fun bunch of us stood up to a mac challenge on twitter very recently, and by then end of the frenzy, a number of us had many yolks, beautiful yolks on hand. If macarons were to be made only with yolks, there was no way I was in for the challenge! You see, the French macarons use just whites, and when you are mac challenged, you tend to use up many whites trying to get ‘feet’. However, when you are majorly mac challenged like me, obsessed about getting it right, and can try 6 times in a day, then it’s time for ice-cream! I made this delectable dark chocolate ice-cream from a book my daughter bought for me as a gift on my birthday in November last year. ‘Ice Cream‘ by Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Cameron Wilson is a “cheery little cookbook celebrates the innumerable pleasures of ice cream, from simple Milk Chocolate and fresh-tasting Strawberry to elaborate Raspberry and Kaffir Lime Leaf Sorbet. The authors provide a glossary of ice cream terminology and a useful guide to toasting nuts, caramelizing condensed milk and performing all the other steps necessary to churn up homemade ice creams, gelatos, yogurts and sorbets.”

I’m not an egg yolk ice-cream person at all. I’m much the eggless ice-cream lover, but life is unpredictable, and you can never say no. With the mantra of ‘waste not,’ which is held close to my heart, rather then throwing the yolks down the drain, I hung on to them. Ideas for yolks – cream patisserie, mayonnaise, creme caramel, custard, brulee …

…but in the back of my mind was this beautiful little book, the only dedicated ice-cream book I own. ICE-CREAM. It’s pure eye candy, with pick-me-up pictures and fun ideas. Leafing through the book, I could instantly find many good uses for the yolks. For a while, I got hopelessly distracted by eggless ice-creams like cinnamon and mascarpone ice-cream, ricotta ice-cream etc. Slapped my self back into focus, & reluctantly returned to the eggy ones. A foodie’s got to do what a foodie’s got to do…

The recipe in the book is described as… “this recipe was inspired by Italian food writer Marcella Hazan’s Chocolate Gelato, first published in her book Marcella’s Kitchen. It’s dark, velvety and divine.” As much as I enjoyed making it, I just couldn’t get myself to taste it. The hub tried very hard to convince me to have a T E E N Y bit as there wasn’t the faintest of eggy smells, the kids loved it & asked for seconds…but not me. I shall wait for eggless. It’s psychosomatic & I know it; that’s the tragedy of the wiring in my brain. Weird!!

You might wonder why I got my ice-cream into this shape. Actually, not very long ago, my sis sent me this fluted baking tin thinking I would conjure up some magic in it, baking little cakes on the go. Little did she know that it was a fluted brioche mold, & brioches are breads rich in egg & butter. A few conversations later, we knew that the tin had to be used for something else. I don’t like bread with eggs, breads rich in eggs even less. So the other day, while making the ice-cream, I thought it would be nice to set it in this fluted mold to add some fun quotient. I did just that, after lining the tin with clingwrap. I also added some crushed failed macs to the tin just before leaving it to set finally. I made the ice-cream by hand, since I don’t own an ice-cream maker, & it came out really smooth & rich. No crystals, just pure deep chocolate heaven ( as per the feedback from my happy tasters)!

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream
adapted from Ice-Creams
by Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Cameron Wilson, pg 33
Makes 600ml (1 pt)
Ingredients:
6 egg yolks (4 large; our Indian yolks are very small)
1/2 vanilla bean
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
125g plus 2 tbsps vanilla sugar
500ml full cream milk/whole milk
100gm dark chocolate, broken into pieces, melted
45g cocoa powder

Method:
In a heat proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks, seeds of 1/2 a vanilla pod, vanilla extract and 125gms vanilla sugar till thick & creamy.
Gently heat the milk to near-boiling point, then pour into the bowl of egg mixture, beating well.
Beat the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, followed by the cocoa.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir with a wooden spoon until the bubbles deflate and the mixture coats the back of the spoon. remove from heat
Meanwhile, in a very small saucepan, make a caramel, combining the 2 tbsps sugar with 2 tbsp of water. Boil the mixture until it turns a dark amber in colour, swirling the pan as it begins to darken. (It is ready at 180C on a sugar thermometer)
Whisk the caramel into the chocolate until smooth – it will sizzle. Cover the surface with cling film & let it cool. (I cooled it over an ice water bath, stirring often.)
Leave in the fridge for at least an hour, then churn in an ice cream maker. if you don’t have one, like me, whisk every hour to break down crystals. Serve or transfer to a freezer container, cover the surface with foil & put in the freezer.

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