In the Kitchen: Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce and Chopped Almonds

Yum. I can't stop looking at this picture. 

Tyler and I got an old-fashioned crank ice cream maker for Christmas from Tyler's mom and step-dad. We love it! We love how the old ones look, which is why they thought to get us one and fix it up. Here are a few awesome things about this maker:

1. It can't really break. There is no motor, no electric anything, just you cranking the thing. If a piece breaks (unlikely), you can easily fix it. 

2. It can make a ton of ice cream. Most electric mixers make fairly small amounts of ice cream. We have made double batches (1/2 gallon) and there is still plenty of room. Most new ice cream makers make a quart of ice cream, so it is nice to have more, especially if we are having people over.

3. It is aesthetically pleasing.

4. Man power. So far, Tyler has been the one to churn it, but I like that you can control the speed and check and see how it is doing. 

5. It makes good ice cream that has a great texture. 

We have made a few different ice cream flavors so far and we really like the chocolate ice cream recipe from Annie's Eats, which is the one pictured above. Ice cream is really quite simple to make but it takes quite a bit of time. It is essentially like making a custard (if the recipe does not have eggs or cream in it do not bother making it--unless it is gelato or sorbet or something and that is completely different). You cook the mixture on the stove, doing the whole tempering eggs thing, and then that mixture has to chill in the fridge....for a long time. It has to be really cold before you can churn it and so does the bowl/ice cream holder thing that is inside your maker. After it is chilled, you start churning using ice (or snow in our case) and lots of rock salt to keep the whole thing cold, or you just put it in your machine. Once it is done, the texture is like soft serve so you freeze it (in a tupperware) for a few hours or overnight for the best texture. There is a lot of waiting involved, but it is so worth it. Homemade ice cream is the best, plus you know exactly what is in it and are not eating a ton of that high fructose corn syrup garbage that is sadly in most store bought ice creams now.

I also made a chocolate sauce to go with this ice cream because I sort of really like chocolate. Quality chocolate. Please, please use quality chocolate to make this ice cream and sauce! I am not saying you have to buy a $7 bar of chocolate, but at least use the Ghirardelli 60% cacao baking chips. 

 This is chocolate sauce, not chocolate syrup or hot fudge. I made this recipe simply because I had all of the ingredients. It is thicker than syrup, but not at thick as fudge and very chocolatey.

Chocolate Sauce

6 oz. quality chocolate

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

6 tbsp. water

pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a double boiler over simmering water (or if you don't have a double boiler, like me, put a glass or metal bowl inside of pot with simmering water in it). Whisk until smooth. Serve warm over ice cream or anything in need of a chocolate sauce. Keep in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Warm up in the microwave or on the stovetop (put glass jar in a pot of hot water) and stir before serving.

To make what I did in the picture, put your chocolate ice cream in a bowl or glass, spoon the hot chocolate sauce on top and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Sauce recipe from Luscious Chocolate Desserts by Lori Longbotham.