As I think I mentioned last week, Hurricane Arthur managed to cancel all of the 4th of July events last weekend.  That meant that yesterday, the 12th of July, became the night for fireworks and festivities at the waterfront.  The condo I’m in for the summer happens to have a perfect panoramic view of the fireworks show, making it the natural location for friends to come and watch.  Which, of course, meant I needed to bake.

Full disclosure: I’m not giving you the full recipe for what I made right now.  I’m giving you part, and will give you the second half next weekend.  When I’m not going to work where I can drop off a tray of treats and be sure they’ll be gone before I return to the staff room, I have to stretch my recipes a bit.  Otherwise my family and I would be 400 pounds.  Each.

So, even though I turned this ice cream into ice cream sandwiches with Coconut Scotchies as the cookies, I’m just going to give you the ice cream for now.  Trust me, it’s delicious on its own.

I adapted the recipe from the book that came with my KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment, and it was my first attempt at an ice cream that used eggs, so this is a big deal for me.

First, put 1/2 cup of the whipping cream, the chopped semisweet chocolate and the chopped unsweetened chocolate in a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the chocolate melts.  Set aside.

Now, here’s where I may have messed up a little.  I just like to remind myself baking is an adventure.  I was so focused on prepping ingredients in advance so I could just go through the recipe quick that I skipped a step.

You should heat the half-and-half in a medium saucepan over medium heat until very hot but not boiling and set aside.  You should also stir this often while you’re doing it.

I didn’t do this step at all.  I think it may have changed the consistency of the ice cream to be a little smoother if I had, but in terms of food safety (I can here you thinking but Meg, there’s raw eggs in this recipe!), it didn’t make a difference.  You’ll be returning the raw egg batter back to heat later, so don’t worry about that.

Anyways, I picked the recipe back up at combining the sugar and cocoa powder in a small bowl and setting aside.

Then, put the egg yolks in the bowl of your stand mixer and use the wire whip at speed 2, gradually adding the sugar mixture and mixing until well blended and a little thicker.

Then, add the chocolate mixture and half-and-half, a little at a time, continuing on speed 2 until well blended.

Put the entire mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until small bubbles form around the edge and it steams.  See, I told you it would go back on the heat! No danger of food poisoning here.

Transfer the mixture into a large bowl and stir in the rest of the whipping cream and vanilla extract.  Slight digression: during this recipe, the stainless steel mixing bowls really grew on me.  I like the way pictures look with them. It’s making me mildly considering getting a set for aesthetic purposes.

Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, but probably overnight.  Ice cream is a very time-consuming process, but the payoff is awesome.

When ready, put the freezer bowl (which you should have already frozen) on the mixer and set the attachment to stir.  Pour in the batter and allow to run about 15 minutes, or until desired consistency.

In the meantime, chop up 4 hershey’s milk chocolate bars.  In the last 2 minutes of mixing, add the chocolate chunks to the ice cream.  My ice cream maker started making crunching noises so I probably only let it run 1 minute, but it worked.

You can either serve the ice cream immediately as is or put it in an airtight container and stick in the freezer for later use.  I ended up freezing it to assemble the ice cream sandwiches later.

The ice cream is pretty fudgy and elicited such responses as, “This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had!” and “Where did you get the ice cream for these sandwiches? It’s so good and fudgy!”  So despite the time commitment, it really is worth it.

Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whipping cream, divided
• 2 ounces semisweet baking chocolate, cut into chunks
• 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, cut into chunks
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 8 egg yolks
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 bars milk chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 cup whipping cream, semisweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate over medium-low heat until chocolate melts. Stir frequently and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat half-and-half over medium heat until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cocoa powder. Set aside.
4. Use wire whip of stand mixer on speed 2 to mix egg yolks. Gradually add sugar and beat until well blended and slightly thicker, about 30 seconds.
5. Continuing on speed 2, add chocolate mixture and half-and-half gradually. Mix until well blended.
6. Return mixture to medium saucepan over medium heat and cook until small bubbles form around edge and it steams.  Stir constantly until this happens, and transfer to large bowl.
7. Stir in remaining whipping cream and vanilla extract.  Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.
8. Assemble freezer bowl on the mixer and set to stir.  Pour in batter and stir for about 15 minutes until desired consistency.  In the last 2 minutes, add the chopped milk chocolate.
9. Serve immediately or store in airtight container in the freezer.