Chocolate ice cream: custard base and a fork every forty minutes
Ice cream made without a machine comes out hard and full of ice crystals for one reason: the water in it freezes into large crystals. A machine churns continuously and breaks the crystals up before they can grow. At home a similar effect comes from beating it with a fork every forty minutes through the first three hours. The rest is a custard base — yolks, milk and cream heated to 82 °C and no higher, because above 85 °C the yolks curdle.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Custard 30 min
- Chilling 240 min
- Freezing 300 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneHeat the milk with the cream
Bring the milk, cream and cocoa to the boil, whisking, and leave 5 minutes. Add the cocoa to the hot liquid rather than at the end — only in heat does it dissolve completely and release its full aroma.
Ingredients: 400 ml whole milk · 400 ml whipping cream (30%) · 6 pcs egg yolks · 150 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Whisk the yolks with sugar
Whisk the yolks with the sugar, honey and salt 2 minutes, until pale and thickened. The honey is not just for flavour: its simple sugars lower the freezing point and make the ice cream easier to scoop.
Ingredients: 400 ml whole milk · 400 ml whipping cream (30%) · 6 pcs egg yolks · 150 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Two minutes, until pale and thickTemper and cook the custard
Pour the hot milk into the yolks in a thin stream, whisking constantly, then return everything to the pan. Cook over low heat, stirring across the base with a spatula, until the custard coats the spatula and a finger leaves a clean track on it. That is about 82 °C.
TipAbove 85 °C the yolks set into fine threads. If that happens, <b>blend the custard and strain it</b> — in most cases it can be rescued.
A finger leaves a clean track on the spatulaPour it over the chocolate
Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl and strain the hot custard onto it through a sieve. Wait one minute, then stir from the centre outwards until smooth and glossy. The sieve catches any threads of egg.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate, 70 % · 30 g cocoa · 2 tbsp honey
Custard through a sieve, a minute untouchedChill it thoroughly
Cool it quickly in a bowl of iced water, then press film onto the surface and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. The base must be ice cold before freezing — warm, it freezes slowly and forms large crystals.
Freeze and beat every forty minutes
Pour into a metal container (metal conducts cold better than plastic) and freeze. For the first 3 hours beat it hard with a fork every 40 minutes, breaking up the crystals forming at the sides. Then freeze another 2 hours undisturbed — 5 hours in all.
TipFour or five beatings is the minimum. Each breaks the crystals that have just formed, and those crystals decide whether the ice cream is creamy or crunches between the teeth.
Every forty minutes, vigorously, for three hours
Before you start
Take it out ten minutes early
Homemade ice cream is firmer than bought, having no stabilisers and no aeration. Ten minutes at room temperature before serving is usually all it takes.
With alcohol
Two tablespoons of rum or whisky added before freezing lower the freezing point and give a noticeably softer ice cream. Don't go beyond three tablespoons — the ice cream turns too soft and melts fast. The boozy version is not for children.
Other flavours
The same custard base underlies many ice creams: vanilla (a vanilla pod steeped in the hot milk), coffee (2 tablespoons of instant coffee dissolved in the hot milk), salted caramel, pistachio. You simply leave out the chocolate and cocoa.
How long it keeps
A month in the freezer in a sealed container with film pressed to the surface. Without film it absorbs freezer smells and grows frost crystals that ruin the texture.
