Use the nicest ingredients you can find for this intensely chocolaty Italian ice cream, or gelato; they make all the difference. For it, I use 70% chocolate.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 9 hrs 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 9 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups whole milk
- ⅝ cup white sugar, divided
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ⅔ cup chopped dark chocolate
- 4 egg yolks
Instructions
- Heat milk, 1/2 the sugar, and cream in a heavy saucepan until simmering and sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes, being careful not to scorch the milk. Remove milk from heat and whisk in cocoa powder and dark chocolate. Allow to cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, beat egg yolks and remaining sugar in a large bowl using a whisk or electric beater until thick and pale yellow. Add about 1 cup of the slightly cooled chocolate mixture in a slow stream to avoid cooking eggs, whisking constantly until well combined. Add the rest of the chocolate mixture and return to the saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes more.
- Strain custard through a sieve into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching to mixture to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate 8 hours to overnight.
- Pour cold custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions, about 20 minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until hardened, about 1 hour.
- You can add crushed cookies or chocolate chips halfway through for an added dimension of texture to the recipe.
- I put 8 servings because this recipe is so super chocolaty that a small serving would satisfy the greatest of chocolate cravings. If you were looking at it as a normal ice cream, I would say it is around 4 servings.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 238 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 31 g |
| Cholesterol | 123 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 40 mg |
| Sugars | 19 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Since cream comes by the pint, I used a pint of cream and reduced the milk. I also added 1/4 cup of cappuccino and reduced the milk to compensate. While this is a stunningly delightful dessert, it is too rich – if that is even possible! I served my wife and I portions of about 3/4 cup size, and we could only eat half of that because it was so rich – like eating fudge. Although really, really good, I probably would not make this with as much cream next time!
This recipe wasn’t too sweet as I used dark chocolate. I think next time I’ll do a mix with dark and semi sweet chocolate. Mine didn’t set all the way as I was too impatient, so I think next time I will use an ice cream maker so I don’t have to wait to enjoy this gelato.
This was an absolutely delicious recipe! Instead of chilling it overnight, I put the ice cream base in an electric ice cream maker that I have and it was ready in under 20 minutes.
This ice cream is for dark chocolate lovers only. I used 4 oz. of 60% cocao and thought it could use a smidgeon more sugar, and next time I would add a little more heavy cream replacing some of the milk. It was a rich, chocolately ice cream that everyone enjoyed.