Lactose Intolerance Be Damned

Tonight I made the best chocolate ice cream I have ever eaten, and that’s saying something.

I cook imprecisely, so it’s especially important to record these little miracles when they occur. My friend Patti taught me years ago that if you know what each ingredient does, you can play when you cook. So I do. This time I made a custard base… here’s how you can do this too:

In a bowl (or a piece of tupperware in my case tonight) stir up three big egg yolks and three tablespoons of sugar.
Meanwhile, slowly warm 500 ml whole cream in a saucepan.
Fairly early on, stir some spoonfuls of the warming cream into the egg-sugar mixture.
Mix it all together in the saucepan and heat, stirring most of the time.
After a while it’ll start to thicken. Add in 100 grams chopped up GOOD chocolate (in this case a fine bar of 72% Swiss chocolate).
Cook it stirring til the chocolate smells like it’s cooking and bring it almost to a boil.
Cool a bit.

I then put it in the Krups ice cream maker S got me (sort-of — who are we kidding?) last fall. We were impatient so we actually put the mixture in the machine warm — a total no-no. We had to run it through two cycles. Who cares?! It was the BEST… and I have tasted and tested chocolate ice creams and gelatos across two continents. The only two that come close are Chocolate Pudding ice cream from Herrell’s in Northampton, MA and the gelato joint, Il Doge, in Campo Santa Margherita in Venice, Italy.

Happy ice cream making!

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