Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

I feel a lot of ice cream threads coming, it may even become a theme.  While the flowers won't open for awhile and we are a good month and a half from planting the garden, ice cream can make us feel like the weather is warming up, even if we are in our heated house eating it!

My favorite, and only, ice cream cook book is Bruce Weinstein's "The Ultimate Ice Cream Book".  So last weekend, when I was emptying out the fridge, as I'll be gone most of this week, I pulled it off the shelf when I had a little cream and 1/2 and 1/2 left to use.  Enough for a 1/2 batch of ice cream. Not wanting to go to the store, I wondered what to make.  Well, I always have some malt powder, as Joe is a fan, and chunks of unused chocolate, so Chocolate Malt Ice Cream it was!  It was to be a treat at the end of a dinner made up of leftovers.

A few things you should know about how I make ice cream.  I sub whatever dairy I have in the fridge.  I didn't have quite enough cream and 1/2 and 1/2 so I had about 3/4 cup of skim milk.  It was totally fine, it just means the ice cream will get hard and is best in the first couple days.  In the ice cream below I used all unrefined organic sugar, an extra 1 Tablespoon of coco, to take it up a notch, and I always use the max amount of malt, again per the hubbies preference.

Chocolate Malt Ice Cream (p. 42)

Ingredients:
3 oz. unsweeteened baking chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
4 to 6 tablespoons malted milk powder
2 cups half and half
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine the chopped chocolate, sugar, malted milk powder and half-and-half in a heavy medium sized saucepan.  Place over low heat and stir until chocolate is melted and sugar is dissolved.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Slowly beat the hot half and half mixture into the eggs in a bowl.  Return mixture to pan and place over low heat.  Stir constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until the custard thickens.  Be very careful not to let the mixture boil or the eggs will scramble.  Remove from heat and pour the hot chocolate custard through a strainer into a clean bowl. 

Mix in the cream and vanilla and cool the custard completely in the fridge.  Complete the ice cream in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer's instructions.

If you have an ice cream maker, or are thinking about getting one, I encourage you to get this book.  For every recipe, there are lots of alterations to make your perfect ice cream.

Weinstein, B. (1999). The ultimate ice cream book. New York, NY: William Morrow.