Chocolate Ice Cream & Variations Recipe

Chocolate Ice Cream Base [1.5 quarts]

Heat the cream/milk on the stove. As it's heating, beat in cocoa powder. Heat cream/milk/cocoa mix until steaming. Stir into egg/sugar mix. Add vanilla extract. Cool. Freeze in ice cream maker.

Notes: I use Dutch processed cocoa (instead of American processed), but I'm not sure how much difference it makes. I've tried using a higher milk fat content, but then the mix takes on the consistency of pudding when cooled, and doesn't freeze hard enough in ice cream maker.

Chocolate Almond [1.5 quarts]

Chocolate Ice Cream mix 3/4 cup toasted almonds

Make a batch of chocolate ice cream. When nearly frozen, add the toasted almonds. Note: You will obtain better results if you toast your own almonds. Buy blanched almonds, toast in the oven at 250 for 2-4 minutes (watch them carefully so they don't burn). You may want to chop the almonds before toasting if you prefer smaller pieces.

Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream

[1.5 quarts] Chocolate Ice Cream mix (reduce to 1 tsp vanilla extract) 1 cup raspberries

Mash raspberries together with 1/4 cup sugar. Just before adding to ice cream maker, stir juice from berries into mix. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Just before frozen, add berries. Note: Fresh raspberries produce better ice cream, but frozen raspberries will still make an excellent treat (but don't use raspberries frozen in syrup).