Chocolate Cocoa Nib Ice Cream

This delicious cocoa nib ice cream is packed full of chocolate flavor. So easy to make and perfect for the chocolate lover in your life. 

Today’s recipe is brought to you by Rachel from Rachel Cooks. She is a great friend and expecting her second baby. This makes me super happy. I constantly hound her for pictures of the bump. I’m pretty sure she hates me for that but I can’t help it. Baby bumps are the cutest thing ever! Am I right? So, when Rachel is not dogging my constant hounding of bump pictures she is also making delicious food in her kitchen. 

Hi all! I’m Rachel from Rachel Cooks. When Brandy asked me to participate in her ice cream social, I immediately said yes. Partly because I’m preggers and eat a lot of ice cream. Partly because I love Brandy and her blog.

My next thought? “Oh crap, I’ve never made ice cream!”

I put on my best can-do attitude and pulled the ice cream maker out of the closet and got to brainstorming about recipes. I remembered that I had a pantry full of beautiful Scharffen Berger chocolate that was just screaming to be included in a decadent batch of ice cream.

This led me to Chocolate Cocoa Nib ice cream. It is creamy, rich, and has a nice crunch from the cocoa nibs. It’s also an egg-free recipe! I decided to start easy for my first ice cream experience. It is still a bit labor-intensive but so, so worth it.

Chocolate Cocoa Nib Ice Cream

This delicious cocoa nib ice cream is packed full of chocolate flavor. So easy to make and perfect for the chocolate lover in your life.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of whole milk
• 4 teaspoons corn starch
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cocoa nibs

Source: From Rachel Cooks via David Lebovitz

Directions:

Take 3 tablespoons of the whole milk and mix with the cornstarch in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a medium-large saucepan (4 quart) over medium-high heat, heat the rest of the whole milk, heavy cream, evaporated milk, sugar, and corn syrup. Keep a close eye on this as you do not want it to boil over or burn.

When it comes to a tame boil, whisk in the cocoa powder. Cook at a moderate boil for approximately 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, give your corn starch slurry a quick stir to make sure it is still blended. Whisk this slurry into the milk mixture and cook for another minute, stirring with a spatula until thickened.

Remove from heat. Stir in chopped chocolate and salt. Keep stirring until smooth and chocolate is melted. Stir in vanilla.

Transfer the mixture to a large shallow bowl. Submerge bowl in a larger bowl full of ice water. (I actually used the sink). Leave in the ice bath for 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until completely cooled. You could also put it in the fridge overnight.

Pour mixture into ice cream maker and churn according to ice cream maker directions. (I churned for 25 minutes total.) Add in cocoa nibs for last five minutes of churning.

Move to freezer and freeze until solid. Mine needed to be frozen overnight to achieve a firm texture.

Verdict: This is an amazingly creamy, rich ice cream. I could have eaten it before it was completely frozen. It tasted like the best chocolate pudding ever.

Husband’s take: He’s totally a vanilla guy or vanilla with chocolate chips, however, he loved this! I could hardly believe it. He even said, “You know I would tell you if I didn’t like it.”

Changes I would make: None.

Difficulty: Time consuming, but not hard. And it is worth it.

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