Recipe: Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla Ice-cream for the Indecisive But Enthusiastic Cook

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1 1/2 cups cream

1 1/2 cups milk (I used low-fat, but I gather one is supposed to use whole milk)

1 vanilla bean

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup good cocoa

2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk (you can make meringues with the rest of the egg!) (ooh, and then you could stir them through the ice-cream and make it even more decadent! I am absolutely going to do that next time)

1 punnet strawberries

240 grams good dark chocolate, chopped (set aside the last 40g for later)

 

Now what will you do with it?

Put the milk and cream in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthways, and scrape out the seeds into the saucepan. Put the pod in, too. You will get vanilla seeds all over your fingers, oh, the humanity! Bring cream mixture slowly to the boil, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, slice up your strawberries, and put them in a bowl with 1/4 cup of sugar. Now is also a good time to chop your chocolate, if you hadn’t already. (And make those meringues!!)

Beat together the rest of the sugar with the eggs and yolk and the cocoa until quite thick.

Remove the vanilla pod from the cream, and pour 1 cup of the cream mixture slowly into the egg mix, beating like mad as you go. Pour the whole lot back into the saucepan, along with 200g of the chopped chocolate. Stir constantly over low heat until it thickens considerably. This will take ages. Allegedly it resembles chocolate pudding when done, but I don’t actually think it does. It’s more like a lemon curd consistency, I’d say.

Transfer thickened chocolatey custard to a bowl and chill for three or so hours, until completely cool. Pour the juices from the strawberries into the custard and mix, then pour the whole lot into an ice-cream maker and churn about 25-30 minutes, or until thick and ice-creamy. When it’s nearly done, add the strawberries and the reserved chopped chocolate. If you wandered out of the room for the first 20 minutes, you’d better stay put now – your ice-cream maker will be very full, and might try to erupt if you are not keeping a firm hand on the lid!

I find it is still a bit soft when done, and like to freeze it for half an hour or so (maybe less) in a likely freezer container, but you can eat it immediately if you prefer.

Eat with great delight, or freeze for later. This recipe makes about 1.5 litres.

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