We All Scream for Spice Cream!

I bought an ice cream maker from a friend who was moving out of town, and man am I glad I did. I decided to skip the standard chocolate and vanilla flavors and go right for something special. The plan was for an Almond Joy ice cream (coconut ice cream with chocolate covered almonds and toasted coconut--yum) but I misread my thermometer and the custard curdled. (Make sure you look at Fahrenheit, not Celsius!) That batch ended up being dumped down the toilet. After some trouble shooting, I decided to go for something sweet, spicy and rich. I found a few different recipes that I pulled from to make exactly what I was looking for. It came out amazing--smooth, creamy, almost like a gelato. This recipe was definitely a keeper.

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Almonds

modified from David Lebovitz chocolate ice cream recipe

Makes about 1 quart

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

1 cup whole milk

¾ cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 cup roasted almonds

4 oz dark/bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon almond extract

1. Melt chopped chocolate over double boiler. Add roasted almonds; move around until all the nuts are coated in chocolate. Pull them out with a fork, place them on piece of wax paper on top of a plate or tray. Put in fridge to harden chocolate.

2. Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

3. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

4. Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (170°F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla, almond extract, cinnamon, cayenne. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

5. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.)

6. During last 5 minutes of the freezing process, pull out nuts and chop them into small pieces. Add them into the ice cream. You may have to fold them in with a spoon when its done mixing.

7. Put into another container with air tight lid. Freeze for about 2 hours.