Heaven In A Bowl.

When we were much younger, my siblings and i were part of the Haagen Dazs Junior Members Club. Being part of this little club entitled us to a little laminated cream colour card, no bigger than a credit card, that had the outline of a scoop of ice cream on a cone under the words 'My Favourite Flavour'. Without hesitation, i coloured mine a shade of brown. In my early years of formation, i quickly learnt that chocolate was my favourite flavour ever and stuck fiercely by it. Besides other than cookies and cream and the bubblegum ice cream we enjoyed on our trips to Perth, the only other flavours i knew were chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, so my choices were pretty limited. How uncomplicated my world of ice cream was then.


Although i now know of and have tried a whole range of flavours, chocolate still remains a firm favourite, alongside green tea, coffee and peppermint chocolate. Funny isn't it, how the older i become, the more trouble i seem to have in making choices :)

So the instant i laid eyes on the gorgeous image of perfectly round, melting scoops of chocolate ice cream in The Perfect Scoop, i knew it was instantly in the top five to try recipes from the book.


Right in the beginning of the book, David goes through the basic steps of making the custard base of the ice cream. I read this about twice before starting on making the ice cream. What i really like besides his precise instructions that makes you feel like he's right there in the kitchen with you, guiding you through it, are the step-by-step pictures. They sure made me feel a lot more confident, knowing there was something to visually compare my progress to.

This really didn't disappoint. In fact, it blew me away with how good it was. It was everything i had imagined it would be and so much more. It was really intensely chocolatey, in a really good way, due to the addition of both cocoa powder and melted chocolate, plus the Nutella i had swirled in as a afterthought. Its texture was just perfect; smooth and not too creamy. This really was heaven in a scoop.

I savoured each spoonful slowly and appreciatively, with my tastebuds firing off neuron signals to my brain telling it how good it was ever so frequently. Now i truly understand why they say nothing beats homemade ice cream. Indeed, i won't be shopping in the ice cream aisle of my supermarket anytime soon :)

Nutella Chocolate Ice Cream [adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop]


Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp cocoa powder
140g semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup Nutella

1. Warm 1 cup of cream with cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to combine. Bring to boil, then let simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and add chopped chocolate in, stirring till smooth. Add the remaining cup of cream and stir well. Pour into a large bowl, sitting bowl in an iced water bath and set aside.
2. Warm milk, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks together. Gradually pour warmed milk mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into saucepan.
3. Over medium heat, stir mixture constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan, till mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and immediately pour custard through a strainer into the chocolate mixture. Add vanilla extract and stir till smooth.
4. Allow to sit in fridge for at least 6 hours before churning in ice cream maker, following the manufacturer's directions, adding in the Nutella during the last few minutes of churning. Makes 1 glorious litre.