Brownie Batter Ice Cream

For months after I received my ice cream maker I attempted to make Brownie Batter Ice Cream.  I would make a batch of brownie batter from the Brownie Lady/Sacrament Brownies recipe we have.  I would make different modifications, omitting the marshmallows, baking powder, eggs, replacing the eggs, etc.  I adjusted the ratio of batter to ice cream base (baking the leftovers for brownies that were sometimes used as a mix-in for a brownie batter/brownie chunk ice cream).  All iterations resulted in yummy, chocolaty ice cream, but not THE brownie batter ice cream I was envisioning.

In March I pinned a recipe for brownie batter ice cream that simply used brownie mix -  DRY and added cocoa powder.  This was a novel concept to me, and exciting.  Except, I had moved on to other delicious ice cream creations.  I will share my Al-Mound of Ice Cream Joy recipe.  With Lex's corn intolerance I had also been on the hunt for a new brownie recipe (we have found two).  Until now.  This week I made my own version of brownie batter ice cream.  It was spot on to my imaginings and I had to stop myself from eating eat out of the ice cream maker to save for tonight.  I knew I needed to write this down before I lost my page of scribbled starting points, adjustments, ratios, etc or simply forgot what I did with all those numbers, especially the parts that weren't written down.

Brownie Batter Ice Cream

Ingredients
Base
1 (14 oz) can of coconut milk (we use GoldenStar brand)
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 oz dark chocolate (we use bittersweet chips from Ghirardelli)
1 tsp vanilla

Dry Mix
2 1/2 Tbs rice flour
1 Tbs potato starch
1/2 Tbs tapioca starch
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cocoa nibs

Directions
Heat coconut milk and salt in a double boiler.  Put chocolate and vanilla in a separate bowl.  In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks and brown sugar.  Temper egg mixture with heated coconut milk (150-160°) then add to the double boiler.  As mixture reaches 160°, stir for 2 minutes.  Pour thru strainer into bowl with the chocolate and vanilla.  Stir to melt chocolate and combine.  Allow mixture to cool in refrigerator overnight.

Grind cocoa nibs to powder.  Mix together all dry ingredients with whisk.  Churn ice cream mixture and dry mix in the ice cream maker.  Try not to eat it all as you transfer it to a container for the freezer.

Scharffen Berger

Lately, Paul and I have noticed that our tastes in chocolate have changed.  The easiest way to describe this change?  The darker the better.  Paul would pick up a bar of darker chocolate every few weeks until one day, while enjoying a Lindt 90% Cocoa Bar, we discussed how disappointed we were whenever we splurged on a normal candy bar.

According to The Pioneer Woman, and her Great Baking Chocolate Debate, Scharffen Berger is THE best chocolate to use when baking.  While Paul was in PA doing some training he ran across some Scharffen Berger at the local grocery store.  Wanting to be a good husband, and not having much luck on the Penguins memorabilia front, he picked up a few bars for me.

The Nibby Bar.

Semi-sweet chocolate with crunchy, toasted cocao beans (nibs).  This was nibbled over the course of two weeks while we debated the best way to use our other bars.  Each taste reminded me that whatever I made with the others, it would be sublime.

70% Bittersweet Chocolate

I made gourmet chocolate ice-cream.

14 oz can Coconut Milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 Cup Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
3 oz bar Scharffen Berger 70% Bittersweet Chocolate
1 tsp Vanilla

Combine milk and salt in double boiler to 170°.  Whisk together sugar and egg yolks.  Temper with coconut milk.  Return to double boiler for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  In a bowl break up chocolate bar (snag a piece to taste) and add vanilla.  Strain custard mixture into chocolate.  Stir 'til combined, and cool overnight in fridge.  Then freeze in the ice-cream maker.  It is so thick, this only took 6 minutes.

Paul and I loved this ice-cream!  It was crazy thick.  But, because there was not enough time for the ice-cream maker to churn in some air, it didn't make "as much" and was gone very quickly, which made us wistful for more, except it was extremely rich and we probably couldn't have handled more if it had been available.

82% Extra Dark Chocolate

Today I am making ice-cream with the last bar.  I have doubled the recipe, except for the chocolate bar, since I only have the one.  I also added half of the sugar to the coconut milk in the boiler at from the start.

We recently found Scharffen Berger chocolate at Central Market.  We purchased the cocoa powder.  I will be making our "magic shell" recipe (at the bottom of the Peanut Butter Ice Cream post) using this.  Freezing it into a thin layer (on wax paper), I am going to break it up and add while churning, to make our ice-cream Double Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

Peanut Butter Cup

A couple weeks ago we were in the freezer aisle buying spinach, Alayna was scoping out the ice creams on the other side.  She wanted the Peanut Butter Cup.  Except we were making "Purple Cow" flavour that weekend.  Instead, we bought some peanut butter cups to store in the freezer for the next week's ice cream.  It was very worth the wait.

Peanut Butter Cup Ice-Cream
1 Cup Peanut Butter (we used the creamy Jif Natural)
2/3 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2-14 oz cans Coconut Milk
20 mini peanut butter cups, most chopped into sixths but save a few to only chop into quarters)

Beat peanut butter, sugar and salt till smooth.
Stir in coconut milk.  Cool mix in fridge for an hour.
Churn mixture in the maker.  Transfer to a container, stirring in peanut butter cups.  Freeze overnight.

As if that wasn't yummy enough, Paul made his very own "Magic Shell" type of chocolate topping.

Crispy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate topping.
1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
1/4 Powdered Sugar
2 Tbs Cocoa Powder

Microwave oil quickly, like 15 seconds, to melt it.  Stir in sugar and cocoa.  Drizzle on top of frozen ice cream.

Ice Cream!

For Christmas this past year, Paul bought me this Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker!  Even better, he got it on sale for half the price, including the shipping.

Since December we have been making ice cream almost every week.  Our first try was vanilla, custard-style ice cream with bits of our gluten free brownies for the mix-in using the recipe book included with the machine.  Since then we have branched out and made our own recipes.  We have had many successes, some repeats, a few that need fine tuning and one failure.  What we haven't done is written them down.  That needs to change.  So, I will start with our most recent success.

Orange Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 - 14 oz cans of Coconut Milk (we use Thai Kitchen)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• orange zest from two cutie oranges

• 10 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 6 oz orange juice concentrate

Directions

• While stirring, heat first 4 ingredients in a double boiler to 175°
• Whisk together egg yolks and second 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• Gradually temper egg yolk mixture with 1 1/2 cups of milk mixture
• Incorporate the tempered egg mixture into the remaining milk in the double boiler
• Stir and heat for 3 minutes

• Place vanilla in a separate bowl and pour in the milk/egg mixture.  Stir, and place into the fridge overnight.

• Freeze ice cream mixture and orange juice concentrate in the maker.  Transfer to a container and freeze overnight.

The kids liked theirs served in some cutie peels we had saved in the freezer.  Paul even found some Orange Creme Magic Shell for our citrus treat.