ice cream social time...

It's July so once again that means it is time for my friend, Suzy of Kitchen Bouquet's ice cream social. Head over to her post HERE to see almost 30 versions of ice cream from the participants as well as some ice cream history and beautiful ice cream sandwiches from Suzy. It's very hot here in MN with heat advisories so ice cream was a perfect treat to make this weekend.
I chose to make rocky road ice cream which is one of my very favorite flavors and I have made this eggless version from allrecipes.com before and we both really liked it. (sorry no photos that time)

This weekend I decided to do the custard base version and chose a recipe from Fine Cooking. I made a few modifications to the original recipe based on what I had on hand and my attempt at a shortcut that wasn't very successful.
Rocky Road Ice Cream
by David Lebovitz as copied from finecooking.com
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Table salt
5 large egg yolks
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (at least 60% cacao), chopped and melted
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1/3 cup mini marshmallows
1/3 cup toasted chopped pecans
1/3 cup bite-size chocolate chunks

In a medium saucepan, mix 1 cup of the cream with the milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Warm the cream mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and tiny bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan, 3 to 4 minutes.

Prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with several inches of ice water. Set a smaller metal bowl (one that holds at least 1-1/2 quarts) in the ice water. Pour the remaining cup of cream into the inner bowl (this helps the custard cool quicker when you pour it in later). Set a fine strainer on top. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl.

In a steady stream, pour half of the warm cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from curdling.

Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heatproof rubber spatula until the custard thickens slightly (it should be thick enough to coat the spatula and hold a line drawn through it with a finger), 4 to 8 minutes. An instant-read thermometer should read 175° to 180°F at this point. Don’t let the sauce overheat or boil, or it will curdle.

Immediately strain the custard into the cold cream in the ice bath. Stir in the melted chocolate and cocoa powder. Cool the custard to below 70°F by stirring it over the ice bath.

Refrigerate the custard until completely chilled, at least 4 hours. Then freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Fold the marshmallows, pecans, and chocolate chunks into the just-churned ice cream, transfer to an air-tight container, and freeze for at least 4 hours or up to 2 weeks.

My Notes: I didn't have whole milk so I used the regular skim milk we always have on hand. Figured it had enough fat it in with all the cream & egg yolks anyway. Secondly, I made the custard at 9 pm at night and wasn't in the mood to go through all the steps with having an ice bath, I also thought "why can't I melt my chopped chocolate in the warm custard?" but obviously this was a big mistake. The chocolate melted for the most part but there were small bits (like coffee grounds) throughout the ice cream. While this didn't make the ice cream the best looking it didn't affect the taste. I also substituted marshmallow cream for the miniature marshmallows because that is how we prefer it (I also use the same substitution in the allrecipes version). While this ice cream was delicious as the person making it, I prefer the simple allrecipes version.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP