A Beginner’s Guide to Making Chocolate Ice Cream from Home
Summer is around the corner! The sun is out, days are getting longer, kids are out from school, and everyone is enjoying the lakes, beaches and rivers.
If there’s any perfect time to make homemade ice cream, it is now! This is such a fun activity to try on your own or with your kids!
Here at Beach Town Pops, makers of artisan ice cream and gelato, we know everyone will have a great time and eat the delicious reward after all the hard work…
Get high quality chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s.
In all honesty, ice cream seems like a tricky frozen treat to make. There are a few steps, and some of them have to be done in a particular way in order for the ice cream to be a success. Once you get the basics under control, you’ll realize that making ice cream is fun and easy! Instead of having you learn by trial and error, we’re going to help you out and guide you into making a delicious homemade ice cream in just one day.
[ Additional read —> Our Favorite Cookbooks for Ice Cream and Popsicle Recipes ]
Equipment
You may think that it is necessary to invest in some fancy equipment just to make homemade ice cream. There are ice cream machines you can buy that will make the entire process easy, but you can make ice cream at home with items that you probably have at home.
Get out your favorite wisk and spatula, to make this summer time treat.
To make homemade ice cream you will need the following equipment:
· A couple of metal mixing bowls, various sizes
· A whisk
· A medium-sized saucepan
· Plastic wrap
As you can see, these items are regular items that most people already have in their kitchens. If you do not own a blender or mixer, no worries!
[ Additional read —> Best Ice Cream Makers for Homemade Frozen Treats & Fun ]
Ingredients
We’re going to talk about how to make a delicious and classic chocolate ice cream, but some of our tips can apply to other flavors.
When choosing the ingredients, you want to make sure that you are getting the best quality. This will ensure that you get the best quality ice cream that you can possibly get from home.
Milk and cream are essentials (of course) in making ice crem. If possible, use organic whole milk and heavy cream for your ice cream for best results. However, this tip will not make or break your homemade ice cream.
If you are adding different flavors to your ice cream such as herbs and spices, it is best to find them fresh to get all of the flavor you can possibly get from these freshly picked ingredients.
Take into consideration of the water content in certain fruits and vegetables. Too much water in your recipes will cause the ice cream to become icy rather than creamy.
For example, strawberries should be blended very finely or macerated in alcohol overnight. When using salt to enhance the flavors of all the ingredients, do not use a cheap table salt. Instead, use kosher salt or Himalayan pink salt for best results.
If you have never made homemade ice cream before, what’s stopping you?
Let’s Begin!
One of the ways you can make ice cream from home is by heating up the custard base in a saucepan on the stove, which is the technique that will give you the most authentic form of ice cream.
This process does not require a blender or mixer, but it does require a bit more work.
Start by adding 2 cups of whole milk, 2 whole eggs and 1 cup of sugar into a medium-sized saucepan on medium-low heat and whisk constantly until the custard reaches 175ºF.
Remove from the heat and add 1/3 cup of high quality cocoa powder. (If you are making a different flavor of ice cream, this is where you add all your flavors).
To make the mixture more rich and cool it off as well, add 1 and ½ cups of heavy cream and whisk together to combine. Taste the mixture; it should taste like melted ice cream. If it needs some sweetness, add some sugar little by little until you are satisfied with the taste.
Next, you are going to add this mixture into a metal bowl big enough to hold the mixture. Then, grab a piece of plastic wrap and cover the mixture, making sure that the plastic wrap is touching the surface of the mixture. Put the bowl of mixture into the freezer and grab a larger metal mixing bowl.
Fill the large bowl with ice, making sure there are no big chunks of ice. Add ½ cup of kosher salt onto the ice. The salt will allow the ice to absorb the heat from the custard mix more efficiently, which will let the custard mix freeze and thicken much easier and faster.
Grab the custard mix from the freezer, remove the plastic wrap, and place the bowl into the large bowl filled with ice and salt. Grab the whisk and mix the custard for 10 minutes before placing a clean kitchen towel over it and returning it to the freezer for 30 minutes.
You repeat this process 4 times until the custard has the consistency of a slightly melted soft serve ice cream. You can now remove the bowl of custard from the large bowl of ice, cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap is touching the surface of the mixture and freeze for 4 hours or overnight.
And voila! You have yourself some delicious homemade chocolate ice cream!
Though it took a lot of time and work, you’ll be glad you made this delicious treat! And if you decide that you want to skip all the hard work, you can always check us out at Beach Town Pops.
We are an ice cream catering service that creates delicious frozen treats from organic, cold pressed and gluten free ingredients!
And when we cater to you, we can customize our cart, ice cream cups, popsicle sticks and wrappers to have an image or quote of your choosing!
You can make your event so much more special by adding something to commemorate it! You and your guests will be glad you invited us since our frozen treats are delicious and will cool you off from the summer heat.