I have had the song, ” I love Rock N’ Roll” in my head for days, but I’ve been singing it as “I love Rocky Road! Put some choco-late in my ice cream baby!” I suppose I’m a bit of a nut, and I like chocolate covered chopped nuts in my ice cream. Toss in some marshmallows and chocolate flecks and my road to dessert heaven is ROCKY ROAD!
For this recipe, I adapted the chocolate custard base from the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book (Natasha Case & Freya Estreller). Before churning the ice cream, I stirred in some VAIN Ugandan vanilla in cane rum. At the end of churning, I tossed in some Hu chocolate covered almonds + sea salt and chopped up marshmallows. Then I drizzled some dark chocolate that I melted with some liquid coconut oil. This created some melty chocolate flecks in the ice cream.
The almonds with the sea salt really made this ice cream special. The salt on the almonds is coated in chocolate and didn’t dissolve, so there was an occasional bite of ice cream with a salty crunch to it. It may seem counter-intuitive to have a little salt in the ice cream, but salt opens your taste buds, allowing you to get the full affect of the flavors going on. And it’s going ON! The textures and flavors in this ice cream will have you begging for another scoop.
A few notes:
The custard base develops the most flavor and texture if it can rest in the refrigerator for 1-3 days.
Your ice cream bowls will need to freeze for at least a day as well. Place them in the freezer before starting your custard base and they’ll be ready the next day when you go to churn them. (*This recipe makes between 4-5 cups of custard base and that doesn’t fit in just one freezer bowl for my ice cream machine which says the bowls are for 1.5 quarts. I try to put 2-2.5 cups of custard base in each of my two freezer bowls for churning as the ice cream mass becomes larger as it freezes and is churned.)
If you want an easy to scoop freezer container, try this one from Tovolo. It is elongated and helps me get the perfect scoop every time. I actually have two of these!
Rocky Road Ice Cream
Course: Dessert12
servingsIngredients
- Custard Base
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
8 large egg yolks
3/4 cup good quality dark chocolate, chopped
- Rocky Road Add-Ins
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup chocolate covered almonds + sea salt, roughly chopped
2/3 cup mini marshmallows (or 8 large marshmallows, chopped)
1/4 cup high quality dark chocolate, chopped
1 Tbsp liquid coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
Directions
- Custard Base
- **Make sure your freezer bowls are in the freezer!**
In a medium to large saucepan, combine milk, cream and 1/2 cup sugar. Set over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. This should take about 5 minutes; watch so the pot doesn’t boil over. - While the milk mixture is heating, use and electric mixer to beat the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar in a large bowl until it is smooth and paler in color. This takes about 30-60 seconds.
- When the milk mixture comes to a boil, use a hand whisk to slowly whisk two thirds of the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture. Do a little at a time, and whisk constantly. This tempers the eggs.
- Return the pan to low heat. Stream the egg/milk mixture back into the pan, whisking constantly.
- Switch to a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to continue stirring the mixture. (Too much whisking will make the mixture very frothy.) Stir the mixture until it reaches 170-175° F on an instant read thermometer, or look for the mixture to coat the back of your spoon and ripple when you blow on it. It should not boil! If it goes over 180° F, your mixture will turn into scrambled eggs.
- Remove from heat and immediately stir in the chopped chocolate, whisking until smooth.
- Pour the base into a clean, airtight container and refrigerate 1-3 days. I like to cool my base down quickly by straining it into a plastic pitcher and placing it in an ice bath. The pitcher also makes it easy to pour the base into the ice cream machine the next day.
- Churning and Add-ins
- Before churning, stir the 2 Tbsp of vanilla extract into the custard base.
- Follow the manufacturer’s directions for churning your ice cream. Churning takes about 25-35 minutes in my machine.
- While the ice cream is churning, melt the 1/4 cup chocolate with the oil in the microwave in 60 second increments on half power. Stir to combine completely. Chop your almonds and marshmallows.
- Before removing the ice cream from the machine, add the almonds and marshmallows. Then drizzle the melted chocolate while the machine is still churning.
- Remove the ice cream from the freezer bowl to a freezer safe container and freeze at least two hours before serving.