They say you can judge the excellence of an ice cream shop by the quality of its vanilla. I was always proud of our Vanilla Bean ice cream, but even prouder of our chocolate flavor. When I visit other ice cream shops, I taste their chocolate to see if it stacks up.

My general approach to flavors is that they should hit you over the head with their essence. Subtlety is never something Iʼve embraced. So with chocolate, I endeavored to create a flavor that was rich and chocolately and smooth.

For a time, we didnʼt know what to call our chocolate ice cream. So we held a contest. The winner was Juneau artist and weaver, Lily Hope. She even came up with a fairy tale to accompany the flavor. We liked the story so much that we commissioned another local artist, Claire Scott, who was then in high school. We printed these up as coloring books and had them in the store for visiting children to color. Lily had buyer's remorse about her original name suggestion, but we kept it anyway.

A couple things that are key in this flavor. We tried to pack as much chocolate as humanly possible into the flavor, using both chocolate callets and cocoa powder. And we worked hard to make sure there werenʼt any chocolate solids or flecks in the ice cream. We wanted a completely smooth mouthfeel.

We used a high-quality chocolate from Ghiradelli Chocolate, that was Fair Trade and free from child labor (which is still way to common in West Africa). We also used egg yolks to enrich the base and a little espresso to make the chocolate pop even more.

If you are looking to find excellent chocolate at a fair price and with great customer service, check out www.chocolateman.com. Bill Fredericks will take good care of you!

Photo by Kaley McGoey

INGREDIENTS

• 2 c heavy cream

• ⅓ c unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed

• 5 oz high quality 60% bittersweet chocolate (such as Ghirardelli), chopped

• 3/4 c sugar

• 1/2 t kosher salt

• 1 c milk

• 3 large egg yolks

• 1/2 t vanilla extract

• ½ t instant espresso powder (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Warm 1 cup of cream and cocoa powder over medium heat, whisking until the cocoa blends into the cream.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low, simmering for 30 seconds, constantly whisking.

3. Remove from heat and add your chopped chocolate and espresso powder, stirring until the mixture is smooth.

4. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, being sure to scrape down the sides.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until creamy.

6. Warm up the remaining cream, milk in the same pot you just used, over medium heat, until simmering.

7. Slowly pour 1 cup of heated cream and milk into the egg yolks, stirring constantly. Scrape the egg/milk mixture back into the pot.

8. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat, scraping the bottom of the pot as you go. Continue cooking the custard until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of your spoon or spatula.

9. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer, set on top of the chocolate cream mixture. Stir in the vanilla extract and salt.

10. Continue stirring the custard over an ice bath, until the custard cools. Place the custard into your refrigerator until it’s thoroughly chilled.

11. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Scrape the soft-serve ice cream into a lidded container and allow it to harden in the freezer for 4 hours or overnight.

Deep Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe

Listen to an episode from my podcast, Butterfat, on chocolate:

To download a .pdf version of this coloring book, click the button below.