There are few things that make me more excited in the kitchen than homemade ice cream happily churning away on the countertop. I love ice cream like you wouldn’t believe. My husband frequently feels the need to tell me that I probably should not eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, but hey — ice cream the way I make it is pretty much a complete meal! Plenty of healthy saturated fats with those good fat-soluble vitamins, the nutrition of pastured egg yolks, and easily digestible carbohydrates. When you try homemade ice cream with quality ingredients like these, you’ll never want to go back to store-bought.
This particular style of ice cream is a little different than what I’ve made before. Usually, I like to leave egg yolks raw in ice cream, but when you simmer the mixture at a low temperature with this many yolks, it takes on a thick, creamy, custard-like texture and flavor. Perfect for chocolate!
I made this recipe for Mr. B. last month on his birthday. It was a big hit!
You’ll need:
- A large-ish saucepan
- A mixing bowl and whisk
- An ice cream maker (I have this one and it is beyond amazing.)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cocoa/cacao powder (find quality, fair-trade cacao powder from the retailer listed here)
- 3 cups grass-fed cream, raw if available (find local grass-fed cream here)
- 1 cup grass-fed milk, raw if available (find local grass-fed milk here)
- 8-10 egg yolks from pastured eggs (save/freeze those whites for making meringue!)
- 1 cup sucanat, organic sugar, or half honey/half maple syrup (find quality natural sweeteners here)
- Generous pinch sea salt (find quality sea salt here)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Optional: chocolate chips or cacao nibs (available here)
Directions:
Whisk together the cocoa and milk and cream in the saucepan on low heat. While that’s settling in together, whisk the egg yolks in a mixing bowl, then beat in the sugar or sweetener, and the salt.
Mix it all together in the saucepan. Simmer on low until the mixture starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Add in the vanilla.
Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down, then refrigerate to chill. You could even toss it in the freezer to speed things up a bit. Just don’t forget and leave it in there too long!
Once chilled, pour into your ice cream machine. You can then add in the optional chocolate chips or cacao nibs. As it starts to freeze up, it’ll expand, so be sure to sample generously with a spoon so it doesn’t spill over! Straight out of the machine, it’s like a Wendy’s frosty, except a thousand times better. Freeze it for a few hours or overnight and it becomes normal ice cream instead of soft-serve.
Enjoy!
Mmm, looks so delicious! Now if only I can get my hands on some raw grass-fed cream … 🙂
Just made this–absolutely DELICIOUS. So creamy, so rich, so decadent! Thank you for this recipe!! I recently moved to Wisconsin (where custard is king), and have been looking for a real food recipe to rival our local custard shop, and this is just the ticket.
I just have to say, you two are so cute! I can’t help but comment on your body language and eye contact. You both seem to have such care and love for each other. ADORABLE! I don’t know what it is about this picture, but you look so happy together!
That is so sweet!! Thank you! You know how in the Grinch (original cartoon version) it shows his heart growing two sizes and bursts the little square box around it? That’s pretty much what he does to me every day. 😀
I have made this about five times now and my whole family agrees that it is the most amazing ice cream we have ever had! We use the maple syrup/ raw honey combo for the sweetener and love it too much to try it any other way 🙂 Thanks so much!
That’s so awesome!! Thanks for letting me know!
Holy smokes! I wanted to make a frozen lemon custard. I used this recipe and omitted the cocoa, then added 1/3 C lemon juice after it had thickened in the pot. When I tasted it, I almost started crying! It’s SO AMAZING!!! I have yet to freeze it, but in the meantime, my kids are going to have one amazing after school snack of warm lemon pudding! Yum!!!
PS I used the honey/maple syrup combo to sweeten the dish. 🙂
This recipe is great. I don’t have an icecream maker, but I do have a vitamix…any ideas?
You can make awesome sorbets and stuff out of frozen fruit in a Vitamix, but you have to have an ice cream maker to make real, churned ice cream. I have heard from others that this one is good, and it’s only 25 bucks, which is about half the price of most high quality ice cream machines. It’s worth it to just get one, if you ask me! I use mine all the time.
I LOVE this recipe!! I like to kefir the milk and cream first, which gives the finished ice cream a tartness that goes so well with the sweet, chocolate flavor. I leave it all raw (including the egg yolks). We make this all the time!
I don’t have an ice ream maker either; I use a blendtec to whip it all up, and then pour it into a flat glass pan with a lid. I let it freeze solid, and then just let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes before serving. It dishes up beautifully!
Ummmm…you originally posted this on my birthday…that in and of itself makes it fate. This will be in my mouth very, very soon.
How many quarts does this recipie make? I have a 4 Quart ice cream maker and wondering how many times I need to ‘times’ the recipie by- I see you linked the Cuisinart that is- 1 1/2 quarts that you have? Is that correct? So is it safe to assume this recipie makes 1 1/2 quarts?! thanks! Sounds amazing can’t wait to try it! 🙂
Did you ever get an answer to this because I’m wondering the same thing!
I have a few questions 🙂
Would it be work if I did not heat it up at all, and what if I left out the chocolate?
Thanks!
You can make raw ice cream, yes! But the heating is what gives it that custard consistency. And sure, you could leave out the cocoa and let it be vanilla or some other flavor!