NuM NuM

Hazelnut Chocolate Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!!! Wow, say that five times fast. This ice cream is heaven in a bowl!!! OMG...it's soooooo goooooood. What does it mean when you're licking the bowl?

So I finally caved and bought an ice cream maker. After making this, I don't know how I've gone this long without one. It's so fun making your own ice cream!!! I was literally jumping and prancing around the kitchen while the ice cream was churning - I was THAT excited. I really was a little kid in an ice cream store.....my own ice cream store as a matter of fact :) I cannot wait to see what other creations I can make with this contraption. Stay tuned!


Hazelnut Chocolate Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Adapted from David Lebovitz
Makes one quart

Ingredients
• 1 1/2 cups 2% milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (Decaffeinated Hazelnut Hawaiian coffee beans from Henry's Market)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee (press grinds through a fine mesh sieve)
• 4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped fine

Method
1. Heat the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan until it is quite warm and steamy, but not boiling. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.
3. Reheat the milk and coffee mixture, on medium heat, until again hot and steamy (not boiling!). In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the heated milk and coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm milk, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof, flat-bottomed spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 5-10 minutes.
5. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible. Then discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and finely ground coffee, and stir until cool.
6. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. In my ice cream maker I churned it for 25 minutes then added the chocolate chunks and churned for an additional 5 minutes. Eat right away or transfer ice cream to an air tight container and cover ice cream with plastic wrap touching the surface of the ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming.

*Home made ice cream becomes very hard when frozen so leave it out at room temperature for a bit before serving
**Sprinkle Fleur De Sel over your scoop of ice cream and it takes it to a whole new level!