Double Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Today is my 1 year blog-aversary! Hooray!

But I'm not going to get all awkward on you and be all boring and nostalgic. Instead, I'm throwing in a rogue recollection of my trip to Brighton with mah friendlings!  

We went to the beach. We thought we might go for a swim. 

We dipped in our feet. We decided no.

We watched Harry Potter.We bought strawberries. Three times. We enjoyed them until I freaked out about a rogue caterpillar in the bag (I have a complete phobia of caterpillars/maggots). I ate no more strawberries.

We saw the cute beach huts. I saw the turquoise peeling paint on their roofs. I wanted to take a roof home to use as a background. Um..I couldn't. 

We sat on the train. The sun set. We ate crisps and gum (not together..ew). My camera noisily clicked away at the window. It was fun.

I know guys, I know, I'm a great story teller, with all my fancy language and.. everything..

ohaahh look (distraction from my disability to end stories well.)! Some rougue cake flags have made a re-appearance! This time in ice cream! Strangely I've never actually used them in a cake..

Oh well. Ice Cream Flags sounds cool too,

I might make a tutorial on how to make them later, but it's pretty simple, and also I'm going away on Sunday

to Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco.

Oh. My. Thighs.

What am I going to do?  So many bakeries, so much sourdough bread, so many food trucks. And Chez Panisse - oh yeah, I'm going to go to there. Boom.

Oh, okay, you probably don't actually want to hear about that really (because you're so jelly), so I'll tell you about the ice cream!

Its a chocolate gelato (egg free ice cream), made with milk. No cream. But it's still rich, creamy and amazing!

The best bit though, is that I've found a way of keeping that melt-in-your-mouth quality of chocolate chips even when frozen.

Normally, if you put chocolate chips into ice cream and freeze it, they have a waxy texture and you can't taste the chocolate at all! But by melting the chocolate down, adding vegetable oil (which doesn't solidify in a freezer), it gives the chocolate a lower melting point so you still get all the goodness!

I've also found a better way to get the chocolate chips into the ice cream. Instead of chopping the chocolate up with a knife, and getting rogue pieces of chocolate here and there, the best way to make sure you get lots in every bite, is to blitz the chocolate while it's cold from the freezer. That way, it breaks up into tiny little pieces* and, when mixed into the ice cream, it creates the most divine, chocolatey ice cream ever.

*think Haagen-Daz Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream (in the UK)

(did you notice how into the word 'rogue' I am?)

Double Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

adapted from here and here

3 cups (750ml)  milk (anything 1% or above)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) powdered skimmed milk
1/2 cup (4 oz / 110g) sugar
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup (2-3 oz / 55-85g) cocoa powder (add the 1/2 cup, then add more to taste)

3 tbsp cream cheese (low fat is fine)

4 oz semisweet chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil*

Put cornstarch in a small bowl with 2 tbsp of the milk and stir it together.
In a medium pot, put the rest of the milk, powdered skimmed milk, sugar, cocoa powder and cornstarch mixture. Constantly stir it all together over a medium heat until it barely reaches a boil and is slightly thickened.

Put the cream cheese into a large bowl and gradually whisk in the hot milk mixture.
Pour into a jug and let cool in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, melt together the chocolate and vegetable oil in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Pour it onto a cookie tray lined with greaseproof paper and freeze. Once completely frozen through, break the chocolate up into about 4 pieces and throw into a blender or food processor and blitz until you have pieces the size of breadcrumbs. Pour into a small bowl and put back into the freezer immediately.

Churn your ice cream mixture according to the manufacturers directions. About 3 minutes before the ice cream in fully churned, pour the chocolate chips you made earlier into the ice cream maker so it mixes them in. Transfer the churned ice cream to a large container and freeze until firm enough to scoop.

*anything except olive oil or coconut oil