I’m starting to do cookbook and product reviews on this blog for products I like or am trying for the first time. More and I more I find that I rely on online reviews before doing or buying anything, and I decided I should contribute to the online review community since I get so much out of it. I’ve been reviewing things on Yelp more often, especially new restaurants we try or stores I’ve visited, and then it occurred to me: I should put reviews on the blog! I do it in my knitting blog for yarns and patterns I like, why not this one?
So first up is a book I’ve been meaning to buy forever but only just got a few weeks ago: David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. I read David’s blog all the time and I think you’ll enjoy it, too! It’s filled with cooking, baking, and ice cream (of course!), but also with stories of an American living in Paris. I especially like when he muses on the differences between living in France vs. the US, particularly when he’s talking about food differences . . . which is almost always, as you probably would expect!
But anyway, this is supposed to be a review of his book The Perfect Scoop, not his awesome blog. Read on for the review and a recipe for Chocolate Chocolate French-style Ice Cream.
The Perfect Scoop is one of the few single-subject cooking books I’ve put down money for, and I can wholeheartedly say it was worth every penny. First off, the book itself is gorgeous and the pictures really make you want to try the recipes. Gorgeous pictures aren’t really necessary in a cookbook, but they certainly help! Maybe it’s just me, but if I see a recipe that sounds kind of interesting but has no picture, I probably won’t make it. The same recipe with a mouthwatering picture next to it? Definitely going on the to-make list!
I’ve come to really appreciate the introductory chapters in cookbooks, and this book is no exception. In the introduction to this book, Lebovitz tells us how he came to love ice cream (I won’t tell you the story because it’s worth reading his writing and the surprise after the first few paragraphs!) and describes the difference between ice cream types. The book includes tons of recipes including French Style ice cream, Philadelphia Style ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and granita. He also explains that his French Style custard-based ice creams are lighter than traditional recipes, because he replaces half the cream with whole milk. While I personally tend to be against low-fat versions of fattening foods, I can tell you from personal experience that these custard ice creams are still decadent and creamy. I would never have known that an even fattier version existed after making his custard-based chocolate ice cream, believe me!
While this book was not my introduction to ice cream making, I kind of wish it had been. My previous experiences with making sorbets and ice creams were largely seat-of-the-pants operations and I never took the time to really learn what the terms meant. I credit this book for opening my eyes not only to the wide array of ice cream flavors I never would have though of (hello, Guiness Chocolate Ice Cream, anyone? That one’s getting made sooner rather than later, no double about it!) on my own, but also for educating me on what the basic differences are between the frozen desert categories.
But let’s face it, the best part of this book? Eating the evidence.
The first recipe I tackled from this book was a plain chocolate ice cream, titled (you guessed it!) “Chocolate Ice Cream.” Lebovitz says in the introduction to this one that his “search for the ultimate chocolate ice cream ended the day” he tasted this one . . . and I have to say a resounding DITTO!
The chocolate flavor is unadulterated and intense, but not so strong that it prevents you eating half the container in one sitting. And the texture? The texture is divine. Smooth, creamy, and very substantial. And it doesn’t freeze so hard that you can’t scoop it straight out of the fridge, a problem I often struggle with when making homemade ice creams and sorbets!
I added chocolate chunks to this recipe to give it a bit of a crunch (I love chunks in my ice cream!), so therefore I’m calling this version Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream. Enjoy!
Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop
- 2 cups heavy cream, divided
- 3 tbsp Dutch-process cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 5 oz semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped (bittersweet is OK too)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 oz semisweet chocolate chips (to mix in as the last step)
Setup: Prepare a ice bath by putting ice cubes and water in a large bowl. Set aside for later. Put storage container in the freezer to pre-freeze it.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm 1 cup cream with cocoa powder, whisking to dissolve the cocoa. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove pan from heat and add the 5 oz chopped chocolate, stirring as chocolate melts to mix chocolate and cream mixture. Stir until smooth. Add remaining cup of cream and stir again. Pour mixture into a large bowl, scraping down pan sides, and set up a strainer on top of the bowl.
Wipe out pan and warm milk, sugar, and salt over medium heat in same pan. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks. When the milk mixture is warm, slowly add milk mixture to eggs to warm them, whisking constantly as you pour the milk in. Pour about half the milk mixture into the eggs, then pour the egg mixture back into the pan and put back onto burner. Using a heatproof spatula, stir the mixture constantly over medium heat (being sure to crape bottom of pan often). Continue heating until mixture thickens to the point of coating the spatula (running a finger through the mixture should leave a sharp line that doesn’t run).
Remove from heat and pour through strainer into the chocolate mixture. Discard anything caught in the strainer and mix chocolate mixture until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Put chocolate bowl in the ice bath and continue to mix until mixture is no longer hot. Refrigerate mixture for at least 1 hour, until thoroughly chilled. Then freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.
Once ice cream has set enough, to stop machine and fold in chocolate chips. Remove pre-frozen storage container from freezer (I use good-quality Tupperware but there may be better storage containers out there!) and smooth ice cream into it. Cover surface of ice cream with plastic wrap to prevent ice crystals on the surface. Freeze a few hours to get to hard-serve ice cream consistency.
