French Silk Ice Cream
A rich chocolate ice cream with a French style custard base is swirled with a fluffy vanilla mousse to create this delicious homemade French silk ice cream.
Equipment
- Set of 2 Reusable Ice Cream Tub Containers For Homemade Ice Cream 1.6 Quart
- Cusinart ICE-70P1 2-Quart Cool Creations Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt, Gelato and Sorbet Maker, LCD Screen with Countdown Timer, Makes Frozen Treats in 20-Minutes or Less, Stainless Steel
- KitchenAid KO117OHAQA Gourmet Ice Cream Scoop, One Size, Matte Aqua Sky
Ingredients
For the French silk ice cream:
- 4 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ⅔ cup semisweet or dark chocolate roughly chopped, divided
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the vanilla mousse swirl:
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Chill the ice cream bowl for at least 24 hours or until solid. You should not hear any water sloshing around when you shake the bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and granulated sugar until smooth and pale yellow in color.
- Add the milk, cocoa powder, and salt to a saucepan over medium heat. Bring the milk to a simmer and then remove from the heat. Be sure not to boil.
- Add about 1/2 cup of the hot milk to the egg and sugar mixture and whisk constantly until combined.
- Then, add the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk.
- Heat the saucepan on low. Stirring constantly, heat until the base has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon or spatula. This should take a few minutes.
- Strain the mixture into a bowl to remove any pieces of egg that may have cooked.
- Add ⅓ cup of the chopped chocolate, reserving the rest for later. Stir until melted.
- Add the heavy cream and vanilla extract and stir to combine.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap making sure to have the plastic wrap touching the surface of the ice cream base. This will help keep it from forming a skin while chilling. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
- To make the vanilla mousse, add the softened cream cheese and granulated sugar to a small bowl. Beat until smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
- Add the cold heavy cream and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Churn the ice cream mixture in the bowl of your ice cream machine according to your manufacturer’s instructions (mine took about 20 minutes), until it is thick and the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.
- In the last two minutes, add the remaining chopped chocolate and churn until evenly distributed.
- Spoon half the chocolate ice cream into a shallow container or a loaf pan. Dollop half of the vanilla mousse on top of the chocolate and use a knife or skewer to lightly swirl it into the ice cream. Repeat with remaining ice cream and vanilla mousse. Top with additional chocolate chunks if you’d like.
- Press plastic wrap or wax paper to the surface of the ice cream. Freeze for at least 4 hours, or until solid. Let sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- You want to chop the chocolate so that it’s the size of small chunks. You don’t want the chocolate chunks to be too large because when you get a bite it will be too hard to eat.
- I prefer to use a chocolate bar that I have chopped myself instead of chocolate chips or chocolate chunks because when it goes into the hot custard it will melt much easier and smoother. Also, when the chunks get stirred into the ice cream later I like the varied size for eating.