Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean Ice Cream.

Originally I was going to post some tacos today but this coffee ice cream cannot wait.

So, my homemade ice cream journey has had its fair share of bumps in the road. Living in Italy we were spoiled by gelato, to the point where the store bought ice cream we grew up loving no longer satisfied us. (Okay, me. My husband is less particular.) However there was one little dilemma. They did not make my favorite ice cream flavor (chocolate peanut butter) in gelato form. To rectify this, my friend Beth gave me an ice cream maker and told me to get to work.

Well, I tried. However, not one recipe I tried produced satisfying results. Chocolate ice cream was drab. The pistachio ice cream I made was an insult to pistachio’s everywhere. (I won’t even allow pistacchio gelato to be in the same sentence). I was feeling really discouraged. I just accepted that homemade ice cream may not be a reality for me.

 

How wrong I was. After realizing I most likely had all of the ingredients in the house I decided to make some ice cream. A leap of faith and a few hours later here we are. Have you ever had chocolate covered espresso beans? This is exactly what it tastes like. Rich coffee flavor, crunchy “chocolate” and specks of coffee dot the creamy ice cream base.

I was hoping for a creamy chocolate ribbon, but A.) I didn’t research how to make it at all and B.)Elected to only use was I already had in our house, so instead ended up with sharp chocolate shards that are actually super satisfying. Rather than melting chocolate with cream, I used Ghiardelli Dark Candy Coating disks. After popping them in the microwave I drizzled the “chocolate” into the ice cream while it mixed, where it solidified the second it hit the frozen cream.  So good you guys. I have no regrets. I definitely think chocolate chips melted with warm cream would work well also.

Now that I have potentially figured out how to make ice cream, I can’t wait to try new flavors. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Let me know below, or on my instagram @processotopeaches. Go!

• Servings: 1 huge serving to like 6 reasonable servings
• Time: 1 hour active, 8 hours to freeze
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Intense coffee flavor with pleasant fragments of chocolate make for an ice cream sure to satisfy even the pickiest of ice cream palates.

Inspired by: TheKitchn

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup coffee grounds (I used a dark french roast)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chocolate candy coating OR chocolate chips

Directions

Pour your whole milk and heavy cream into a medium pot along with your coffee grounds. Bring to just barely boiling then cover and turn off the heat. Let coffee “brew” for ten-fifteen minutes. The longer it steeps the stronger it may be.

While that is happening, whisk your egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture loosens and becomes a paleish yellow. I was surprised by how thick it was at first but don’t worry it thins out.

After your “coffee” has finished steeping and cooled a bit, take about 1 cup and VERY SLOWLY drizzle it into your egg yolks. This is called tempering the yolks. By adding a little of the warm mixture to your eggs, you slowly raise the yolk’s temperature and prevents you from scrambling your eggs. Repeat twice and then add your egg mixture to your milk/coffee in the pot you used to steep.

Place the ice cream base back on the stove over low and slowly cook while stirring. You want it to thicken. It is done when the mixture coats the back of a spoon and you can draw a line through it with your finger and the line stays put.

Pour your custard through a fine mesh sieve and then place in the fridge to chill. The original recipe says to do so for a minimum of 3 hours but I was impatient and put it in the mixer after one hour. It was fine

Put in your ice cream maker per manufacturer directions. Once your ice cream has reached soft serve consistency melt your chocolate candy coating and pour into your ice cream while it mixes. You can eat it in this stage (my favorite) or freeze overnight for a scoopable consistency.

Advertisement

Welcome.

Welcome to From Prosecco to Peaches!

Here it is. My first blog post. The adrenaline! The social anxiety! For  four years or so I have been building up the courage to start a food blog and here I am, in front of the screen, feverishly typing and deleting. To best sum up what I hope happens here on this blog, I want to share a story with you.

Picture it, Italy, some years ago. My husband and I have been in Italy a few months, and he is at work. I have not started working yet, and have made few acquaintances.  At this point all of the Italian I have learned is ” Ciao” and various names of food. The important things.

Our saint of a neighbor Giulia knocks on our front door and invites me to join her family for a bbq in their old neighborhood to watch the FIFA playoffs later that afternoon. I’m delighted. YES! Of course. Look at me, going to an Italian BBQ to watch FIFA. So adult.

As Giulia returns to her house ” we will leave in two hours!” I shut the door and immediately panic. What do I wear? More importantly what food do I bring?! You never go to a bbq empty handed and I have no idea what would be considered traditional Italian BBQ food, but something tells me potato salad is not it. Wracking my brain, I settle on The Pioneer Woman’s Texas Sheet Cake. Its quick, tasty and easy. Not to mention something I have all of the ingredients for in the pantry. Whipping up the cake and throwing on a maxi from H&M, I run out the door and hop in Giulia’s Fiat 500.

We arrive at an old villa in the countryside that had been converted into apartments. Giulia gives me a brief history including that the fields surrounding were used as landing strips during WWII. The sky is clear, the grass glows green in the golden afternoon sunlight, a large tv has been moved into the yard so everyone can enjoy the weather and the match as well. After introductions and being offered a spritz, the afternoon passes in friendly conversation (Giulia gamefully doing a lot of translating). Kids race about, men shout at the players on the screen and everyone is relaxed and happy.

The food is served (hamburgers and watermelon, totally shocking me, the hosts teasingly asking the American what she thinks of their hamburger). Afterwards, Giulia presents the cake, laughs. Everyone dives in and seems to be enjoying it when someone asks me why it is called Shit Cake. “This is delicious, but why is it called shit?” What? Shit cake? I’m mortified. Quickly I backtrack and ask why they think it is shit cake. Does it taste bad? Does it smell? What did I do? Giulia looks at me. “You called it Shit cake? Isn’t that what it is called? I assumed it is joke? ” That is when I realized in English the sound made by the double E’s in Sheet sound like the traditional I sound in Italian, so when I said “Sheet Cake” to Giulia, she heard “Shit Cake”. Giulia quickly explains, and everyone laughs and moves on.

This sums up my life. Good food, fond laughs, and me embarrassing myself in some fashion.  Here, I hope to share the food, the laughs, and few blunders. Thank you so much for taking the time to check this out, watch this space, recipes coming soon!

In the mean time, here is the recipe for the cake I made. The Pioneer Woman calls it the “Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever”, and I am inclined to agree.

The Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake