Ice Cream With Mexican Chocolate Recipes

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add the salt, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 1/4 cups water to the butter and remove from the heat. Stir in flour with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and a dough is formed. Transfer to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, then add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed, followed by the vanilla.
• Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star tip and set aside. Cut parchment paper into 5-inch squares and place them on a sheet tray. Pipe a cookie-sized round of the churro batter onto each parchment square, then freeze for 1 hour.
• Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven to 350 degrees F. Fit a rack inside a sheet tray.
• Combine the cinnamon with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Carefully slide half the frozen churros off the parchment paper into the hot oil and cook until golden brown and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes, then transfer to the rack. Sprinkle each churro with the cinnamon-sugar mixture immediately after removing them from the fryer.
• Top each churro with a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of dulce de leche, if using.

Steps:

• Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds (do not discard), set aside.
• Roughly chop the chocolate and melt in a medium sauce pan together with milk and cream (over medium heat). After the chocolate has melted, whisk in the cocoa powder, avoiding clumps. Add the vanilla bean and seeds. Bring the mix to just under a boil (150° on a candy thermometer), stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let the mix steep, covered, for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Remove the vanilla bean. Reheat mix over moderate heat until hot (150 degrees), stirring frequently.
• Whisk the eggs, sugar and salt together in a small bowl.
• Temporarily remove the pan from the heat. Add 1/2 cup hot cream mixture to the eggs/sugar in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Whisk the egg/cream mix back into the saucepan and return to medium-low heat, STIRRING CONSTANTLY until a candy thermometer reads 170 degrees (do not let it boil).
• In a medium to large bowl (that cream mixture will be chilled in) combine the cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Pour a small amount of the chocolate cream through a strainer into the bowl and whisk to combine, avoiding clumps. Pour the remaining chocolate cream mixture through the strainer and whisk to combine.
• Cool completely in the refrigerator (at least 4 hours). Freeze in an ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.
• Notes: DO NOT add more than 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper. The flavor intensifies as it freezes in the ice cream maker. If you don't have 1/8 tsp, use 1/4 tsp and remove half the cayenne.
• Notes: To chill more quickly, place the final mixture in an ice and cold-water bath for 30 minutes (a larger bowl for the ice water, a smaller bowl filled with the cream mixture that will sit in the "bath"). Stir frequently.

Steps:

• Halve vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds into a 3-quart heavy saucepan. Add chocolate and half-and-half and bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking. Remove from heat.
• Lightly beat eggs with salt in a bowl, then add hot chocolate mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Transfer custard to cleaned saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard registers 175°F on thermometer, 1 to 5 minutes. Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Put bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and cool, stirring occasionally.
• Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hardened, about 1 hour.

Steps:

• Heat one cup of cream in small saucepan.
• Whisk in cocoa powder.
• Bring to simmer.
• Whisk unti cocoa powder is well incorporated.
• Remove pot from heat.
• Stir in chocolate until completely incorporate.
• Put mixture into a metal bowl and add remaining cup of cream.
• Set bowl over a larger bowl half filled with ice ater to help cool it down.
• Place a mesh sieve of bowl with the chocolate mixture.
• Put on cup of milk, sugar cinnamon, salt cayenne, expresso powder into a saucepan and heat until steamy (not boiling), stirring to incorporate spices and dissolve sugar.
• Place egg yolks in a medium sized bowl.
• Slowly pour heated milk and mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly so the egg yolks are tempered by the heated milk, but not cooked.
• Use a rubber spatula to scrape warmed egg youlks back into saucepan.
• Stir milk egg mixture constantly over medium heat with wooden spoon, scraping bottom as you stir, unti mixture thickens and coats spoon so that you can run your finger across coating and have the coating not run.
• This can take anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes, depending on how hot your burner is.
• If the custard base doesn't coat the back of spoon, it's not ready.
• As soon as mixture coats the spoon, remove from heat and immediately pour over mesh sieve into bowl of chocolate cream mixture. (The sieve is there to catch any curdled bits).
• Stir into the cream mixture.
• Add a teaspoon of vanilla.
• Let mixture cool a bit in the ice bth and then chill in refrigerator until completely chilled, a couple of hours or over night.
• Right before churning, add 2 tablespoons of brndy to mix.
• This is optional, but willhelp keep the ice cream from getting to icey if stored beyound a day.
• Churn miture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.
• Store ice cream in an airtight container in freezer for several hours before eating.
• The ice cream will be quite soft coming out of the ice cream maker, but will continue to harden in your freezer.
• If you store for more than a day, you may need to let it sit for a few minutes to soften before attempting to scoop it.

Steps:

• Prepare grill.
• Peel bananas and halve lengthwise. In a shallow baking pan large enough to hold bananas in one layer stir together butter and brown sugar and add bananas, tossing gently to coat. Transfer bananas with a metal spatula to an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals and grill until browned and cooked through, about 2 minutes on each side. (If bananas are difficult to handle you may grill them on 1 side only.)
• Serve bananas like a banana split with ice cream and chocolate sauce.
• To make rum ice cream:
• In a 2 1/2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan combine cream and milk. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into cream mixture, dropping in bean. Add zest and bring mixture just to boil.
• In a large metal bowl whisk together brown sugar and yolks until combined well. Add hot cream mixture to yolk mixture in a slow stream, whisking, and return custard to pan. Cook custard over moderately low heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and coats back of a wooden spoon, about 3 minutes. (Do not let custard boil or it will curdle.)
• Pour custard through a very fine sieve into cleaned metal bowl and cool slightly. Stir in rum and chill, covered, until cold. Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.
• To make Mexican hot chocolate sauce:
• In a heavy saucepan heat chocolate and half-and-half over low heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted. (The sauce will have a very thin consistency, like that of hot chocolate.) Serve sauce warm. Makes about 1 cup.