Perfect Chocolate Ice Cream

It wasn’t long after I moved to Grand Rapids that I discovered my favorite kitchen store, Art of the Table. And not long after that, I discovered one of their gourmet food gems: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams of Columbus, Ohio. After all, how can you not notice ice cream that costs $9.90 a pint?

It took me a while to actually buy some. I’ll be honest – the price was a deterrent. I mean, a dime short of $10 for a pint of ice cream?! But curiosity eventually won, and I caved. I bought a pint of Jeni’s famous Pistachio Honey, and was hooked. Brambleberry Crisp followed, and then The Milkiest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World. But Jeni’s is an expensive habit, so indulgences were few and far between.

Then my dear friend Sarah, in her delightful and unintentionally mischievous way, bought me a copy of Jeni’s cookbook, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, for Christmas. Well, that meant I had to get an ice cream maker. Immediately. Thank goodness I had an Amazon gift card just waiting for such a need. A few days later, my new Cuisinart Ice21 arrived (they cost around $50, which is not bad for an ice cream maker), and the ice-cream making began.

What I’ve discovered is making fantastically dreamy homemade ice cream that’s far better than the ice cream in your local grocery store or ice cream shop is remarkably easy, takes only a few simple ingredients, and requires about an hour and a half of your time. And an ice cream maker. Seriously. That’s it.

Of course, I made vanilla first, with vanilla beans from Madagascar (the average joe can’t get the special Ugandan vanilla beans Jeni imports). It was a vanilla unlike any other I’d tasted: aromatic, deep, sublimely creamy. Haagen Dazs, forget you.

Chocolate was next, and of course, I had the perfect chocolate waiting. Eli, knowing my love of dark chocolate, had bought the darkest chocolate bar he could find and put it in my Christmas stocking: Ghirardelli’s Intense Midnight, which is a whopping 86% cacao. Alas, it was too dark and cocoa-y to just eat. So I stashed it in the cupboard, intending to use it for baking at some point.

Instead, as I read through Jeni’s recipe for The Milkiest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World, which calls for chocolate that is 55-70% cacao, I knew I was willing to go for something a little darker. Yet I didn’t want to go for her other chocolate ice cream, The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World. I played with Jeni’s recipe just a little, not being willing to stray too far from the science she’s perfected (and yes, ice cream is science, just like baking). I added just a bit of vanilla extract to soften the intensity of the chocolate, but increased the chocolate from 2 ounces to 3.

The result was chocolate perfection: smooth as silk, creamy as a fine French mousse, and dark enough to suit my palate.

Perfect Chocolate Ice Cream


1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 ounces dark chocolate (80-86% cacao)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch together with about 2 tablespoons of the milk, until fully dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, break up the chocolate into small pieces. Set aside.

In a fairly deep saucepan, combine the milk, cream, sugar, evaporated milk, and corn syrup.

Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a rolling boil, and cook for 4 minutes, stirring continually.

Remove from heat, and whisk in the cocoa and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Slowly whisk in the cornstarch mixture, and return to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking until slightly thickened.

Slowly pour the thickened base mixture over the chopped chocolate.

Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and fully incorporated.

Pour the mixture into a gallon zippered freezer bag.

Immerse in an ice bath. Let stand until chilled, about 30 minutes.

Pour into the bowl of the ice cream maker and process until thick, creamy, and frozen, about 30 minutes.

Pack into two pint-size or one quart-size freezer container, and top with a layer of parchment paper. Freeze in your freezer until firm, about four hours.

For the printable recipe, click here.