Ancho Chili Chocolate Ice Cream

If you are having a party, like example, a birthday party, what will you prepare/cook first? Mostly, you would start the recipe that takes time and in my opinion, dessert comes first. I thought I would do the same on this blog. Tonight, I made Ancho-Chocolate Ice Cream! It's my first time making this recipe and probably my second time making home-made ice cream with a little help from Rick Bayless', Mexican Chili Chocolate Ice Cream recipe. An ancho chili is a dried poblano chili which has a mild chocolate flavor, slightly bitter and sweet and smells prune like cocoa. It's like Marquez's one-two punch combo or (ehem), our very own Manny Pacman's knock-out punch! The ancho itself blends its subtle flavor with the cocoa. Also, the recipe calls for a small amount of coffee to again, enhance the ice cream's flavor. I think it doesn't need any of the cinnamon and vanilla flavor because I feel that it will just ruin its ancho-cocoa flavor profile. But hey, there are no boundaries so feel free to add them to your content.

Ancho-Chocolate Ice Cream (serves 1qt.)

Ancho Helado de Chocolate

1 ancho chili, stemmed and seeded

2 cups heavy cream (edit: 1 1/3 cups only)

2/3 cups milk (edit: 1 1/3 cups only)

2 oz. cocoa powder (originally, Mexican chocolate tablea) (edit: 1 oz only)

3 oz. bitter-sweet chocolate preferably 70% (I used Callebaut couverture. Just make sure you use very good chocolate)

4 egg yolks (Pls. don't discard the whites, you can make omelette or something with that.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tblsp. powdered quality coffee

Directions:

1. Make the chili infusion. In a small sauce pan where you will also cook your custard, toast the chili until blistered. About 15-30 seconds. It depends how hot your pan is, preferably medium-high heat. Toasting the chili will release its oil, aroma and flavor. Also, it will give a "roasted" flavor and will make the skin soft. After, let the pan cool a bit and add milk, heavy cream, cocoa powder, bitter-sweet chocolate and cook the mixture on a low heat until chocolate is melted. Make sure the mixture doesn't burn under or the sides of the pan. Set aside and let it steep for about 10 mins. to re-hydrate the chili.

2. Pureeing the chocolate mixture and mixing with the eggs-sugar mixture. After the chili has re-hydrated, puree the mix in a blender until chili's pulverized. (Always make sure you have your blender lid on for safety.)

The egg-sugar mix:

Chocolate mix tempered onto egg-sugar mix: Pour about half of the warm chocolate mix to the egg-sugar mix.

3. Cooking the chocolate-egg mix we call custard. In this stage, I also added the powdered coffee  and you can taste the custard if you think you need to add more sugar. Transfer the custard in the sauce pan and cook in a very low heat, mixing and scraping the sides and underneath the pan until you reach about 180*F or by dipping your spatula/spoon in the custard and running your finger through it; if the line holds clear that means it's ready. Otherwise, if you cook longer and hotter you will get scrambled chocolate eggs. It will take you 5-10 mins. Cool quickly on an ice bath.

The stirred-custard cooking:

Custard is ready:

Cooling:

4. Ice cream maker. When it has cooled down, pour the mix in the ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's guide. I used kitchen aid ice cream maker attachment. That means, your attachment should have been froze overnight or more. Going on, I mix them on slow-speed which is 1/stir for about 12-15 mins. until it looks like soft-served ice cream.

5. Ripening the ice cream. Transfer the ice cream in a freezer container and freeze preferably overnight or until the ice cream is ripe or harden.

6. Be patient until the ice cream has ripened. I don't have a lot of it but when it comes to this I will surely wait. While the freezer is doing its thing with the ice cream.....

I'm having a Allagash black stout (still chocolaty).. Cheers!

The long wait is here! (I made adjustments w/ the recipe. This one is too rich, it might sold out in seconds! Kidding..)