Chile Chocolate Sicilian style (no ice cream machine required)
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The Sicilian gelato base once again proves its worth, delivering a smooth and delicious rich chocolate flavour with a seductively burning sting
Ingredients
  • 300 ml (1.3 cups) cream
  • 350 ml (1.5 cups) whole milk
  • 20 ml (1 tablespoon) genuine vanilla sugar [or 1 teaspoon genuine vanilla powder, if you have]
  • 80 ml (about 0,35 cup) raw sugar
  • About 2-3 tablespoons of inverted sugar (= glucose syrup, honey, Agave nectar or whatever you prefer)
  • About 2-3 tablespoons of starch (I used Maizena, i e corn starch)
  • About 6-7 tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder
  • 100 gram good quality dark chocolate (70 % cocoa or more)
  • Between 1-3 teaspoons dried pieces of chile pepper (I used three, but obviously, this should depend on the type of pepper you are using and your personal heat-preferences)
  • A good couple of pinches of salt
Instructions
  1. Dissolve the corn starch wholly in 100 ml (0.4 cup) of cold milk. Set aside.
  2. Combine all the other ingredients except for the chocolate in a saucepan.
  3. Heat on medium heat until steaming hot, then add the chocolate (cut in pieces) and allow to melt.
  4. When the chocolate has melted, add the starch dissolved in milk. Continue to cook without letting the base boil for about 2-3 minutes: this should typically be sufficient for the starch to thicken the ice cream base sufficiently.
  5. Take off from the heat and allow to cool down as quickly as possible (like in a container put in a sink filled with cold water). Transfer to the fridge for further chilling at least for a few hours.
  6. When the ice cream base has chilled, put it in a freezer-safe container (you may want to put the base through a sieve and remove any pieces of chile pepper at this stage) and still-freeze in your freezer:
  7. Let the base remain in the freezer about 30-45 minutes, then take out the container and churn the ice cream by hand (I like to use a fork) or whatever tool you prefer until all has been evenly handled. In the beginning, you will notice that you mainly have to disperse what has begun to freeze along the sides of the container. Return the container to the freezer.
  8. Wait between 20-30 minutes or so and repeat the churning.
  9. Wait another 20-30 minutes and repeat it again. And possibly a third time.
  10. By now, you should have a quite smooth, evenly freezing ice cream in the making. If you like soft serve, you could start pondering whether to start enjoying your ice cream already now. Or wait some additional hours, after which you probably need to allow your ice cream some time outside the freezer to soften it (about 20 minutes in the fridge or so should do).
Recipe by ICE CREAM NATION at https://www.icecreamnation.org/2013/04/chile-chocolate-sicilian/