Chocolate gelato on a rainy day

It has been raining here. The kids had not been outdoors much this week because of the rain. I guess making something sweet and cold for them may not be a bad idea. "Chocolate gelato" popped up in my head. I still have a ton of chocolate bars in my pantry. Milk, cream and fresh eggs are always available in my fridge. Here we go!


We made ice-cream a lot at home. G and Z love ice-creams, but different flavors, as always. But Chocolate gelato is one of the few flavors that the two boys will agree on. One batch of gelato can only last 3 days max!

Chocolate gelato (adapted from Making artisan gelato) 
Yield : 1 liter

• 2 cups Milk
• 14 g unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 170 g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 large egg yolks
• 110 g superfine sugar
• 1 cup cream
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Pore the milk into the heavy-bottom saucepan. Whisk the cocoa powder and 80 g of the sugar together in a small bowl and whisk into the cold milk in the saucepan. Place over medium heat and heat the milk until the instant-read thermometer read between 80 C-88 C. Continue to cook at this temperature for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat, whisk in the chopped chocolate, and stir until all the chocolate has melted. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, the remaining 30 g of sugar, and salt until slightly thickened.

Carefully pour the hot milk mixture by slowly adding about half of the hot liquid to the eggs, whisk continuously. Whisk the heated egg mixture into the hot milk and return to the stove top. Stirring over medium heat until it coat the back of the spoon, make sure the mixture do not boil.

Pour the cream into the clean bowl set over an ice bath. Pour the chocolate custard through a fine-mesh sieve into the cold cream, add the vanilla extract, and stir until incorporated and cooled. Remove the bowl from the ice bath, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge at least 4 hours.

When ready, pour the chilled mixture into the ice-cream maker and process according to the manufacture's specifications.