Chocolate S'Mores Ice Cream

I'm not as crazy about S'mores as many other people, but one day I had a rare craving for the stuff. I bought the marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey's chocolate with great hesitation. I originally wanted to make my own marshmallows and graham crackers, but I didn't feel like putting in that much effort for something I'm not super crazy about eating...well, until a few days ago.

So after I consumed two or three s'mores, my craving was satiated, but I still had an almost full bag of marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. In order to use up some of the stuff, I made some s'mores cookies that were insanely good (never got a chance to take photos of them, but you can click here or here to see them). Since I halved the cookie recipe, I was still left with a lot of s'more ingredients.

So, the other day, I had to make homemade marshmallows for an upcoming event, and all I could think was, "oh great, more marshmallows!" After three trials of making those marshmallows, I was left with three or four egg yolks. As I looked at the egg yolks, all I could think about was making ice cream with them.

Bokeh even makes a discarded letter, empty Coke box, vacuum cleaner, and foot massager look good! LOL!

Even though I'm no longer that crazy about chocolate, I was craving chocolate ice cream for some reason. After I made the custard base for the ice cream, I started thinking about what I could add in it. Then I looked over at the marshmallows and graham crackers and thought "S'mores ice cream!" I looked online for S'mores Ice cream recipes and found only one recipe that was unsatisfactory (i.e., no egg base and faulty instructions). So, I thought I'd just improvise and make my "own" concoction.

Ideally, I would have made a vanilla-based ice cream with chunks of Hershey's chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers added in during the final minutes of churning in the ice cream maker (Someone should try this out, and tell me about it! *wink wink*). However, since I had already made chocolate ice cream, I decided to add in crushed graham crackers and marshmallows. You could also add in chocolate chunks, but for me, that would be too much.

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), the ice cream tasted great. Thanks to David L.'s chocolate ice cream recipe and the custard base, the ice cream was really creamy and smooth. I think it would also be a good idea to toast the marshmallows, allow them to cool and then add them to the ice cream so that they taste more closely to s'mores. If you decide to make this or the variation mentioned above with the vanilla base, or if you've already made it, please tell me about it!

July is National Ice Cream month, so I'm sending this to the Ice Cream Social Challenge, put together by Savor The Thyme. Tangled Noodle, Scotty Snacks & to Ben’s Homemade# 5: Ice Cream.

Chocolate Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup whole milk

¾ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk unto the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin out).

Makes a little more than 1 quart.