I scream, you scream.....

We all scream for ice cream! 

Our friends, the Gray's were nice enough to let us borrow the ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer to see if we liked it enough to purchase one of our own. Like so many other kitchen gadgets, they have one purpose and then get pushed to the back of the cabinet and end up forgetting about it. Knowing we have limited space in our house on post and whenever we move, all these kitchen gadgets and appliances have to come with us. Hence, why I was excited to try this attachment versus a standard ice cream maker that's the size of a 5 gallon bucket. Also, there's no ice cream salt to buy and you store the bowl in the freezer to keep it ready to make ice cream on a whim. The attachment is composed of four pieces, the dasher (paddle for churning), drive assembly, adapter ring and the freeze bowl. Not a ton of parts and they can be easily stored in a container with the rest of my attachments, like my dough hook, meat grinder and whisk. 

So, I did some research on the attachment, looked for some recipes and turned to the honest reviews on Amazon.com. Surprisingly, most reviews kept praising a dessert cookbook as a great companion to go along with the attachment. 

Who would've thought Ben & Jerry's ice cream could be duplicated at home? I had my doubts at first, but not anymore. Sadly, Amazon didn't show any recipes on the "look inside" feature of the book, but I did some internet recon and found their basic chocolate ice cream recipe that a dessert blogger had made from her copy of the book. 

Grace from La Mia Vita Dolce did a great job in making my mouth water with her pictures of chocolate ice cream and lead me to the discovery to a great ice cream recipe that I will gladly make again and again. 

Here's the mixer in action....

There was one change I made to the following ice cream recipe. Apparently I had a brain fart while at the commissary and thought that cocoa powder was used in the recipe, since it did in fact call for "unsweetened chocolate". However, I failed to read the directions and miss the part where you melt the chocolate in a double boiler, add the milk slowly and whisk until smooth. Well, I ended up figuring out that 3 Tbsps of cocoa powder plus 1 Tbsp of butter was equal to 1 oz of unsweetened baker's chocolate. So, 12 Tbsp of cocoa powder and 4 Tbsp of salted butter made their way into a small sauce pan to be whisked together with the milk. I skipped the fine sieve as well and proceeded as directed from there. I had a couple of glitches with the dasher, but after some troubleshooting I discovered that I had the speed set higher than needed. If you do use this attachment, remember to keep it on stir!! Please, don't let not having a standmixer and this attachment stop you from making this ice cream. If you have an old-fashion ice cream maker, all the recipes from Ben & Jerry's dessert book can be made in it.


Ben’s Chocolate Ice Cream

(from Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream & Dessert Book)

*Special Equipment:  Ice Cream Maker

Makes 1 quart

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup heavy or whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt

1. Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water.  Gradually whisk in the milk and heat, stirring constantly, until smooth.  Remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve into a small bowl. Let cool, about 10 minutes.
2. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more.  Add the cream, vanilla and salt and whisk to blend.
3. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and whisk to combine.  Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 to 3 hours, depending on your refrigerator.
4. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

I transferred it from the ice cream bowl to a freezer safe container and let it ripe for a couple hours. I scooped some of it into a coffee cup and forgot to take a picture before I enjoyed it. It was delicious and I hope you have a chance to make some too!