Rocky Road Ice Cream

Rocky road ice cream, well, rocks. I fell in love with it last year after my slew of allergy problems were finally behind me. My Chief Culinary Consultant lives, literally, across the street from Marble Slab, which can be both awesome and dangerous. Our ice cream cravings know no time or season. We’ve bolted across the street in 15-degree weather during halftime of football playoff games (I think it was Steelers vs. San Diego, actually). We’ve also run across the street in 90-degree weather, trying to make it back before half of the ice cream melted. Middle of the afternoon or 10:30 at night, whenever the urge strikes, Marble Slab it is! And rocky road is our favorite variety. While classic rocky road is typically made with almonds, Marble Slab makes theirs with walnuts (and adds chocolate chips), so that is what I have grown to love. I’m astonished that it has taken me this long to recreate it at home!

This base of this recipe is the amazing, life-changing, best-ever chocolate ice cream. It’s seriously the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had. It’s rich, smooth, and has an intense chocolate flavor that will leave you with an empty bowl and craving more. It’s prepared and churned in the typical way, and then you stir in the marshmallows, walnuts and chocolate chips at the end. Now, we usually enjoy our rocky road in waffle bowls with the tops dipped in chocolate and coated with chopped peanuts. I dropped the ball and didn’t make those, but I guarantee that this recipe will knock your socks off, no matter what you choose to eat it out of!

Don’t forget! If you’re dying to make homemade ice cream and cursing yourself for not having an ice cream maker, head straight to this tutorial on how to make homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker!

One year ago: Italian Supreme Calzones

Rocky Road Ice Cream

Yield: About 1 quart

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Chill Time: 8 hours | Churn Time: 15 minutes

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 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup walnuts
½ cup chocolate chips

1. 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.

2. 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 into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

3. 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 (and reaches 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer). 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.

4. 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 it out.) Once the ice cream has finished churning, fold in the marshmallows, walnuts and chocolate chips.

(Recipe adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)

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