Chestnut and Chocolate Ice Cream

The other week when I first tried fresh roasted chestnuts I thought that chestnuts would make a good ice cream. I noticed that this months In The Bag event at A Slice of Cherry Pie called for chestnuts, chocolate and sugar. I though that chestnut and chocolate ice cream sounded really nice. I know, I know, its cold now and not really the time for ice cream...

The first step to making the chestnut ice cream would be to figure out how to get the chestnuts into the ice cream. I would need to puree the chestnuts but the roasted chestnuts that I made previously were rather hard and I did not think that they would puree all that well. After looking around a bit I found that you could peel chestnuts by boiling them and soften them by simmering them and then puree them. I though that I would also roast and chop some chestnuts and put them in the ice cream to get the flavour and texture of the roasted chestnuts. For the chocolate, I grabbed a 3 ounce bar of dark chocolate and melted 2/3rds of it and chopped the remaining chocolate so that I would have some nice chocolate chunks in the ice cream.

The chestnut and chocolate ice cream turned out really well. The flavours of the chestnuts and chocolate were well balanced. The ice cream was not too sweet. The texture of the of the soft chestnuts and the solid chunks of chocolate were really nice. I think that this is one of the best chocolate ice creams that I have had. I really like the texture of the ice cream when it just comes out of the ice cream maker, almost like soft serve ice cream. But it does not take the best picture at that point...

Ingredients:
2 ounces dark chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cups sugar
2 egg yolks
1 cup chestnut puree
1 ounce dark chocolate (chopped)
1 handful roasted chestnuts (chopped)

Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate into the cream over a double boiler, reduce the heat and keep warm.
2. Heat the cream, milk and sugar in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes.
3. Reduce the heat to low.
4. Add one tablespoon of the cream mixture to the egg to temper it.
5. Add the egg to the sauce pan.
6. Cook at low heat until it is slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
7. Add the melted chocolate and chestnut puree and stir.
8. Chill the mixture in the fridge.
9. Add the chocolate chunks and chopped chestnuts.
10. Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.

Similar Recipes:
Chestnut Cheesecake