White Chocolate Ice Cream

Now, I know what you might be thinking. White chocolate? Isn’t that overly sweet and lacking in the depth of flavor we crave in our ice cream? Well, my dear reader, prepare to have your taste buds pleasantly surprised. This white chocolate ice cream is a delicate balance of rich, velvety sweetness and subtle hints of vanilla.

White Chocolate Ice Cream – The French Style

Some people argue that white chocolate is not real chocolate. And technically they are right. It contains no actual cocoa solids but is instead made of cocoa butter, sugar, milk, and a bit of salt.

But then again – who cares?

White chocolate tastes great and when you melt it into a custard, you get this fantastic rich, smooth, and creamy flavored ice cream. A perfect dessert that pairs well with so many things.

What You Need

Other than the obvious white chocolate, this recipe only calls for another four ingredients. Let’s have a look at them.

• Whole Milk – I use a 3.6%
• Heavy Cream – A lot of the smoothness in this ice cream comes from the heavy cream. I use a 38% for this recipe.
• Eggs – This is a French style ice cream, so we need the eggs to create our custard.
• White Chocolate – And I mean real white chocolate. It does not need to be a fancy chocolate, but do yourself the favor of not using the “white chocolate chips” made of oils instead of cocoa butter or one of these white chocolate bunnies you can buy at Easter. Use real white chocolate made of cocoa butter. The kind of chocolate that just melts in your mouth and is rich and buttery.
• Vanilla Extract – Just a bit to give that hint of vanilla taste.

How To Make White Chocolate Ice Cream

1. Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat.
2. Give the egg yolks a quick beat in a separate bowl. It gives them a bit of “fluffiness” even though we don’t have any sugar in it.
3. Now slowly pour the hot milk/cream into the egg yolks, while constantly whisking. We do this to temper the eggs, so they don’t end up as scrambled eggs.
4. Pour everything back into the saucepan and over medium heat bring it back to a simmer. Keep stirring constantly and let the mixture simmer until it starts to thicken. Remember, we don’t want it to boil, just simmer.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Constantly stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
6. Pour the mixture through a strainer into a large bowl. This will remove any solids and make your end result even more smooth.
7. Now we just need to cool down the mixture. I always fill my sink with cold water and place the bowl in there. I keep stirring for about 5 minutes, which is enough to cool the mixture down.
8. Now stir in the vanilla extract and place your mixture in the refrigerator until cold or overnight.
9. Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer´s instructions. When finished, transfer your ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze overnight…….or if you can’t wait, dig in right away.

VOILA – Enjoy!