Adapted from ‘The Perfect Scoop’ by David Lebowitz
Ice Cream
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder
• 3-4 dried chillies (mine are from Herbies Spices)
• 140g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup whole milk
• ¾ cup sugar
• Pinch salt
• ½ – 1 teaspoon ground chillies, to taste
• 5 large egg yolks
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Warm 1 cup of cream with the cocoa and dried chillies in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, and then turn off the heat. Allow to infuse for 30 minutes – 1 hour. When the mixture has infused, turn the heat back on, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth, then stir in the remaining cup of cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.
Warm the milk, sugar, salt and ground chilli 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 and then scrape the mixture back into the saucepan. Stir constantly with a heatproof spatula over a low heat, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Cool over an ice bath.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
Makes 16 cookies, for 8 ice cream sandwiches
• 115g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa, sifted
• 210g flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ½ – 1 teaspoon ground chillies, to taste
Beat together the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer, until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together to cocoa, flour, baking powder, salt and chilli. Stir the dry ingredients gradually into the creamed butter mixture until completely incorporated and there are no streaks of butter. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Lightly dust a work surface with flour, and roll out dough into a ½ cm disk. Use cookie cutters of your choice to cut out shapes and place on baking trays. Bake for 10-15 minutes, rotating the baking trays halfway through baking, then remove from the oven. Once the cookies are cooled completely, sandwich the ice cream between 2 cookies, then wrap each sandwich in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.