Chocolate Gelato

In late summer, nothing beats cooling off after a hard day's work with a thick chocolate gelato.

3 Cups Milk
1 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Cup Sugar
6 egg yolks
12 Oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Tsp Vanilla

Combine the Milk, cream and sugar in a saucepan over high heat. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks in a small bowl, and place the place the chocolate chips in a large bowl (you'll be adding all the ingredients in this recipe to this bowl down the road).

Bring the milk just shy of boiling (scald), take 1/2 cup of the milk and add to the egg yolks. Add another 1/c cup of milk to the chocolate chips.

Whisk the eggs well. Once the milk is incorporated into the eggs, slowly drizzle the milk/egg mixture back into the saucepan, whisking the milk while drizzling. Don't allow the milk to boil, your goal is to keep the milk between 150 and 160 degrees F. A candy thermometer helps a LOT here. Once the eggs are completely incorporated, and the milk/egg has reached a temp higher than 150, but not higher than 160, add vanilla, and remove from heat.

Mix the chocolate chips and milk mixture well, all the chips should be melted.

While mixing the chocolate chips, slowly add the egg/milk mixture to the chips. Mix well.

Cover the gelato base, and put in the fridge until the base is cooled throughout.

Add to an ice cream maker, and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Once the gelato starts to set up, place in freezer for two more hours to solidify.

Notes:
The egg/milk/custard mixture is commonly referred to as "Creme Anglais." It's a light pudding usually used as a sauce. The egg yolk proteins thicken the milk. In this recipe, the thickened milk makes for a decadent ice cream base. You could skip the chocolate, and go for strawberries, peaches, cherries, raspberries.... any fruit flavor you desire, just follow the preparation steps up to the point that you start adding the milk/egg mixture to the chocolate. Hold off on adding your fruit to the mix until after the custard has a chance to cool.

This will freeze up the best (and fastest) if you put it in a 4 qt ice cream mixer. A 2 qt mixer takes too long, and ends up creating ice crystals, so your gelato is less than smooth. If you have a 2 qt mixer, just cut the recipe in half and you'll be VERY pleased.

-For extra chocolate flavor, add a teaspoon of espresso powder to the milk/cream mixture prior to heating. Chocolate and coffee share a LOT of similar flavors, and a tiny bit of coffee tricks your mouth into thinking the chocolate is MUCH more prevalent.