A Chocolate Ice Cream Extravaganza from Jeni’s
If you don’t know Jeni, let’s start by fixing that right there. Jeni is none other than the brilliant woman behind Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and she has now written a book putting her amazing ice cream flavors to work in even more spectacular layered desserts. Layered with flavor and texture and visual appeal – and they just taste so damn good. The Austrian Dancing Kick will have you kicking up your heels and donning lederhosen. Well, maybe not really but look at the combo we have here: a chocolate ice cream spiked with whiskey, a boozy, salty caramel sauce, crunchy crumbles of sweet/savory pumpernickel and honey whipped cream. Jeni describes the ice cream itself as “A drunken dark chocolate, with notes of caraway.”
Excerpted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts
The Austrian Dancing Kick
Author: Jeni Britton Bauer
Makes: Makes 1 quart ice cream
Ingredients
Chocolate Paste:
- ½ cup brewed coffee (any temperature)
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
Ice Cream Base:
- 2⅔ cups whole milk
- 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons caraway seeds, lightly crushed
- ½ cup rye whiskey
Pumpernickel Gravel:
- 3 cups coarsely ground pumpernickel bread (from 10 to 12 slices)
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
- 2 tablespoons ground caraway
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅓ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Salty Caramel Sauce:
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- Big pinch of fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons whiskey
Whipped Cream:
- 2 to 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 ½ cups of heavy cream
Instructions
- For the Ice Cream Advance Prep: For the chocolate paste: Combine the coffee, sugar, and cocoa in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, and boil for 30 seconds, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for a few minutes, then stir until very smooth.
- Prep: Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.
- Whisk the cream cheese, warm chocolate paste, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.
- Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
- Cook: Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the caraway seeds and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
- Chill: Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Stir in the whiskey. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
- Freeze: Remove the frozen canister from the freezer, assemble your ice cream machine, and turn it on. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy.
- Pack the ice cream into a storage container. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.
- For the Gravel: Preheat the oven to 275°F. Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and toss with the butter until the bread crumbs are evenly moistened. Pour onto a baking sheet and spread evenly.
- Bake for 40 minutes, tossing the crumbs with a bench scraper or spatula every 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- For the Caramel: Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the bottom of a heavy-bottomed 4-quart saucepan and set it over medium-high heat, standing by with a heatproof spatula. When you see that there is a layer of melted sugar underneath the unmelted white sugar in the center of the pan, use the spatula to mush and stir the hot melted sugar into the unmelted sugar. Continue to push the sugar together until it is all melted and evenly medium amber in color. Remove from the heat. Using caution, slowly add the cream a little at a time, stirring constantly until incorporated. If you get any lumps of hardened sugar, place on medium heat and stir until completely melted.
- Pour the sauce into a bowl and let cool slightly, then stir in the salt and whiskey.
- For the Whipped Cream: Chill a large metal or glass bowl that is wider than it is tall (to make it easier to get full strokes and incorporate air into the cream) in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes; it should be cold to the touch.
- Pour 2 tablespoons honey into the bowl. Pour in a splash of cream and whisk until well blended, then add the rest of the cream and tilt the bowl so that the cream and honey rest in the crook of the bowl. As you whip, imagine that you are pulling air into the cream. You do not have to go quickly, so don’t overexert yourself. Just continually pull air into the cream in a round motion that begins at your elbow. You will create soft peaks in 2 to 4 minutes. If the cream doesn’t taste sweet enough, add up to 1 more tablespoon honey.
- To Serve: Every serving gets a scoop of ice cream topped with warm caramel sauce, a sprinkling of gravel and a dollop of whipped cream.
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