TWD: S’mores Ice Cream

There’s been a lot of ice cream in our lives this summer, but unlike previous years, very little of it has been of the homemade variety.  We’ve visited several of the great local ice cream shops in our town more times than I can count.  I wish I’d had more time/energy/motivation/freezer space to make homemade ice cream but it just hasn’t happened.  So, I have to thank Katrina of Baking and Boys for selecting chocolate ganache ice cream for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie.  It was just the push I needed to pull out my ice cream maker before the summer sunshine comes to an end.

For the first time in ages, I did not scale back the recipe at all.  Can you believe it?  If there’s one thing that’s certain to get eaten around here, it’s ice cream.  That’s not to say I didn’t play with the recipe a bit, because I did.  Initially, I planned to add mini marshmallows and chocolate chips – sort of along the lines of a rocky road, minus the nuts.  When I mentioned my plan to Shane he suggested instead also adding graham cracker pieces to make the ice cream more s’mores-like.  Sounded good to me, so that’s just what I did.

I confess that chocolate ice cream isn’t high on my favorites list – I’m more of a vanilla or mint chocolate chip girl – but I absolutely loved this ice cream!  It surprised me in the best way possible.  The ice cream starts with a pretty standard custard, which is added to a luscious chocolate ganache to make the base and after chilling in the fridge, it was almost pudding-like.  It churned beautifully; I tossed in the marshmallows, chips and graham crackers in the last minute.  After some time in the freezer, the ice cream is quite hard so it needs to sit on the counter for a few minutes before scooping, but we loved the texture.  I used good quality semisweet chocolate, so the ice cream had a lot of chocolate flavor and wasn’t overly bitter.  It was rich, creamy and smooth.  I thought the graham cracker crumbs got a little lost so next time I’ll keep the pieces slightly bigger but otherwise, this was a huge hit!  Shane declared it a winner too.  I don’t think it’ll last long around here.      

Many thanks to Katrina for hosting this week!  Head over to her blog for the recipe (as well as some great photos of her cute boys – all 4 of them!) or find it on page 430 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.