Dulce de Leche Dark Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
It’s hot in Nashville. A couple of weeks ago, the weather went from uncomfortably warm to hot as hell overnight and frankly I wasn’t ready. I’m not sure anyone can truly be ready for temperatures over 100 degrees. There have been all kinds of heat related illnesses around town – mostly stemming from dehydration and we’re officially in a drought. When you step outside it feels like someone is holding a 50 foot blow dryer and blowing it right in your face. The day the temperature hit 109, the city pretty much stayed indoors under the air conditioning. Thank you Lord for the gift of air conditioning. I have made a conscious effort to stay in house as much as possible. I try to take care of errands and outdoor chores early in the morning and cooking has been kept to a minimum. Rumor has it we’re getting a reprieve next week – temperature’s in the upper eighties. It’s going to feel heavenly. Until then we just endure and suck it up.
I saw a story on TV about ice cream sales going up during this heat wave. Ice cream usually isn’t my first choice when it comes to sweets but the past few weeks I’ve had a change of heart. Hubby’s ice cream addiction is rubbing off on me so we decided to pull out the ice cream maker for the first time this summer. Since he doesn’t like fruity flavors, we settled on this dulce de leche recipe.
This has to be the easiest ice cream recipe I’ve ever seen. I’m partial to ice cream recipes that don’t require eggs so this was perfect. The dulce de leche is really sweet so a good dark chocolate helps balance the sweetness. When you go to buy the dulce de leche, make sure you don’t pick up the wrong thing. If you’re buying Nestle, make sure you don’t get the dulce de leche flavored sweetened consensed milk. It’s not the same thing. Also use the best chocolate you can find – Scharffen Berger is my favorite.
Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 13.4 – 14 oz can dulce de leche
- 1 3 oz bar good dark or semisweet chocolate, rough chopped (I prefer Scharffen Berger 62% or 70%)
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Combine milk and cream in saucepan and bring up to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in dulce de leche until completely dissolved. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pot well to get all of the little bits of dulce de leche incorporated.
- Stire in vanilla and transfer to bowl.
- Chill bowl until cold either in an ice bath or in the freezer,
- Pour mixture into andice cream maker and let it churn until almost firm, then fold in chocolate and pecans.
- Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hard.
2 Comments
ErinsFoodFiles
July 6, 2012It’s been far too long since I gave the ol’ ice cream maker a spin. This looks like a great reason to get back at it! (Even though I have pretty much this exact flavor from Kroger Private Selection in the freezer…)
jfoster
July 6, 2012It seems to always taste better when you make it yourself. We might do it again this weekend but add diced up Dove chocolates with the caramel in the middle. Love those.