Update: September 11, 2011 Having just weathered a few days of heat here in the Northwest we needed to give Italian Ice another try. This time I wanted to do it even quicker and with less mess than last time. So first I made a simple syrup with 1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water. Brought it to a boil and left it until it went clear. I then turned the heat off, waited about 2 minutes and added in whole chuncks 8 ounces of chocolate. I did not chop them at all. Just place them all in there and wait another minute or two and then gently stir. As the chocolate melts whisk everything together and it turns into an excellent rich sauce. I whisked for a few more minutes and added about 1 ounce of whiskey, and it loosened up the sauce a bit more. Then I just added the sauce to a blender with 2 1/2 cups of ice and blended until smooth. Then it went right in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes. This is the quickest way I have found yet to make anything like ice cream. The whole thing took 10 minutes. --- Italian Ice is a dessert, served as far as we know only in New York and surrounding areas. We just created this recipe from scratch based on what we remembered it tasted like, seemed quick, and ingredients we had around. We looked on the web and found recipes that use cocoa powder, water and sugar. But we wanted to use real dark chocolate because the fat in the chocolate would make the ice smoother and the flavor would be richer. The result was excellent, this is an extremely rich, chocolately dessert that was very quick to make. Anytime you make ice cream with eggs you need to heat the mix together, and then wait for everything to chill. To bypass that step we just used a little less water and then used ice to chill everything fast. Makes 1 quart of Chocolate Italian Ice Method Add the chocolate, sugar and corn syrup to a sauce pan and gently heat, just enough to slightly melt the chocolate mix. If you use too much heat you will burn the chocolate. Note: you could also use a microwave, using short high-heat bursts. As it is melting add 1/4 cup of the water until mixed. Then add another 1/4 cup of water and mix again. Note: adding water to fat-based mixes is difficult so do it in batches slowly. Then add enough ice, about 2-3 cups to quickly chill the mix and melt the ice for the additional water. Place the chilled mix, with the ice in a blender and run for 30 seconds or so. If you have any large pieces of ice left just remove them. Place the blended mix in your ice cream maker for 20-30 minutes, depending on the instructions. Place the freezer for a few hours until hard.
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