Chocolate Sherbet Recipe

For the health-conscious ones among us(and perhaps the weight-conscious too?), you'll be happy to know that this has no cream. Say wha? Yes, it's made with milk and milk only. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and call this a guilt-free ice cream. Unlike my other stabs at healthy-eating, this is the rare one which taste is not sacrificed for a lower calorie count. In fact, I think I read somewhere - is it from Sherry Yard? - that told me using milk for a ganache intensifies the chocolate profile, while using cream makes the mixture richer but dilutes the chocolate taste. I'll cite the source when I come across it again, but don't take her word for it, try this and see it for yourself. This chocolate sherbet is intensely chocolate-y, and slightly sticky and dense, not unlike a gelato. Out of all the chocolate desserts I've made (there's quite a few chocolate flourless cakes in the mix, including my all-time favourite), this may be the most intensely chocolate-ty of them all. A couple of spoonful of this ice cream is all it takes to sooth any chocolate cravings. R told me a few days later that this was the best chocolate ice cream she ever had. Suck it Haagen Dazs.

I remember being shocked at the price of a scoop of chocolate ice cream from Awfully Chocolate when I visited last holiday. How can they charge so much for a scoop!? After I was done churning this ice cream, I scribbled down some calculation for this recipe. 

*Sun Lik sells Valrhona cocoa powder at a very reasonable price, compared to Simon Johnson in Melbourne. Sun Lik's price seemed a little dodgy to me at first (seeing how Amazon sells 250g for USD$14.35 (SGD$19.80). But the math does seem to work out if Sun Lik repackages the 3kg bags, which would end up about SGD$15.70/500g.) 

**Prices in Singapore taken from Sun Lik. (Dated 2015). Price in Australia from Costco and Simon Johnson. (Dated 2016). The prices listed here are as far as I am aware, the cheapest in Melbourne and Singapore. If there are other places selling at a lower price, let me know. (So I can sweep their shelves empty. And maybe then update it here). 

Two things surprised me: 

1) despite how much cheaper Callebaut chocolate and milk is in Australia, the lower cost of cocoa powder from Singapore more than off-set the difference.  

2) Did it cost $7 to make this batch of chocolate ice cream? I've excluded the cost of vanilla extract, Kahluà, sugar (and yes, the ice cream machine with a three-digit price tag).  

This recipe makes about two pints, so the ingredients costed a little more than I expected. I got a few more scoops from my ice cream machine than from Awfully Chocolate, although there's definitely a few more steps involved in churning your own ice cream... Now that I look at Awfully Chocolate, I can see why they fetch such a high price. Although, I still haven't quite worked out how Haagen Dazs can sell for $3 a pint in US...

Tips for using an ice cream maker: 
1) Skip the soft silicon spatula, and use a stiff wooden spatula to scrap the ice cream out instead. 
2) And, although I haven't tried this for myself, I've heard that you can run two batches of ice cream back-to-back using the same frozen canister (and make double the quantity!)  

Chocolate Sherbet
Original recipe by David Lebovitz
Makes about 3 cups (3/4l)

Because the flavour profile of this ice cream leans heavily on the quality of the cocoa powder, use a good-quality one. Either Dutch-process or natural cocoa powder is appropriate, although David has a preference for Valrhona Dutch-process cocoa, which I have grown to favour as well. Adding Kahluà gives the sherbet a more scoop-able consistency. The coffee flavour melds beautifully with chocolate, but feel free to omit it, or to use another liqueur.

Ingredients 
2 cups (500ml) milk
80g sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup (50g) unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces (115g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Kahluà or other coffee-flavored liqueur (optional)

Steps 1. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine 1 cup of the milk with sugar, salt, and cocoa powder. Set over heat. Bring to a full boil while whisking, then reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for 30 seconds.

3. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate, vanilla, and the Kahluà. Stir in the rest of the milk.

4. Taste, and if the chocolate is a bit grainy, puree it in a blender to smooth it out.

5. Chill thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Oh don't have an ice cream maker? Shame. Looks like you have to do it the low-tech way...