Raspberry Chip Ice Cream

Someone lent me their ice cream machine to try my hand at tasty frozen treats.  When the crazy heat wave hit, I knew it was time to break it out and see what magic I could produce.  This ice cream has a super rich and deep raspberry flavor, without being too sweet.  It honestly tastes like something from Berthillon, the ice cream shop of my dreams located in the heart of Paris.  We're headed to France in a couple weeks, and you better believe a trip to Berthillon is high on the priority list!  Unfortunately, despite the wonderful raspberry taste, the ice cream ended up being too solid and the chocolate chunks were on the big side.  I expect that the mixture wasn't cooled enough before pouring it into the ice cream machine (I only left it in the fridge for about 3 hours), so it was too liquid by the time I put it in the freezer.  I'm going to experiment more to see if I can produce a dessert with better texture.

Adapted from: http://phoo-d.com/2010/07/19/black-raspberry-chocolate-chunk-ice-cream/

Ingredients

1 cup whipping cream

2 cups half and half

1 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

3 bags frozen raspberries (about 6 cups in total, I purchased mine from Trader Joe's)

1 tbsp lemon juice

90 g 70% dark chocolate, cut into small pieces

Method

1.  Add the cream, half and half, sugar, salt, and raspberries to a large saucepan and cook at medium high heat.  Stir frequently. 

2.  When bubbles have formed around the edges, turn off the heat and cover the pot.  Leave the mixture to sit for 20 or more minutes.

3.  Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium sized bowl and carefully ladle the mixture into the strainer bit by bit.  Use a wooden spoon to stir mixture in the strainer, which helps allow liquid to drain out, leaving raspberry seeds behind.  Keep adding mixture and straining until all the liquid is in the bowl and only seeds remain in the strainer.  

Note: I found these seeds delicious to eat on their own, but I was really glad not to have the seeds in the finished ice cream.  Also, leaving the seeds in the ice cream would have made the overall volume of the mixture too big for the ice cream machine.  If you want to skip this step, reduce the quantity of all ingredients by 33% to accommodate the extra volume.

4.  Stir the lemon juice into the ice cream mixture.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours until completely chilled.

5.  Churn the ice cream mixture according to the instructions included with the ice cream maker.  Add the chocolate pieces 5 minutes before the end of churning.

6.  Transfer ice cream to a freezer-friendly container and freeze until solid.  This will take at least 2 hours.  Try not to peek at the ice cream before it has frozen, since temperature changes can affect the overall texture.