Scrumptious homemade chocolate ice cream

How my scrumptious chocolate ice cream looked like after staying in the fridge for over 24 hours. As tasty as fresh + Very scoop-able.

I have made at least 10 batches of ice cream since the purchase of my ice cream maker last year. While I loved every single batch, something is just not right:

• While they are all smooth and rich when freshly made, the texture become icy and hard once frozen overnight! 
• I used the best chocolate, different mix-in, but they taste nothing like Haagen Dazs. 
• I might not have the patience for that egg yolk cooking process. I've thrown out many batches of overcooked egg yolk since. What a waste!

What is missing? I've read so many "scientific" ice cream making articles. I tried different ideas.  The best texture, best tasting ice cream I made was the one I made with sweetened chestnut cream (creme de maroon) so I didn't have to add white sugar. But making ice cream with liquid sugar doesn't seem to make that difference.

Finally I read the Kitchn "Best homemade chocolate ice cream" article which was just posted last month. It has condensed milk in the recipe, which is also an ingredient on the Haagen Dazs box! Haagen Dazs is my favourite store brand ice cream.   I think I found the holy grail. I made it immediately this weekend. O dear! This is just how Haaden Dazs belgium chocolate ice cream tastes like. That rich chocolate flavour with a hint of caramelised taste. That is it! That is the secret I have been searching for! 

A few tips/reminders on ice cream making:

• Use condensed milk!
• Whisk the heavy cream until standing, then add/fold it in the other ingredients gently as per recipes. That seems to make the product more fluffy and less dense/hard. 
• Dutch processed cocoa powder really make that chocolate flavour stands out
• Whisk the custard for the one last time before putting in the ice cream maker
• I reduced the sugar content but added more chocolate than the recipe called for. The product seemed fine

Scrumptious chocolaty chocolate ice cream

1. Melt 200g chocolate in a bowl sitting on top of boiling hot water. I used Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate, 54% cocoa.  (original recipe called for 6 oz or 170g chocolate - mix of milk and dark)

2. Whisk 1 cup of Heavy Cream until standing

3. Add the 1 cup of cream (whisked), 2 cups of fresh milk, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup condensed milk, 3 big table spoons of dutch-pressed cocoa power.  (original recipe called for 3/4 cup of sugar)

4. Heat on medium-high until simmering for 2-3 minutes. Continue whisking occasionally 

5. Gradually add the hot dairy mixture into the melted chocolate. Blend throughoutly. 

6. Put in freezer until cooled (approx 1 hour?)

7. Whisk the mixture again before putting in the ice cream maker. 

8. Pour the mixture in the ice cream maker. I churned it for at least 50 minutes. 

9. Move the churned mixture into a pre-frozen container.

VIOLA!! This is how it looks after 10 hours of freezing. I was in such a rush to try out the new recipe that I forgot to add any mix in. 

This will be my go-to recipe. I will try condensed milk on other flavours ice cream =)))))

I'm so excited!

Gluten-free snacks from Germany

Below are scores of the snacks I tried, with 10 as the highest score.

The yummiest of the yummy:

Schär (10/10)

(9/10)

(9/10)

(10/10)

Good but not the best:
(8/10)

(8/10)

Those I finished the pack I got but won't repurchase:

(7/10)

(6.5/10)

Bottom of the list:

After eating these Bio Hirsebrot bread by Schnitzer (spezial) I finally understand what it means when other bloggers suggest that certain bread tastes like "cardboard" by many bloggers. (1/10)

(2/10)

Baking Maniac Party

What a great evening... R&A from Baking Maniac, thanks for the yummy dessert! It was great meeting Jason from Geoexpat group in person as well. Finally an update to the photo preview of the dessert party as I've been so busy at work since Chinese New Year.

Look at all the dessert in the photos! It has been one of the best all-you-can-eat dessert party for me in a LOOOONG while since I've had all these allergies! R&A are very serious about their baking and careful in avoiding all our allergies - as you can see in the beautifully designed menu and the grand dessert stand!


I even got to pack my favourites home to satisfy my sweet tooth for the next few days. Those in this box are our favourites:



Chocolate Mendiants - The chocolate so smooth and overloaded with nuts and my fav dried cranberries. Loved them:

These cupcakes are amazing! They are the signature of the Baking Maniac ;) The level of moist is perfect to my liking. They used the best chocolate in the cupcakes, and the orange flavour is real, not from some flavoured oil. mmmmmmmmm yum! They also had banana muffins but I'm not crazy about banana (though I LOVE chocolate and had 2 of the chocolate muffins).

Cranberry Hazelnut Biscotti, with a hint of Cardamom. Biscotti is something I always loved. The texture of these biscotti is perfect and I loved the Cranberr/Hazelnut mix.

Yuuuum. I'm not a brownie person but I couldn't put these down. Thanks C:

The crisps to the right also has the interesting herbs flavour. Loved the texture of crisp + bit of chewiness. Cookies are decent too, would be great if it has more chocolate chips LOL, as a chocolate person. Chewy gluten-free cookies isn't easy to make... They also had Saffron Cardamom Pistachio Cookie.

Another heavenly dessert from C. You definitely couldn't tell that they are gluten free. We all agreed that the almond powder makes the difference:

Another look of my favourite:

Special thanks to Baking Maniac for the invitation =) See their website for some more professional photos and the "behind the scene" story ;)

If you have any sort of allergies (dairy, nut, gluten, you name it) and need cupcakes or any cakes for any parties, they can definitely help. R&A are amazing people who'd take care of all your special requests =)

Their contact info: http://bakingmaniac.blogspot.hk/p/contact-us.html
Bakers@bakingmaniac.me

The best gluten free chocolate chip cookies

The best gluten free chocolate chip cookies period
Brand: Against the Grain Limited, $49
It is a UK brand available at Harvey Nicols and Harrods in UK. But so far, I could only find it at little giant in HK. (10/10)
They also have other kind of cookies like ginger crunches, almond cookies, and berry delicious.