After my savoury sundae I reverted to more conventional, sweet ice cream making. Or sorbet making, at least - this chocolate ice is dairy and egg-free, and appears in the sorbet section of David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop. I was actually able to make it entirely from ingredients we already had at home, thanks to the many chocolates we were given over Christmas!The curious step that Lebovitz includes in his recipe is blending the sorbet mixture once the chocolate has been melted into it. I was pretty sure that my food processor wouldn't be able to smooth it out any further, so I replaced this step with some straining just before churning. A lot of the chocolate solids were removed from the liquid this way, yet the sorbet still came out a little grainy. It wasn't unpleasant; just not as silky-smooth as I'd hoped. It reminded me a lot of the cashew-based chocolate vicecream I made almost a year ago.
This recipe will certainly bring a smile to the face of the sweet-toothed vegan or dark chocolate-lover in your life, but I don't think I've yet found my ideal vegan-friendly iced chocolate.
Chocolate sorbet
(based on a recipe in The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)
2 1/4 cups water
1 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
pinch of salt
170g dark chocolate (I used half 70% Lindt, half 85% Lindt)
1 teaspoon vanilla
In a large saucepan, whick together 1 1/2 cups of the water, sugar, cocoa and salt. Bring the mixture to the boil and allow it to continue to boil for a minute, whisking all the while. Turn off the heat and stir in the chocolate. When the chocolate has completely melted, stir in the vanilla and the remaining 3/4 cup water. Chill the mixture thoroughly.
Strain and discard (or eat!) the cocoa solids. Churn and freeze the liquid in an icecream maker.
Strain and discard (or eat!) the cocoa solids. Churn and freeze the liquid in an icecream maker.
Oh, I really must must must get an ice-cream maker now! Fiddlesticks, if only Christmas hadn't just passed... I hadn't thought of being able to make a dairy-free chocolate sorbet, plus I'm a fan of Lindt 85% so your version is particularly appealing!
ReplyDeleteHa, nice timing... I just today noticed Stephanie Alexander's recipe for chocolate sorbet from the Cooks Companion. If you don't have it, i can write a summary here. It doesn't have chocolate in it, and possibly less cocoa than yours (dunno cause hers is metric rather than in cups so i can't compare fully). However, it does still involve boiing the mixture (for 5 mins, actually) which apparently cooks off the starch. Wondering if maybe this is adding to your grainyness.
ReplyDeleteYum! If only there was an easy way to make this without using an ice cream maker. What brand do you use? I'm thinking of purchasing one this week!
ReplyDeleteHannah and Saucy Thyme - Jules from Stone Soup just published a great post about making icecream without an icecream maker - check it out here. (Also, the icecream master David Lebovitz has some good advice here.) I have a Sunbeam Snowy icecream maker, which I picked up from Myer for $50 almost two years ago. Though it's pretty much bottom of the line, I'm very happy with it. My previous similar model lasted 7 years before it needed replacing!
ReplyDeleteHi Stru! I've never heard of the starch issue before but would be interested to investigate with longer boiling - surely it wouldn't do any harm to make this one more time. ;-)
Have you tried the chocolate coconut sorbet from the perfect scoop? Its a richer, creamier vegan iced chocolate confection.
ReplyDeleteNot yet! Looks like I should hop to it - thanks for the tip, Jean. :-)
ReplyDelete