Chocolate Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream is a big production. You need to remember to freeze your ice cream maker, make a custard base, chill your custard base, churn the ice cream, then chill the ice cream after for a few hours before serving (unless you're looking for soft-serve consistency). 

There's good reason why it's a costly treat! Is it worth it to make from scratch? Yes, yes, yes, one thousand times. Every time we take a bite of homemade ice cream, we realize we've NEVER had anything as good come from a store-bought pint. Seriously: You get to choose what kind of ingredients go into your pint here, starting with good quality dairy and eggs, flavored with nothing but chocolate, vanilla, and sugar.

Set Aside Time

Making ice cream is best if done over the course of two days. The first day, make the base and chill it in the fridge so it is nice and cold and ready for the ice cream maker on the second day. You should also be freezing the bowl of your ice cream maker so that the liquid inside the walls of your bowl can solidify and keep the machine cold when it comes time to churn the base into ice cream. Only about 1 hour of the 7 hours required for this recipe is hands-on—the rest is freezing time—but the process will require patience!

Choose Your Chocolate

You can use whatever kind of chocolate you want: milk, bittersweet, dark. You can use bars or chips. If using bars—which we prefer, because it tends to be better quality—chop it into smaller pieces for a faster melt in the double boiler.

Tempering The Egg Yolks

To make the base, you need to temper the egg yolks. All that means is that you're heating the milk mixture over the stovetop, then very gradually adding it to the yolks to raise the temperature. Then you're cooking everything on very low heat until the custard thickens. If you don't temper, you will almost definitely end up with some form of curdled or scrambled eggs—good for breakfast, not in ice cream. 

Yes, You Need An Ice Cream Maker 

What makes homemade ice cream so decadent and creaming is the churning. Something you can kinda sorta mimic with a few hacks, like Ice Cream In A Bag  or Mason Jar Ice Cream. But for scoop shop-worthy results, you'll need an actual ice cream maker. Find our favorites here. Don't have the time? No-churn ice cream is the way to go.

If you've made this recipe, don't forget to rate it and let us know how you like it in the comments below. 

Editor's note: The introduction to this recipe was updated on April 26, 2022 to include more information.