Smooth, creamy and wonderfully chocolatey, this chilli chocolate ice cream is a force to be reckoned with. The little bursts of heat from the chilli makes for a taste sensation set against ice cold cream. It’s a classic custard recipe, but you don’t need an ice cream maker to make it.
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I have to start this post with a sincere apology to Ben Vear, the author of Make Your Own Organic Ice Cream. Ben sent me his book to review in December. My excuse?
Well I made some very delicious ice-cream following Ben’s instructions, but partly because I’m ill equipped for ice-cream making and don’t have a scoop and partly because of light issues, the photographs I took look more like something a dog served up on the pavement. The one you see is the best of the bunch.
However, I am biting the bullet now as this excellent book deserves a mention and although it might not look up to much, the chilli chocolate ice-cream I made from it was delicious.
Make Your Own Organic Ice Cream
Ben Vear is a firm believer in good quality food. He is particularly passionate about sourcing local and organic ingredients wherever possible which is reflected in the full title of his book: make your own organic ice cream using home-grown and local produce (affiliate link). This alone made the book immediately appealing to me.
Ben starts by telling a story which captured me straight away. It tells of his grandfather starting his own ice-cream business in 1925 and how that has morphed into the successful family business that Ben works in today. If you fancy a peek, head to Winstones Cotswold Ice Cream.
Finding his grandfather’s old ice-cream recipes in a long forgotten safe at the bottom of the garden, was particularly fun. He goes on to give a brief history of ice-cream and then a little bit about the science behind it.
Ice Cream Recipes
Starting with the basics of what equipment is needed (you don’t actually need anything special, although there are a few things that help), Ben goes on to explain how to make a good basic custard. The rest of the book then had me desperately wanting to up my ice-cream intake immediately.
All of the basic flavours you’d expect are covered, but there are also chapters on spring and summer flavours, autumn flavours and winter flavours that include far more unusual ingredients. Most intriguingly for me, Ben has recipes for savoury ice-cream: Jerusalem artichoke & nutmeg ice cream anyone or perhaps you’d prefer wasabi?
There are also chapters on sorbet, semifreddo, toppings and smoothies. Apart from the savoury ones, some of the recipes that had me whimpering with desire were: Green Tea Ice-cream, Crab Apple & Elderflower Ice-cream, Eton Mess Ice-cream, White Chocolate & Truffle Ice-cream and Damson & Sloe Vodka Sorbet.
The instructions are all very clear and easy to follow. As you’d expect, the book is well illustrated with lush pictures of ice-cream throughout.
Chilli Chocolate Ice Cream
Much as I love ice cream, I hardly ever make it. Not having an ice-cream maker, I find it a bit fiddly and it usually ends up with ice crystals which makes for an unpleasant gritty texture and a big disappointment. However, this book inspired me to have another go. I’m glad I did.
I’d recently seen a recipe for chocolate chilli ice cream over at Farmersgirl Kitchen and with some miracle chillies harvested in January (ripened outside down at the field in winter??????), I knew exactly which one I wanted to start with. I followed Ben’s recipe for chocolate ice-cream, but added my own chilli twist.
Ben advises that we use a dishwasher safe pan, but as I don’t possess a dishwasher, I didn’t need to worry too much about my pan.
The milk I used was not only organic but unpasteurised too. So one up on Ben there.
I learned from the book that alcohol helps to make the ice-cream more scoopable, so I added a dash of rum to my custard. This was a really useful tip and I now add alchohol to most of my ice cream recipes.
Once I froze the ice cream then beat it to keep the ice crystals from forming, I repeated the process twice more.
It was with some trepidation that I tried my chilli chocolate ice-cream. Would it work, or would the texture be horribly icy? It was in fact perfect: beautifully smooth and creamy and it tasted wonderful too.
It was of course very chocolatey and had an interesting burst of heat that went brilliantly well with its chilly nature. Thank you Ben, I’ll be using this book again. And again.
In fact, not long after this, I made his chocolate brownie ice cream. That was gorgeous too.
Other Chilli Chocolate Recipes You Might Like
- Chilli chocolate cake with apricot curd buttercream
- Chilli chocolate chip friands
- Chilli chocolate cupcakes
- Chilli chocolate fudge
- Chilli chocolate madeleines
- Chilli chocolate mincemeat
And if that’s not enough you’ll find over thirty chilli chocolate recipes in this post. They’re from various food bloggers and include some of my recipes too.
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this chilli chocolate ice cream, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making custard type ice creams?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.
If you’d like more ice cream recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Chilli Chocolate Ice Cream: Make Your Own Organic Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 red chilli deseeded and roughly chopped
- 200 ml milk organic if you can
- 200 ml double cream
- 150 g caster sugar divided
- 100 g dark chocolate (I used a bar of Green & Black's 70%) – roughly chopped
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tbsp rum optional
Instructions
- Place the chopped chilli in a large pan along with the milk. Heat gently until bubbles start to rise then simmer until the chilli is soft – about ten minutes.1 red chilli, 200 ml milk
- Blitz the chilli in the milk with a blender. I used a stick blender, but a power blender would make a better job of it.
- Add the cream and put the pan back onto a low heat.200 ml double cream
- Add the chopped chocolate and 75g caster sugar and stir until the chocolate has melted and the sugar dissolved. The mix should be hot, but don't allow it to simmer.100 g dark chocolate
- With a hand held electric beater, whisk the egg yolk with the remaining 75g caster sugar until thick in texture and pale in colour.1 large egg yolk
- Pour the milk into the eggs, stir well and then pour the whole lot back into the pan.
- Leave the pan on a low to medium heat for about ten minutes. Stir every few seconds or so to ensure the eggs don’t curdle. Once the custard has thickened and coats the back of a wooden spoon, remove from the heat.
- Allow the mixture to cool, then add a dash of rum. This isn’t necessary, but alcohol helps to make the ice-cream more scoopable.1 tbsp rum
- Pour into a lidded ice-cream container and place in the freezer.
- After one hour, beat the mixture with the electric whisk and put back in the freezer. This prevents ice-crystals forming and breaks up any that do manage to form.
- Repeat this process twice more, then leave to freeze properly.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Ben gifted me a copy of his book. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk* or (affiliate link). If you buy through a link, it won’t cost you any more, but I might get a small commission. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
Judith Luscombe says
Some great ideas here, have never made icecream before, but sounds delicious
Caro Walker says
Like the look of this, have never tried to make ice cream but tempted to remedy that
Herbert Appleby says
this would spice up the evening very nicely 🙂
Maya Russell says
I don’t like the sound of green-tea icecream. My favourite ice cream is chocolate – using proper, good quality dark chocolate.
Maya Russell says
Would like to try chocolate chilli icecream.
faye huntington says
i have always considered making my own ice cream and this has inspired me to do just that – how interesting! ice cream and chilli – crazy but it might just work haha! with love, faye xx
Tracy K Nixon says
I have never tried ice-cream and chilli but might try it after reading this! Might enjoy the hot and cold together!
JUDITH LUSCOMBE says
I’ve heard previously that mixing chilli and chocolate is a fabulous combination, this is a brilliant recipe to give it a try
Maya Russell says
I have an icecream maker but hardly ever use it! Now it’s getting warmer I might get it out with a nice book like this for inspiration.
mummy24 says
love chilli and chocolate, never tried it with ice cream though! sounds good!
laura@howtocookgoodfood says
You have managed to make just about my favourite ice cream recipe here. Of course I add chilli to pretty much any food I cook so in ice cream too would suit me! I also don’t own an ice cream maker but think this is fine. It seems to work without and is one less machine to clutter up the cupboards xx
SewHappy.Me says
Wow! This looks and sounds delicious. Ice cream making is on my list of things to do, but like you I do not have an ice-cream machine. However, you have tempted me to have a go without and will def. put this book on my Amazon list. I need another cookery book like I need a hole in the head!
thelittleloaf says
As soon as you mentioned that book on Twitter, I popped it into my Amazon wishlist…then promptly forgot about it. I think you might just have convinced me to actually buy it – all the flavours you mention sound divine!
Chele says
Ice cream can be a tough cookie for decent photo’s. Love the sound of this though and especially love the organic aspect too. Home made ice cream rules supreme ;0)
A Trifle Rushed says
I bought Ben’s book, so I really must make some ice cream, yours sounds interesting, I think the men in my house would love it, but as I’m not a chilli fan, they’ll have to try it elsewhere.
I’ve seen so many lovely ice cream posts that I really feel inspired to get back to regular ice-cream making.
Janice says
Brilliant. Glad my icecream inpsired you to have another go. I think chocolate chilli icecream is the most amazing of them all, but will look out for Ben’s book and maybe have a go at a few more.
Javelin Warrior says
Ok, you just convinced me I need to add Ben’s book to my Amazon wishlist 😉 I love homemade ice cream and I actually do own an ice cream maker, so now I just need further inspiration… Love the addition of chili to this ice cream, although I’ve never tried it…
oxslip says
because I am lazy I don’t do the beating thing and find that with ice cream involving cream and eggs it rarely matter – sorbet without an ice cream maker is a disaster though
I made the chocolate, hazelnut and sherry cake the other night, it was amazing, thanks for the recipe, looks like a great book
Green Dragonette says
My last ice cream maker bit the dust some while a go and since then I’ve not bothered to make my own ice cream-thinking now I need to rectify this and enjoy some sublime homemade ice cream once again!!
Heather Wilkinson says
It’s been so lovely and sunny today that I really fancy eating this right now! I love the choc and chilli combination – yummy, yum yum!
Susan's blog says
Beautiful indeed, I must try this one. Very hard to make ice cream look ‘sexy’ in a photo as I found out recently myself, but you did good! xxx
hungryhinny says
Even though I know it’s freezing outside, the sun is shining through the office window and there’s nothing I’d like mroe than some chilli chocolate ice cream! Don’t know why you were worried about the picture, looks creamy and delicious to me!
Shaheen says
Chocolate chilli ice-cream has been on my to do list for a while. Now having access to my ice-cream makeer, I know this will be darn possible. Wish I could try a scoop of your home made version now though.
James Brewer says
By the the photo it looks like it was lovely and smooth. Chilli and Chocolate go so well together, and I love that idwa of them together in an ice cream.
MissCakeBaker says
It’s great to hear about family businesses and traditions being carried on. The ice cream looks lovely.