Ice Cream

Off 10th Ave in Chelsea

School in East Harlem

Is there a secret to chopping a chocolate bar so that you minimize the chocolate shavings?  I needed to chop a bar into small chunks, regular semi-sweet morsels aren't what I'm after, but when I chopped I got a lot of shaved chocolate in addition to the chunks. 

The chocolate chunks were for the cherry-chocolate chip vanilla ice cream I made yesterday.  This is the best ice cream yet.  It was made Philadelphia-style.  French-style ice cream is more work, and involves whipping eggs and carefully making a custard.  Philly-style, which I believe is what the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory makes, drops the eggs which basically leaves heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and mix-ins.   While that mixture was churning away I chopped a bunch of sweet cherries, covered them with a bit of sugar, and the chocolate.  When the the ice cream was almost done churning I gradually added the cherries and chocolate.   A couple minutes later it was done.  I seriously considered eating the whole batch it was so good. 

One thing I've noticed when adding fruit to ice cream is that the ice cream is best before freezing.  Before the fruit freezes it is soft and you really taste the juices of the fruit.  After freezing, the fruit hardens to ice, you have to wait for it to melt in your mouth, and it isn't as flavorful.  It's still good, but I'm convinced ice cream reaches its peak just before freezing.

Comments

[tien]

what about freezing or melting the chocolate slightly? will that produce less shavings?

[Joe]

I tried refrigerating and that didn't help. I may give freezing a try next.

[dW]

chilling or freezing the chocolate will make it prone to making shavings and small morsels.. if you soften it just sligtly maybe even cut it with a wire once its softened it won't do that. good luck, be sure to make any mistakes disappear (in your belly)