Classic Chocolate Ice Cream

Americans have been making ice cream since the colonial era. George Washington spent two hundred dollars on ice cream equipment in the summer of 1790. Thomas Jefferson brought a recipe back from France. This is a dish woven into our national identity, and chocolate has always been the benchmark by which all other flavors are judged.

The secret to truly magnificent chocolate ice cream lives in doubling down on your chocolate. Cocoa powder alone produces a flat, one-dimensional flavor. Melted chocolate alone can be too rich without enough complexity. Use both. The Dutch-process cocoa blooms in hot cream, releasing its full aromatic potential, while bittersweet chocolate melts into the finished custard, adding body and that slow-building intensity that makes you close your eyes.

This is a custard-based ice cream, sometimes called French-style. The egg yolks create a texture so dense and creamy that it barely resembles the airy commercial product. Your ice cream will coat a spoon and hold its shape in the bowl. It will taste like something worth making from scratch.