Hey guys, welcome to Basics with Babish where this week things take a turn for the sweeter as we try our hand at ice cream, specifically, my favorite flavor, straight up chocolate. We're gonna try a few different techniques that vary in difficulty and elbow greasedness. But they all have one thing in common. You don't have to buy a stand-alone appliance the size of a microwave to make them. Let's get down to basics. [intro music] Alright guys, so let's start with one of the easiest and most kitchen-hack ways to make ice cream at home, and that is with frozen bananas. I've got two whole bananas here that I've cut in slices and let freeze, until completely solid, about two hours. Into the jar of a blender they go, where we ultimately want to liquefy them, so you might need to occasionally add some whole milk. Just a few splashes at a time because we want this to be as thick as possible. If you've got one of these neato blender plunger things, it's really helpful. Just keep blending, adding milk as necessary And then once it's almost liquefied we're going to add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder. Two, to be precise. You can adjust this to your taste for how chocolatey you like your chocolate ice cream. We're gonna add a little bit more milk because I want to make this really, really smooth and then we're going to blend until everything is completely incorporated. Then, before you get tempted to drink your banana smoothie, We're just gonna pour the whole thing into a big ol' glass or metal bowl Cover it with plastic wrap so the plastic wrap is pressing down directly onto the surface of the liquid, then freeze for about four hours, and that's all there is to it. We'll take a look at that when it's done, but for now how about a less shortcut-oriented version, that's still really, very easy. It starts with a pint of heavy whipping cream, whipping cream that we are going to whip into whipped cream, creaming with the whisk -- Sorry, I'll stop -- until a stiff, thick -- I don't know, whatever this stuff is called, whip cream? Then onto our faux custard base. We're gonna start by emptying a 14-ounce can of sweetened, condensed milk into a medium bowl. You can also add an optional half-stick of melted butter for extra richness, and then a few heaping tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder. We're not adding any sugar here because sweetened, condensed milk has plenty of it. We're just gonna gently whisk everything together until it's all nice and homogenous. And taste it, if it's not chocolatey enough, add more cocoa powder. We want this to be extra, extra chocolatey because we're gonna be diluting it, essentially, with the whipped cream. Once it's really extra super chocolatey, we're gonna add the whipped cream and gently fold it into the chocolate mixture. I say gently because the less we sort of, deflate the whipped cream the lighter and fluffier texture our ice cream is going to have. Once you've got that all completely incorporated, with no streaks, go ahead and smooth out the top and then, we are going to, once again, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least four hours, ideally, overnight. And while that's chilling let's take a look at the genuine article. Real, honest to God, hand-churned ice cream. Let's start by making our custard. Into a medium saucepan, we're combining two cups of whole milk, two whole eggs, and one cup of white sugar, whisking to combine. And then over medium-low heat, whisking constantly until it reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point we're gonna take it off the heat and add about 1/3 cup of cocoa powder. If you wanted to make a different flavor of ice cream, this would be the point that you would add your flavorings. Now both to up the richness of the mixture and to help cool it off, we're going to add 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream, whisking, again, to combine. Give it a taste for flavor, if it tastes like melted ice cream, you're off to a good start. Pour this guy into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap all the way down to the surface of the liquid and throw it in the freezer, but no, we are not anywhere near done with this yet. While this is cooling it's time to assemble our makeshift ice cream machine. That is a very large metal bowl that we're going to fill halfway with ice. If you buy bagged Bodega ice make sure that there are no big chunks stuck together, just break it apart with your hands or give up and throw it at stuff until it breaks. And then sprinkle the whole thing down with about 1/2 cup of salt. This helps the ice more efficiently absorb heat from our custard mixture, thus making ti freeze and thicken faster. See, science can be cool sometimes. So get our chilled custard mixture out of the freezer and take off the plastic wrap, place it into the ice bowl and start a' mixin'. We're gonna whisk this mixture for 10 minutes, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl at every opportunity. And then we're going to cover the whole affair with a clean kitchen towel and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then we're gonna take it back out and do it all over again, a total of four times. Hey, I said you weren't gonna need any special tools, I didn't say it was gonna be easy. So by the end of the fourth go-around, our custard should have the consistency of, like, a very soft, soft, serve. At this point, we can take it out of our ice bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, down to the surface of the liquid, and freeze for another four hours, ideally, overnight. It's been a long day, but it's time to finally sample the fruits of our labor. Let's start with the banana ice cream, which looks a little bit slushy, but hey, it still looks like ice cream. And then our sweetened, condensed shortcut which is very, very light and fluffy. A bit more like gelato. And then our straight up ice cream, which looks, tastes, smells, sounds, and feels like ice cream. Three different methods, three different amounts of time, three different upper body strength requirements, but all delicious, except for the banana one, which I'm not allowed to eat, but my friends told me it tasted delicious. But, what if we decided to go nuclear and make the ultimate bowl of chocolate ice cream. A Tony Soprano-sized bowl, piled high with all three types that we made today. Plus, how about some chocolate whipped cream? Just make whipped cream as you normally would, and add a few teaspoons of cocoa powder. Then lay a generous dollop on top. Then, just in case this ain't chocolatey enough, Some freshly shaved chocolate right on top. This ended up being kind of a cool Sunday, different flavors and textures of ice cream all in one bowl? But if you ask me, nothing beats the old-fashioned recipe. It's like they always say -- you get what you pay for. Or, in this case, you get what you whisk for. Hope you guys try this out yourselves, if you want to cook it along with me, join me on Twitch, this time next week, that's Thursday, July 19 where I will be making all three methods live.
