Blackberry White Chocolate Stracciatella
vanilla bean ice cream flecked with white chocolate and citrus simmered berries
According to Martin, this is hands-down the best ice cream I’ve ever made and in the top 10 of desserts I’ve made in general. If that’s not a selling point, I don’t know what is.
Building on our month of créme anglaise, we’ve got one final ice cream recipe for you to round out your summer. A basic, vanilla bean anglaise sauce is chilled, and then flecked with melted white chocolate before whipping. Then citrus simmered blackberries are gently folded in before freezing. It’s summer in a cone and I hope you’ll make it this week.
the ice cream base
As always, our basic créme anglaise recipe kicks us off for this ice cream. I started by scraping the seeds out of a few vanilla bean pods, setting the seeds aside and placing the empty pods in with the heavy cream. The cream is heated to a simmer and then removed from the heat and covered. It steeps for about 30 minutes before the pods are strained out and we move on with the rest of our anglaise base. The seeds we set aside from earlier are whisked into our sugar and egg yolk mixture for a very luxurious, velvety vanilla ice cream base.
a little vanilla bean tip
Let’s talk about buying vanilla beans because they are EXPENSIVE. I’ve had to buy vanilla beans from the grocery store before—$20 for one or two dried out, sad looking little beans. :( So I’ll often skip them or stay away from recipes where they are important.
But, but, but…my friend Amanda from Heartbeet Kitchen shared some vanilla beans she ordered on Amazon a couple weeks ago with rave reviews so I ordered myself a bag—$14.99 for 10 plump, juicy beans—we’re already saving money. And then, the day before my beans were to be delivered one of Martin’s players, who also plays for the Madagascar National Team, brought me a giant bundle of vanilla beans straight from Madagascar. So I’ve been swimming in vanilla beans recently and I love it.
If you don’t have a friend who supplies you with vanilla beans, I highly recommend ordering a package of Heart and Harvest vanilla beans for your pantry. A good deal and a good product.
stracciatella-style
Stracciatella gelato is the gelato with tiny shards of chocolate flaked throughout. The pieces are much smaller than chips or chunks, which means they disperse a bit more. My baker friend Elena posted a few months ago that you could make stracciatella ice cream at home by simply pouring melted chocolate into your cold ice cream base while whisking like a mad person. So I needed to try it out and it worked!
Just melt some white chocolate and whisk it into your very cold ice cream base ferociously for a little white chocolate in every bite.
Blackberry White Chocolate Stracciatella
makes one quart
Ingredients:
for the vanilla bean ice cream base
2 cups (460 g) heavy cream
2 vanilla beans, scraped
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
for the mix-ins
6 oz fresh blackberries
zest of one orange
juice of one orange
2 tbsp granulated sugar
4 oz white chocolate, chopped
Procedure:
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla beans and place them in a large bowl. Place the empty pods and the heavy cream in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.
When the cream begins to bubble, remove it from the heat, cover, and let steep for about 30 minutes. Discard the vanilla bean pods and return the cream to the heat and bring back to a simmer.
While the cream is heating, add the sugar, salt, and egg yolks to the bowl with the vanilla bean seeds and whisk to form a smooth paste.
Carefully temper the hot cream into the egg mixture, whisking continually until all is added. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring continually with a wooden spoon until the anglaise thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Pour the anglaise through a sieve and into a clean bowl and press a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the surface. Chill until very cold.
While the anglaise is chilling, make the blackberry compote. Combine blackberries, orange zest, orange juice, and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, until the berries have broken down completely and sauce has thickened a syrupy consistency. Strain the blackberry solids from the syrup and place both components in containers. Chill until ready to use.
When the anglaise is very cold, melt the white chocolate in a small bowl. While whisking continually, carefully stream the melted chocolate into the cold anglaise.
Place the anglaise in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment and whip until medium peaks form.
Gently fold in the blackberries and transfer the entire mixture to a loaf pan. Press a piece of plastic wrap over the surface and freeze for about 12 hours, until set.
Serve ice cream with a drizzle of the reserved blackberry syrup.