Rosemary Double Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

A rosemary and chocolate ice cream with lots and lots of chocolate chunks — what's not to love? Try serving this rosemary double chocolate chip ice cream with a slice of rosemary chocolate chip loaf cake for maximum rosemary-plus-chocolate potential!

If you've never tried the winning combo of rosemary and chocolate it is so, so, SO good in ice cream where the rosemary counters the richness of the chocolate with a really nice, subtle herbal touch — like mint's slightly more quiet cousin.

I love this combo so much because rosemary double chocolate chip ice cream is just not something you see every day and it's so good. I love the freshness of the rosemary and the intensity of the chocolate — it's the kind of ice cream you just can't get enough of, but also not the kind of ice cream you'll find in most ice cream shops or grocery stores. The first time I ever tried rosemary and chocolate together was in these shortbread cookies by Smitten Kitchen and it totally rocked my world. I've since made rosemary chocolate chip cake and hamantaschen.

ingredient notes

• Rosemary: You'll want a pretty strong rosemary flavor in the chocolate rosemary ice cream base because the chocolate is very intense and can easily take center stage if you're not bold with the herbs. Three very big springs of fresh rosemary is the way to go — you could even do more if you wanted. The rosemary will steep in the mixture of heavy cream and milk for at least 10 minutes before you mix it with the eggs and sugar. You can also let it steep for longer for a stronger flavor.
• Chocolate flavor, two ways: Even though this is a double chocolate ice cream (chocolate ice cream base + chocolate chunks) this recipe actually uses chocolate three different ways. We're going to use two types of chocolate to give the creme anglaise base its rich, deeply chocolatey flavor — a combo of unsweetened cocoa powder AND melted chocolate.
• Chocolate chunks: As a finishing touch, chopped chocolate chunks are stirred right into the finished ice cream for A+ crunchy texture. I love a chunky ice cream — the more chunks the better! (This recipe uses one whole 3.5 oz (100 gram) 60% cacao intense dark Ghirardelli chocolate bar. Half an ounce gets melted into the ice cream base, the remaining 3 oz gets chopped to mix in at the end.)
• Heavy cream: It's the same as heavy whipping cream.
• Whole milk: You need the high fat content of this milk for ice cream. If you don't have whole milk, it's better to use more heavy cream than to use a lower fat milk.
• Sugar: Plain granulated sugar.
• 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk: The extra fat from the second egg yolk helps make this super silky and creamy. If you want to be EXTRA you can use 3 large egg yolks (and no egg whites). Save any excess egg whites for fried rice or scrambled eggs.

how to make a rosemary chocolate creme anglaise ice cream base

There are 6 basic steps to creme anglaise: SCALD, RIBBON, TEMPER, COOK, STRAIN, CHILL.

1. Scalding just means heating the milk and cream up to just below boiling. You'll know when your milk is properly scalded when you tilt the pot and see lots of active bubbles on the bottom of the pot. Keep stirring the milk and tilting until you see the bubbles, then turn the heat off or all the way down to low and let it steep with the rosemary and cocoa powder in it, stirring occasionally. DO NOT BOIL CREME ANGLAISE.
2. Ribboning means vigorously whisking your eggs and sugar together until they're very well combined and a little pale in color (I really like my GIR whisk for this step because it's super efficient). If you pick the whisk up from the bowl you should be able to draw a little zig zag with the "ribbon" trailing from the whisk.
3. Tempering means slowly pouring the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly — this prevents the heat from the milk from cooking the eggs. Put a folded dish cloth under your bowl while you do this to keep it in place.
4. Cooking the mixture happens once you've combined the milk and cream with the eggs and sugar. This is when you're going to bring the temperature of the eggs up very slowly so that the ice cream base thickens so you get super smooth, creamy ice cream. Do this over a low-medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon (not a whisk) so that you aren't incorporating air into the mixture AND so that you can scrape the bottom of the pot so there aren't any eggy bits cooked to the bottom. Again: DO NOT BOIL CREME ANGLAISE.
5. Straining is a really important step for this ice cream base — it's how you make sure there aren't any sneaky lumps of cocoa powder or rosemary leaves hiding in your ice cream. You'll strain the hot mixture into a bowl over chopped chocolate to melt the chocolate, then stir it in for maximum chocolate flavor.
6. Chilling is the crucial last step in making any creme anglaise, but especially for an ice cream base. You can't churn a warm ice cream base. You'll want to chill it in the fridge for at least 3 hours if not overnight before churning to give it time to mature and for the flavors to intensify.

a few quick recipe notes

• Cocoa powder is notoriously lumpy, so you'll want to sift it before you add it to the milk and cream. If you forget this step, that's okay, I forget all the time too; it won't affect the finished ice cream. But you'll have to whisk pretty well to break up the lumps which can be annoying with the rosemary springs.

• I used Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate both as the melted chocolate in the ice cream base and as the chocolate chunks I stirred in at the end. If you can't find that, any solid chocolate bar from 40% to 66% should work fine. If you go too much darker the lack of cocoa butter in the darker chocolates will make your ice cream really firm and kind of chalky.

• Because of the chocolate in the creme anglaise base, this is a very firm ice cream once it freezes. You'll want to let it sit out for about 5 minutes before scooping.

• I made this using a Breville SmartScoop Ice Cream Maker which I love because it's super fast and easy to use. It has a relatively small churning space though, so if you've got a bigger ice cream maker you can easily double this recipe. The current recipe makes slightly more than a pint of ice cream.

• To prevent freezer burn, press a sheet of plastic wrap against the surface of the ice cream in the freezer, then put the lid on the ice cream container.

• You have to freeze the chocolate chunks before stirring them into the ice cream base, otherwise they'll sink to the bottom as the ice cream sets up in the freezer.

recipe FAQ