Dark chocolate sweet corn ice cream

“Uh, what?”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“EWWWWW!”

Did any of these thoughts cross your mind when you read the title? Stay with me, here. I haven’t lost my mind, really, I haven’t. I tried regular sweet corn ice cream last week. It was okay, pretty corny, though. It just tasted like frozen corn. I said to myself, “Self, this would be improved with chocolate.” And yes, yes it was MUCH improved.

So, go buy a few ears of corn, some dark chocolate and get ready to enjoy smooth and creamy ice cream.

What you need:
2 corn cobs, shucked – cobs broken into pot
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 – 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, vanilla scraped out
2 bars dark chocolate, cut up
4 egg yolks (save the egg whites to make scrambled eggs!)

Using a grater, grate the corn off of the cobs. Pour the corn and the cobs into a medium sauce pan.  Add the milk, cream and sugar and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the cobs using tongs and discard.

Get your vanilla bean.  Using a sharp nice, slice the bean down the middle and open it up.  

Use the end of the knife to scrape the vanilla beans out and dump them into the cream mixture.

Add the chocolate and swirl until the chocolate is melted. Remove the mixture from heat and allow to infuse for 1 hour.

Place the  mixture in a blender and whiz it up.  Make sure you do this AFTER the mixture is cooled.  Don’t do it before, trust me!

Pour the custard through a sieve to remove any silks and corn pieces from the mixture.  You’ll need to use a spoon to press it through the sieve.  Discard the corn skins and silks.

Return the mixture to the heat and bring to simmer.

In the meantime, in a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolk and remaining sugar (1/8-1/4 cup) until they are a pale yellow. Add 1/2 cup of cream mixture in a steady stream to the yolks, whisking constantly to keep eggs from cooking.

Add the egg mixture to the saucepan.  Cook over med-low heat until a custard has formed, about 5 minutes.

Return to the saucepan or place in a bowl.  Allow custard to cool.  Cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic touches the cream mixture.  This will keep a skin from forming.

Place in the fridge for four hours or overnight.

Remove and follow your ice cream maker directions for freezing.

I don’t have a pic of the final product. Well, I DO, it just looks terrible, thanks to the 500 billion watts of fluorescent light in my kitchen. That, and my camera!