In my youth and spent a year in Winnipeg. At that time Winnipeg had no redeeming features except for a fabulous ice cream shop. You could buy a bowl of ice cream with seven scoops of your favorite flavors (only a teen could eat it all). My favorite flavor was chocolate orange. Since then, I haven't encountered this flavor until I found it at Green Chilli Pie. It was a rare hot day in San Francisco and I was walking home from visiting a potential client when I passed Green Chilli. I thought, hmm a little cold something wouldn't go amiss. They were carrying Three Twins ice cream and that day they had chocolate orange. I had them make a shake and walked home with a big smile on my face. I must have looked very happy because random strangers said hello and smiled at me. Unfortunately, I never saw the flavor again.
So here is my version. This recipe is an adaption of a recipe from Chez Panisse Desserts. The surprising addition of butter makes the ice cream very creamy. Ice cream is so easy to make and the homemade version is usually so much better than the store bought version that there's no real excuse not to make it except perhaps impatience. (Happily Rainbow Grocery is now carrying Three Twins for those days I'm feeling impatient.)
Yield: approximately 4 cups
1 C half and half
3/4 C sugar
6 egg yolks (use the whites to make panna cotta!)
5 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet high quality chocolate (please do not use Hershey's or some other substandard "chocolate", it DOES make a difference)
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
2 T unsalted butter
2 C whipping cream
1 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1 t orange extract
1 C semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks (optional)
Warm the half and half with the sugar in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Whisk the egg yolks to break them up and stir in some of the warm half and half (pour the warm liquid in slowly so that the eggs don't cook). Pour the egg mixture into the sauce pan and cook stirring constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain into a bowl.
Break up the chocolate into small pieces and melt with the butter in a double boiler over warm water or heavy saucepan over very low heat (the latter can be done only if your stove has a very low setting, alternatively, use a microwave). The chocolate should be smooth and glossy. Remove from heat.
Whisk in the custard one or two tablespoons at a time into the chocolate. Initially it will look like the ice cream is not emulsifying, but as you add more custard it will blend nicely. Adding the custard gradually will prevent little grains of chocolate from forming. After all the custard is incorporated, add the orange flavors.
Chill the custard and make according to your ice cream machine's instructions. Add the chocolate chunks during the last five minutes of churning in your machine.
