Some food combinations are a sure thing, and chocolate and raspberry is most definitely one of them. I chose to enjoy this classic flavor pairing with fresh raspberry ice cream, balled and formed into chocolate coated truffles of Raspberry Tartuffi.

I just happened to have a bunch of raspberries and no idea what to do with them (when good looking fruit is suddenly cheap, I impulsively grab and hoarde, get home, and then wonder wtf I can possibly do to get through all of this great fruit before it goes bad), so of course, why not ice cream? For the sake of keeping things interesting, I thought that having a big bowl of ice cream is fun, but some times, you want something more finger food friendly…like an ice cream cone, ice cream sandwich, etc. So why not make a more sophisticated version of bon bons and take this delicious home-made ice cream and cover it with a firm, thin chocolate shell?

Needless to say, this was delicious and very fun, albeit dangerous eating. When you have ice cream, you have to go to the freezer, scoop and fill a bowl, etc. There’s work required for you to eat. These are more dangerous though–walk by the freezer, pop open the container, grab one, and continue on your merry way, snacking as you leave. No dishes, no silverware, no cleanup, and no thought required–just grab and eat! Having these around requires discipline, because like I said, chocolate and raspberry is a match made in heaven! A firm, thin crunch of the dark chocolate shell contrasted with the cold, creamy, sweet/tart raspberry ice cream filling makes for a delicious treat that’s sure to impress.

This is also my last entry in You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Frozen Desserts, an event focused on the cold desserts that we all flock to during the summer. Its close, but still not too late to join in, so hurry up and churn something tasty and send it on it (and be sure to check back soon–the roundup of everyone’s efforts will go online very soon)!

• Raspberry Ice Cream
  • 12 oz raspberries
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp Chambord (or some other raspberry liqueur)
• Chocolate shell
  • ~6 oz bitter/semi-sweet chocolate
  • 6 Tbsp butter
  • 4 tsp dark corn syrup

Begin by pureeing the raspberries in a food processor or blender. Then, to remove the seeds (since those would be awfully annoying in an ice cream), strain the puree into a bowl along with the lemon juice.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg yolks and add in the sugar, continuing to beat until the color lightens. Take this time to set the heavy cream in a bowl over an ice bath.

In a saucepan, scald the milk, taking care not to boil. Once sufficiently hot, temper the yolks with a bit of the hot milk and then mix all of the yolk mixture into the milk pan, stirring constantly over medium heat, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan to avoid any eggs from scrambling.

Once the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (figure around 5-10 minutes), pour the custard through a strainer into the heavy cream bowl. Whisk the contents of the bowl and add in the vanilla extract and Chambord. Finally, add in the acidified raspberry puree from earlier and stir it well.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing it right against the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Transfer this to the fridge.

After about 4-6 hours, you should be ready to advance to the next step: churning the ice cream custard. So per the directions on your ice cream maker, churn the custard for 20 minutes and then transfer this to an airtight container and freeze over night to give the ice cream a chance to ripen.

Now that the ice cream has chilled a good bit, line two large plates with parchment paper and chill them in the freezer for at least an hour. Remove one of the plates and the ice cream from the freezer. At this point, you need to move quickly since time and temperature are working against you.

Using an ice cream scoop (or a big spoon), scoop golf ball sized scoops of the raspberry ice cream. Using either spoons or your hands, tighten the balls up a bit so that they’re compact and have no stray dangling pieces. Set these down on the chilled plate as you go. As soon as you’re done forming the scoops, get the plate back into the freezer for at least two hours (or more) so that they can firm up a bit more after all of that handling. You might very well have ice cream leftover (not formed into balls) at this point. I’m sure you’re really broken up about that. You can always make more tartuffi from this later if you so desire, or just enjoy a bowl of raspberry ice cream.

Once you’re ready for the final step, set up a double boiler (a bowl suspended over but not touching simmering water). In this, melt the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter, stirring until silky smooth. Once entirely melted, remove the bowl from the heat (you don’t want the chocolate to overheat).

At this point, get your chilled plate out of the freezer along with the raspberry ice cream balls. Now, working very quickly with two spoons, take an ice cream ball, cover it with melted chocolate, and toss and turn this with the spoons so as to drip off any excess. As you finish each ball, transfer it to the clean chilled plate.

If you move too slowly, you’ll have a number of problems, one of them being that the ice cream will melt in the heat of the chocolate. The opposing problem: the chocolate will chill and harden quickly. If you don’t adequately coat the ice cream ball with chocolate, as you toss and turn, portions of the chocolate shell will harden while others don’t and it will chip off, making a mess and ultimately not coating your ice cream with chocolate. Ideally, you will coat the ice cream ball with chocolate all over almost all at the same time so that it all chills and hardens simultaneously.

Once you’re done coating the ice cream with chocolate, let this rest in the freezer for several hours, preferably overnight so that the ice cream can firm up again and the chocolate can adequately harden. And now, hide this from any freezer passer-bys or they’ll be gone in an instant. Enjoy!

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Posted by mike on July 7th, 2008 in Dessert, Fruit, Ice Cream/Sorbet

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• Fig & Goat Cheese Swirl Ice Cream
• Blueberry Maple Ice Cream w/Brazil Nuts
• Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream
• Floral Mango Ice Cream with Pistachio
• Dragon Fruit & Coconut Sherbet