How to make Black Forest Ice Cream | Easy Chocolate Black Forest Ice Cream Recipe

I am clueless how months have flown by since my last post here. Let me put excuses aside and so that you know, let's get started with first things first. While many guessed, for the ones who remained uninformed, I made a big move from India to the US about 6 months ago. That was way back in the mid of March when the snow caps here in Connecticut were on the verge of melting and the spring sat on its edges awaiting to set in. From the summer heat of Bangalore to the ceasing winters of New England, I moved in with 2 huge suitcases packing all that meant the world to me.

It took me a while to settle down to the demands of not-so-new-anymore place, work and routine. And believe me, while it wasn't hard at all, I did not have it all easy either. It was life at work that was most consuming. Caught up in a new place, with new folks, new skills to learn and new team to work with, I was jostling myself with an identity crisis. I worked on many weekends and put aside blogging for a while for the sheer busyness and lack of motivation. And when we had time off, we hit the road and traveled places to make most of the summer.

We also have my parents over here right now. That's a big joy and great support knowing that our little girl has just started school and will be back home in the noon to house full of folks she loves and is pampered by the most. They will be around till the mid of November to witness the glorious fall season. That tells you our kitchen has been the busiest place at home where most of the action is seen. You can hear whistles of pressure cooker go by at regular intervals. You can smell pots of steaming rice and sambhar bubbling away. We just got done with guLiappams and chutney for breakfast this morning. Right now, potatoes are being boiled for Aloo Parathas tonight, the husband's all time favorite. And there's this Chocolate Black Forest Ice Cream sitting in the freezer to be devoured for dessert at will.

I made a repeat of these brownies last weekend. I also had a can of condensed milk, a box of fresh cherries and some leftover cocoa powder awaiting to be consumed. So it turned out that this Chocolate Black Forest Ice Cream was a well timed recipe to make use all that I had been wanting to consume. The cherries I used here were fresh sweet ones. You can make do with frozen ones too. Roasted walnuts are quite optional, but give a lovely crunch to this ice cream and pair really well with the brownies. If you aren't a fan of chocolate ice cream, but love brownies, try skipping the cocoa powder while making ice cream and leave it plain old vanilla. Don't forget to stir in the cherries and brownies, because that's what makes them Black Forest :). For a more decadent, richer, adult version, I highly recommend using rum soaked cherries in place of fresh cherries. Drizzle some hot chocolate sauce before you serve this to your chocolate loving guests and I would probably call that death by chocolate!

Chocolate Black Forest Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

400 ml heavy cream, cold
200 grams condensed milk, preferably cold
2 tbsp. good cocoa powder
1 tbsp. vanilla essence
1/4 cup chopped roasted walnuts
1/2 cup chopped fresh cherries
1/2 cup crumbled / bite sized chocolate brownie chunks

DIRECTIONS

To prepare the chocolate ice cream, whip the heavy cream till it doubles and holds soft peaks. Then add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Continue to whip until the mixture is smooth and fluffy and holds soft peaks, about 1 minute.

Transfer half the prepared ice cream to a loaf tin or your ice cream container of your choice. Top it with half of the brownie chunks, cherries and walnut. Using a fork, gently swirl so that the nuts, brownies and cherries mix into the ice cream.

Top this with another layer of prepared ice cream, followed by topping of the remaining half of the brownie chunks, cherries and walnut. Swirl again gently.

Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and allow the ice cream to set in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours. To serve, remove from freezer and place the ice cream in fridge for 10 minutes to soften. Using a warm ice cream scooper, spoon out the ice cream and serve.

How to make 'No Churn' Vanilla Bean Raspberry Ripple Ice cream

At this very moment, our home is raining stone fruits and berries. Cherries precisely. Followed by peaches. Early last week when we went berry picking to a local farm, I went totally ravenous just at the sight of beautiful sapphires and rubies dangling off the bushes and trees. We went picking as many fruits as we could, quite greedily, like there would be no another day for them; from tree to tree, bushes to bushes, buckets after buckets till the scorching summer heat tired us out. With trunk full of cherries and peaches, came along blueberries and raspberries too.

I love how much my fridge is brimming with these fruits in every corner of the space it can accommodate. Every morning, before I reach out to the can of milk to make tea for my family, my hands are drawn to these fruits quite instinctively. Usually a long gaze and in reverence, I pop in a couple of them to start the day with. Some are then packed off into snack boxes for my husband for his mid day snacking. Our mid-mornings and afternoons are usually spent either snacking on them or pitting them to be frozen for a good part of the year when all these little gems will be gone. I wonder if I would let them stay there for so long.

Quite often when I am at farmer's market to pick up fruits, my head bubbles up several ideas of turning them into more delicious treats. My shopping cart is always loaded with more than what we need. Rationally greedy at the fear of season's fag end. But more often I find myself being reluctant to rive and macerate them into any other form. We are a family who adores fruits. Fruit, in its true form.

When we came home with pints of ripe raspberries hand picked from the farm last week, I made this easy Warm Spiced Raspberry Jam leaving out the Strawberries. They went into almost everything - our bread, the daughter's milk, drizzled on yogurt, including accompanying as sides for parathas. I saved a few raspberries for this rippled ice cream that had been playing up on my mind for long. A rippled ice cream, where the layers of contrasting colors and flavors, each complementing other beautifully, create beautiful swirls when scooped to serve. And what can be better than having luscious baby pink ripples between speckled vanilla bean deliciousness.

This ice cream is very simple, quick and easy to put together as it does not require any ice cream maker. Two basic ingredients, heavy cream and condensed milk go into making the base for this ice cream. It takes less than 10 mins from counter to freezer and you have one of the most easiest, creamy and delicious ice cream ever.

'No Churn' Raspberry Ripple Ice cream (Vanilla Bean Ice cream with Raspberry Swirl) - Without Ice Cream Maker

INGREDIENTS

For the Vanilla Bean Ice cream:

400 ml heavy cream, cold
200 grams condensed milk, preferably cold
1 tbsp. good vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1 tbsp. vanilla essence

For the Raspberry Ripple:

1/2 pint Raspberries
2 tbsp. caster sugar

Place the raspberries along with sugar in a blender and blend them to fine puree. Pass this through a sieve to separate seeds. Cook this puree on medium heat for 10 mins or until slightly thickened. You don't need the consistency of a jam, however too thin puree may affect the texture of the ice cream.

To prepare the vanilla bean ice cream, whip the heavy cream till it holds soft peaks. Then add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and vanilla seeds from a pod of vanilla. Continue to whip until the mixture is smooth and fluffy and holds soft peaks. Transfer 1/3 of the ice cream mixture to a loaf tin or your ice cream container of your choice. Drizzle 1/3 of the raspberry syrup on top. Repeat another two times so you have three layers of each. Using a fork, gently swirl the ice cream mixture to create a rippled look. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and allow the ice cream to set in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours.

Banana Ice cream, yet again?

Okay, it’s delicious, and is different from the usual, so it’s here. With my previous posts on frozen banana ice creams, this one may draw similarities, but then its healthy, super quick and delicious. Needless to say, I make this cheat whipped-frozen-bananas or so-called-banana ice cream so often that I can’t tell you how much we enjoy it. Even my little one is sold into believing that this is an ice cream she should earn and doesn’t care when I present it in different forms, at times as pops, sometimes as slices, or even assorted like this one I have today. So it’s not just bananas always you see, but a way to get the bananas into her. An attempt to be a smarter mom to a witty kid! :D

This was not really an ice cream meant for my toddler, but a dessert made for the two of us to save the over ripe bananas. My daughter did enjoy a couple of scoops though and I didn’t mind the fact that she loved the mélange of coffee, chocolate cookies and bananas, a unique one to her inquisitive taste buds.

For me though, coffee is not really a drink I enjoy much, but I simply adore it in desserts, or anything cold. Call it a day with friends and I am in for a cold coffee any time. Likewise, a coffee walnut cake makes a perfectly celebratory dessert and a coffee ice cream is utterly sinful. And coffee makes the most beautiful match when paired with chocolate, converting anything to delicious. So it does justice to this ice cream too. Coffee, chocolate cookies and frozen bananas blitzed to a delicious concoction and frozen for an hour or two will render a delicious scoop of ice cream you will crave for more. Bananas are optional and render a creamy texture to this healthy ice cream. Replace with whipped cream or custard for a more decadent treat. Crushed Oreos give a nice chocolatey twist and a dash of roasted almonds bring in an element of nutty crunch.

Coffee and Oreo Banana Ice cream

INGREDIENTS

2-3 overripe bananas, frozen
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
2 oreo biscuits, crushed roughly
1 tbsp. sugar (or as preferred to your taste)
1 tbsp. roasted almonds

DIRECTIONS

Blitz the frozen bananas, oreo biscuits along with a teaspoon of instant coffee powder in a food processor. Add sugar to taste, and a tablespoon of milk to aid churning in case the bananas are too solid. Pause for a minute or two and blitz again until everything incorporates into a smooth paste and resembles the texture of an ice cream. Transfer the ice cream into a freezer proof container, crush an oreo biscuit into the ice cream along with chopped roasted almonds and place it in the freezer until you are ready to serve. To serve, remove the ice cream from the freezer and allow it to sit on counter for 5 minutes. Scoop out a dollop and serve with topping of additional crushed oreos and roasted almonds.

Do you have any specific flavour of ice cream you love and always prefer to go back to?

More than a decade ago, before several flavours in unusual range flooded Indian markets, I remember each of us in our family had ice cream flavor of choice. As a kid, I was addicted to classic vanilla or occasionally the vanilla-chocolate combo (a scoop of each) just the way my little sister was. Dad’s huge fetish for dry fruits and nuts in his scoop of ice cream always left us amused, while for mom it was undoubtedly the butterscotch that made it to her plate.

Dining out on Sunday nights wasn't a rule on the book, but whenever we did, which was often once a month, it was followed for sure by an ice cream for our dessert. As we tucked ourselves comfortably onto the rattling chairs waiting for the orders, dad would head over to the ice cream kiosk, crane his neck to take a peek over the glass counter displaying their varieties in vivid colours and flavors to order the scoops speckled with roasted nuts and dry fruits. I guess his choice was often pistachio or badam pista ice cream. Of sheer joy each of us would proclaim our choice of ice cream and happily dig into them as they were served. Choices in terms of flavourings were limited to vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, pista badam that ruled the roost. For the more exotic ones, there was anjeer, shahi kulfi, casatta… but then that’s about it.

Back in 80s and early 90s, ice cream came served in small paper cups with a tiny wooden spoon to scoop them from. We would fish out scoops of ice cream much larger than the spoon, only to fill our mouthfuls, more often spilling out the melting ice cream. The candid moments of the ice cream dripping off the tiny spoon on to our pretty frilled frocks, followed by mom’s howl deliberating the pain she took to rub the stains off while washing still taunt my memories! We had personal choices of flavours. And we always stuck by those choices. By 90s, chocolate coated vanilla ice candies, aka the Choco-bars entered Indian market a huge way and made way into our preferences too. I still admire Choco-bars.

The boom in Western market and their brands in early 2000 have brought out huge assortment and today, and as I walk into a Baskin Robin’s or Swensen's outlet, I am astounded by the variety they have to offer. I am elated by the choices, but at times I step back thinking there is too much to choose from, fearing the ones across the counter may be more delicious than the one on my plate, that I am unable to make a convincing choice. The guys over the counter are often generous enough to help me with a few scoops of flavors to try from, but by the end of test tasting session I run in to flurry of complete confusion. Somehow the test tasting session seems more stimulating exercise than the choice of ice cream itself. My taste buds can’t relate to a winning choice. Mint, Oreo, Chocolate chip, Berry, Cookie dough, Peanut butter, Belgium chocolate and so much more… I am spoilt for choice and that confusion happens way too often!

Honey and Roasted Almond Ice cream stands out of all. My love for Honey and Roasted Almond Ice cream dates back a few years ago when I tasted its first scoop from a BR outlet at namma Bengaluru airport. While waiting at the lounge, my husband made a random pick on my behalf and got me a waffle cone loaded with a big dollop of this BR’s Honey and Roasted Almond Ice cream. It was an instant love since that first bite. It’s brilliant taste still lingers strong.

Remember I made some Honey ice cream a while ago with flavours so similar to the BR one? That was a small batch good enough for two servings, so I promised I would make them again, not to disappoint anyone who requested a second or third helping. In a bid to experiment a little more, this time around, I played a slight variation using Coconut cream instead of milk or cream and the resulting ice cream was extremely creamy and delicious with a hint of coconut flavour. This is one of those ice creams that is simple to make and uses barely few ingredients and for sure needs no ice cream maker because the fat in coconut cream will help in whipping it to soft peaks, making the ice cream light and creamy. Honey will further curb freezing the ice cream into a rock solid stage.

Coconut cream, Vanilla Bean and Roasted Almond Ice cream

INGREDIENTS

200 ml coconut cream* (I used 1 pack of first pressed Dabur Homemade coconut milk)
1 pod vanilla, split and seeds scraped
½ cup roasted chopped almonds
80 gm / ¾ cup honey* (replace with maple syrup or agave syrup or vanilla sugar for a vegan version of this ice cream)

DIRECTIONS

Roast ½ cup almonds on a medium low heat till they begin to change their color and turn aromatic. Switch off the flame and keep aside. Once they cool down, chop them roughly.

Chill the coconut cream along with the bowl and beaters overnight or at least for 6-8 hours. To prepare the ice cream, take the chilled coconut cream in a chilled bowl. Connect the beaters and whip the cream till it fluffs up and holds soft peaks. Add in vanilla honey and whip further till it's all well combined. Split a vanilla bean and scrape the seeds off them into the prepared ice cream. You can skip this, however I used it for an intense vanilla flavor. It’s optional.

Whip the cold cream till it begins to form soft peaks. Taste your ice-cream at this stage. Commercially available honey tends to be sweeter and thicker as compared to the organic fetch. Hence I suggest you taste the ice cream batter and add more honey if preferred. Transfer to a freezer proof bowl/loaf and freeze it for an hour till it just begins to set. Once it's almost set on the edges, remove and churn it briefly. Repeat a couple of times. This helps ice-cream to be creamy. After the final churn, add in the roasted almonds (or almond pralines) and freeze till it's completely set. Remove from the freezer and place the ice cream in the refrigerator compartment for 15-20 minutes before serving. This way the ice cream should have softened a tad bit and will make it easier to scoop out.

Notes:

*For a vegan version replace the honey with maple syrup or agave syrup or vanilla sugar.
*Similarly, you can replace vanilla beans with vanilla extract. I used slit beans for an intense vanilla flavor and for that million-dollar speckled look. Again, it’s optional.
*If coconut cream is not your flavor of choice, replace it with regular milk cream, however it will no longer be vegan. It works fabulous!

That's my little toddler's tiny fingers sneaking in to grab some more scoops of ice cream!

Tucked into our mom’s saree pallu, our little hands twirled into hers, carrying jute bags that we could fit ourselves in, we would often accompany our mom to do the weekly grocery shopping. Tip toeing into the busy streets of the weekly vegetable market, the lookout was always for the freshest of the produce they had to offer. The street side vendors, some on carts and others lining the pavements would sit with heaps of greens, fruits, vegetables and other kitchen staples, often calling us out loudly in the best of their voices, inviting the passing buyers with their heaps of sale. Quite a chaotic scene if I had to recall, where the street vendors would literally pull us into bargaining till we gave in, and even as one got busy perusing the vegetables and fruits, the neighbouring vegetable vendor would try to drag the buyer into his attention. Negotiating for a handful of free curry leaves or a bunch of coriander leaves was a common affair and that brought profound happiness to our hearts. And in odd occasions where the vendor refused to be considerate, mom would grump on her way back, complaining she would never go back to him again.

Those memories of market hopping and raasta shopping will stay with us for long. Shopping was quite a stimulating affair we loved. Yet it came with its rules of pros and cons. Bargaining was the tool and while it brought some joy, somewhere it would leave us dissatisfied with a sinking feeling that probably the vendor down the street sold better produce at lower prices than we bought. Then there were ploys with the traditional weighing scales, with the vegetables often weighing lesser than they should. While most of the fruits and vegetables were picked from the weekly vegetable market, we would heavily depend on the nearby kiraana shops for other kitchen staples, which meant another trip to the kiraana store.

For long now, since the supermarket culture and online shopping trends kicked in, I moved out to a more comfortable zone of shopping in a supermarket where I get my entire pantry staples at a single place. For the modern day working woman like me, it saves me time, energy and more importantly the hassle of weighing and bargaining. I ensure I pick my vegetables and pantry staples, but at times get the luxury of home deliveries too and that’s a bonus. I get to know their manufacturing date, their expiries and the ingredients. More importantly I like to return the product if I am dissatisfied.

Some time ago, I got hooked to online shopping. My first camera was bought online more than 10 years ago. Ever since then I bought several things online and got hooked to it. I browse online shopping websites very often, sometimes out of seriousness to buy, at times out of curiosity, or even to kill boredom. My husband and net savvy dad too appreciate this culture. They’ve bought electronics, tees, books, gifts, sports gears and many other stuffs online. I like the fact you save on time and effort when you need things on demand and its home delivered for free. Then there are sites like Cuponation that give crazy discounts on the products you would buy in market at higher rates and that’s really a bargain.

I wonder how many of you know, but I thought this would interest many. Cuponation has a broad collection of coupon codes with deals and offers from top online retailers like Flipkart, eBay.in, FabFurnish, Future bazaar, Jabong, Naaptol, Myntra, Home shop 18, Pepperfry and many more. I have bought several items from these retailers in the past, however ever since I got to know of Cuponation, I like using their coupons to get those added discounts on my purchases. I am eyeing at some kitchen cutleries and bakewares and these discount coupons will just be perfect. I am excited and hope you’ll too!

For times while you spend surfing the net, buying online or just couching in front of the television, these ginger lime pops will give you a perfect company. Tart, tangy, a spicy gingery twist with hint of cardamom, does that ring bells to you? Yes, its our very own nimbu sherbet in pops.

Ginger Lime Pops

INGREDIENTS

2 large limes
3 cups of water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cardamom powder
1 tsp. ginger paste

DIRECTIONS

Squeeze lime juice out of the 2 limes. Snip off the lime zest for some intense lemony flavor.

Stir the sugar in water till completely dissolved. Extract juice from ginger. Alternatively, you may also use ginger powder. Add in ginger, cardamom powder, lime zest along with the freshly squeezed lime
juice to the prepared sugary water and stir well.

Pour into pop moulds and freeze overnight or for at least 5-6 hours till set. Enjoy!

Note:

Check for sugar and adjust according to your taste. You may replace with honey if you like. These lime pops are a little tart, so reduce if you like a milder taste.

Aah! Finally the weekend is here and it feels so so good, that I can't possibly express the immense joy I get on the dawn of Fridays. It's the day of the week I look forward to the most; it gives me joy, hope, lightens my heart and heightens my spirits. And even as the day comes to an end on a Thursday, I can feel the excitement and dip in pressure with the weekend drawing closer. The worst of work load on a Friday doesn't stir me, fortified with an ability to deliver my best, probably the positivity and the hope that Saturdays and Sundays will give that well deserved respite and the time I deserve for my family. Wish God blessed us with few more Fridays a week. Life would have gotten only better!

Undoubtedly, my job is an integral part of my life and I love it every bit. I've never been a person who could stay home, probably the feeling of being insecure to be cut off from the happenings in the world outside would haunt me severely. Being confined to the four walls is not just me. My job helps me pursue my professional aspirations and improve business acumen, just as I had dreamt of where and what I should be while in my college.

Yet on the flip side, I compromise high on my family time. That realization hit hard only after my baby was born. Till then, job and career meant beyond all. And like every mother it would be a treat to watch my little baby grow every minute, evolve to the persona she will embellish into, I find solace in the fact that I have my mom by my side, donning my shoes, playing my role in my absence, ensuring my little one is not deprived of any need or personal care.

And that speaks why I look forward to the weekends, only to be with my family and do everything for them that I don't can't do over the week.

If Eva Toneva's simple eggless vanilla ice cream with 2 ingredients couldn't help me resist my temptations to make some at home, David Lebovitz's recipe for Stracciatella ice cream sold me completely to it. Having made the classic version couple of times I wanted to be a little experimental with this. And so gladly I admit I did, you can't just help yourself stay away from spoonfuls of this simple vanilla decadence with Italian-style chocolate chips even as it sits freezing. A litre of ice cream was easily half the volume by the time it was done.

Stracciatella Ice cream

INGREDIENTS

400 ml of sweetened condensed milk
500 ml cream (25% fat Amul cream used)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
60 gm. dark chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Pour the cream into a bowl. Whip it to soft peaks. Add in the condensed milk along with vanilla extract. Beat mixture using a hand mixer. Pour into a freezer proof container. Cover with plastic film and freeze in freezer.

Transfer it from the freezer to fridge at least 20 minutes before serving. This basic vanilla ice cram can be served as it or with toppings if desired.

For Stracciatella:

The vanilla ice cream can be enjoyed as is, however to make it decadent and exotic go ahead to make Stracciatella. Melt the dark chocolate in microwave on high for a minute. Alternatively, use a double boiler technique to melt the chocolate. Transfer the melted chocolate to a paper piping bag. Snip off the tip for the chocolate to flow. Drizzle the chocolate randomly over the almost-frozen mixture, then stir, breaking up the ribbons of chocolate as they freeze, to create little ‘chips’. Scoop out and serve!

PS: The original recipe calls for equal quantities of cream and condensed milk. I have made this ice cream couple of times, however I like to add in 50-100 ml. of extra cream as I found it too sweet for our tastes. I suggest you taste and adjust sweetness accordingly.