Full of crunchy shards of dark chocolate, the flavour of the ice cream itself is a balance of orange and vanilla. Inspired by a recipe from New Feast: Modern Middle Eastern Vegetarian by Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf, this version uses no eggs, à la Jeni Britton Bauer.
To make the ice cream mixture measure 2 cups of milk removing 2 tablespoons of the milk to make a slurry with 4 – 5 teaspoons of cornflour (cornstarch). Heat the remainder in a saucepan with 1¼ cups of heavy cream, ⅔ of a cup of sugar, the finely peeled rind of 1 orange, a split and scraped vanilla bean and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour in the cornflour slurry and cook until thick. Let the mixture steep for at least an hour while it cools in an ice bath. Now strain out the orange rind and vanilla and place the mixture in a blender. Add 45g (1½ oz) of cream cheese and ⅛ of a teaspoon each of salt, xanthan gum and guar gum. Blend until very smooth and refrigerate, preferably overnight, before churning. Churn the ice cream in the usual fashion. Meanwhile, melt 70g (2½ oz) of good quality dark chocolate until smooth and then allow it to cool to blood temperature. Towards the end of churning, pour the chocolate into the ice cream in a very thin stream directly over the churning paddle. When the ice cream is ready, freeze it for at least 4 hours before serving.
michelle picker cooks 