Tiramisu Ice Cream

I finally got around to purchasing Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz. Yes, I know it's fall and summer is over, but that has nothing what-so-ever to do with eating ice cream. We have been known to put on an extra sweatshirt, while sitting in the dining room shivering while we eat ice cream. And that was for just so-so ice cream, not the miracles of flavor and sublime taste that I am anticipating from this book.

The hardest part of making ice cream (and by ice cream, I mean anything frozen like sorbets or granitas), is deciding what to make. Practically everything sounds fabulous. Seriously there are maybe 1 one or 2 that don't interest me that much. When was the last time you could say that about a cookbook that you purchased?

But choose I must, and so I went with Tiramisu, simply because my store actually had mascarpone this week. Mascarpone is so hit-or-miss with my grocery store that I pretty much buy it anytime I see it.

Tiramisu Ice Cream
adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

2 cups mascarpone
1 cup half-and-half
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup coffee flavored liqueur, such as Kahlua
3 tablespoons brandy or dark rum
Mocha Ripple (recipe below)

Puree the mascarpone, half-and-half, sugar, salt, liqueur, and brandy together in a blender (can use a food processor), until smooth. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Freeze in your ice cream maker, following it's instructions. I used my kitchen-aid ice cream bowl attachment. As you scoop your ice cream into your storage container, alternate layers of the mocha ripple.

Mocha Ripple

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup strongly brewed espresso
6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly until it just starts to bubble around the edges. Continue to whisk as it comes to a low boil. Keep whisking and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and chill thoroughly.



Do I really need to tell you how amazing this was? I do have to say that the alcohol flavor really comes through, it's pretty strong. So, if you don't like a strong alcohol flavor, you might want to reduce the amount. Also, the alcohol kept it from freezing very firm, so it stayed a soft serve consistency. Because of that, when I tried to mix in the mocha ripple, it just sank to the bottom. So, I wasn't able to make layers. When I tried to swirl it, it just mixed together, and I ended up with the chocolate all mixed in with the ice cream, not separated. Perhaps I wasn't supposed to use the whole ripple recipe, it did seem like a lot of ripple for the amount of ice cream. But I don't believe that there is such a thing as too much chocolate, so I was fine with the amount. Excellent! So, now....what to make next?