I understand that businesses thrive on seasonal items, but I’ve got to say, it makes me crazy when I just want something that is ‘out of season’ and I know it’ll be impossible to get it. This is how I felt about a particular flavour of ice-cream known as President’s Choice Candy Cane Chocolate Fudge Crackle.
If you know me, you know I’m not much of a sweets gal. But I’ve allllwwways loved that flavour. I would anxiously await for it to arrive in stores, usually mid-November every year for the holiday season. If my girlfriend saw it before me, she would call and say run, I saw it at Zehr’s here in Barrie, go now!
I just love the combination of peppermint and chocolate fudge crackle as they call it. It is definitely one of the things that I have missed having in the time we’ve been in Mexico.
About a month ago, in March, I randomly came across a bag of crushed candy canes. I was looking for something like this from December to February, but i couldn’t even find regular and normal candy canes! It seemed they had all these other colours and flavours when I just wanted the classic. And then, lo and behold, when I wasn’t even looking for them, I found this glorious bag of evenly crushed candy canes. Why didn’t I buy 5 bags? Ug. I only bought one.
Last week I finally had the time to make myself this ice-cream. I simply melted some milk and dark chocolate bars, spread the chocolate on a baking sheet, sprinkled about 1/3 of the bag on top, and froze. About a half hour later, i started breaking them up and they looked like this.
I broke them up into smaller chunks before tossing them into my ice cream so it wouldn’t cram my machine, but frankly, i could have totally managed eating chunks that size.
I don’t have to tell you that homemade is better than store bought. And now you don’t have to wait for the pesky stores to decide when you can enjoy this delicious flavour! You can have it allllll summer long.
Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 1/2 cups whipping cream
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 egg yolks, room temperature
- 1 TAB vanilla
- 6 milk or dark chocolate chocolate bars or a combination of both
- about 3/4 cup crushed candy canes ( use more or less as per your liking)
DIRECTIONS:
In a medium size saucepan over medium heat, whisk and warm whipping cream, milk, and sugar until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks together. When mixture on stove is warm to the touch, whisk a little of the cream mixture slowly into the egg yolks until combined. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan. Stir with a flat bottomed wooden spoon until the mixture coats the back of the spoon so that when you run your finger over it, it leaves a line. Take off heat. Pour through a sieve into a bowl. Add vanilla. Stir and let cool. Cover. Refrigerate over-night.
Chop chocolate and melt in a microwave. Start with 30 seconds. Take out and stir. Repeat in 15 second increments until chocolate is melted and smooth. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Spread chocolate evenly over pan. Sprinkle desired amount of crushed candy canes on top. Stick in the freezer until frozen.
Churn ice-cream in your machine. During the last five minutes of churning, add chocolate in chunks of any size you desire. Transfer to freezable container. Freeze.
Makes about 2 litres.
ORANGELOLLS 