A friend came back from a trip to Hawaii and shared with us some of these delicious treats:
We both couldn’t get enough of them! So when we decided to brainstorm summer flavors, these were some of the first things that popped into our minds.
But how would you turn these into an ice cream?
To get a mix of toffee and chocolate flavoring, rather than adding toffee bits that might freeze weird and stick to your teeth, we decided to go for a swirl: a chocolate base swirled with a toffee-like base (of course with macadamia nuts and chocolate chunks mixed in).
The base we came up with wasn’t exactly toffee, but we made our sweet cream base but with a little more of a buttery-rich twist to it.
It’s hard to tell from the picture, but we added melted butter and salt, and substituted brown sugar in place of the regular white sugar. It resulted in a unique sort of ice cream that worked perfectly!
Then we just made the regular old chocolate base. We put the chocolate chunks in the toffee base, and the macadamia nuts in the chocolate base, in order to balance the sweet and salty flavor.
This one was a hit! We even ended up making it again for a Moana party we had (although we admittedly added too much salt the second time and it was not as much of a hit—stick to this original recipe and you’ll be just fine).
Summer Flavors, Part II: Hawaiian Chocolate
Bringing the islands to my freezer!
Ingredients
- Brown Sugar Ice Cream
2 large eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup chocolate chunks (see note)
- Chocolate Ice Cream
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
1 small bag macadamia nuts, chopped (we used a 5 oz bag)
Directions
- Brown Sugar Base
- Heat the cream and milk on low in a medium saucepan until it reaches 140° F, stirring occasionally. While the custard heats, using an electric mixer to whisk the 2 large eggs in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- While the cream is still heating, slowly add the 3/4 cup packed brown sugar into the eggs, whisking thoroughly to make sure the mixture doesn’t become grainy.
- After the cream reaches the target temperature, gradually pour it into the egg and sugar mixture, again whisking each time the cream is added to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Pour the entire mixture back into the medium saucepan and heat it to 170° F, whisking constantly.
- Now pour the mixture back into the mixing bowl. Add the 2 tablespoons melted butter and the 1/4 teaspoon salt and whisk it all together.
- Cover and chill for 1 hour or up to 3 hours.
- When ready, make in your ice cream maker based on the maker’s instructions. Do not mix the bases!
- During the last 5-10 minutes in the ice cream maker (the ice cream should basically have the consistency of soft-serve ice cream), add in your chocolate chunks (see note for how to make chunks below). Don’t add it all in! Add handfuls at a time until you get your desired chunkiness.
- Move the ice cream from the ice cream maker into a large container and put it in the freezer. Quickly move on to the other flavor. You do not want the first flavor to harden too much.
- Chocolate Base
- Melt the 4 oz chocolate in a double broiler. Once completely melted, slowly add the 1 cup whole milk in small amounts, whisking each time you add cream until color is uniform. Set it aside while you make your custard.
- For the custard base, heat the 1 cup heavy whipping cream on low in a medium saucepan until it reaches 140° F, stirring occasionally. While the custard heats, using an electric mixer to whisk the 2 large eggs in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- While the cream is still heating, slowly add the 1 cup sugar into the eggs, whisking thoroughly to make sure the mixture doesn’t become grainy.
- After the cream reaches the target temperature, gradually pour it into the egg and sugar mixture, again whisking each time the cream is added to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Pour the entire mixture back into the medium saucepan and heat it to 170° F.
- Now pour the mixture back into the mixing bowl and add the 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and the dash of salt. Whisk the chocolate mix into it as well until uniformly mixed.
- Cover and chill for 1 hour or up to 3 hours.
- When ready, make in your ice cream maker based on the maker’s instructions. During the last 5-10 minutes in the ice cream maker, add in your chopped macadamia nuts.
- Making the Ice Cream
- When the second flavor is done, move it to a container and allow it to freeze for 10 minutes. This will stop the two flavors from mixing.
- Now, in a quart-sized container, alternate scooping each flavor into the container, in a checkerboard pattern, until the quart is full. Layers should be about 1/2 inch high if possible. You can use a knife to swirl the to ice creams a little bit at this point if you wish, but it is not necessary—it will appear swirled when you scoop it out.
- This recipe makes 2 quarts, so repeat in a second quart-sized container.
- Let it them both freeze for at least 4 hours.
Notes
- To make these chocolate chunks, mix 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips with 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil and microwave on medium heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate is melted. Spread evenly on a sheet of parchment paper to desired thickness. Freeze for at least 15 minutes. Right before adding it to the ice cream, take it out and either chop the chocolate with a knife, or you can put it in a Ziploc bag and smash them using a rolling pin, tenderizer, or whatever you have handy, until they’re the size you want.
