Chocolate Ribboned Peppermint Ice Cream Food

CHOCOLATE-RIBBONED PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM

Steps:

• For the chocolate sauce: Place butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whisk together sugar and cocoa. Once butter and chocolate are melted, slowly whisk in sugar/cocoa mixture. Heat over the pan of simmering (not boiling) water for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Gradually whisk in cream until combined. Continue heating in the bowl over the simmering water for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the extracts. Pour into a container, cover, and chill in the refrigerator. For the ice cream:In a large bowl, whisk sugar with eggs and yolks for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in cornstarch. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 cup of the half-and-half over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Slowly, whisk hot half-and-half into egg mixture. Pour entire mixture back into the pan and cook on low heat, stirring constantly for about 3-4 minutes, until thickened. The mixture will coat the back of a wooden spoon when thickened. Pour thickened mixture through a fine strainer and into a bowl. Whisk in remaining half-and-half, cream, and extracts. Cover bowl and chill until completely cooled, up to overnight. Before starting the ice cream process, take chocolate sauce out of the refrigerator and leave at room temperature. The sauce will be very thick but will lose some stiffness as it stands. Pour cream into an ice cream maker and process until almost finished. With about 2 minutes remaining in the cycle, add crushed peppermints. Spoon soft ice cream into containers, adding large dollops of chocolate sauce throughout. Press waxed paper onto the top of the containers and cover. Freeze for at least 4 hours or until scoopable.

NO-CHURN PEPPERMINT-CHOCOLATE CHUNK ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Put a 9-by-5-by-3-inch metal loaf pan in the freezer to chill.
• Put 3/4 cup of the cream and 1/2 cup of the peppermint puff candies in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the candies are melted, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chunks until melted. Cool completely.
• Meanwhile, whip the remaining 2 cups cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until firm peaks form, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the condensed milk and peppermint extract and whip until combined.
• Pour half of the condensed milk mixture into the chilled loaf pan, then top with half of the chocolate sauce and half of the remaining chocolate chunks and peppermint candy. Cover with the remaining condensed milk mixture and top with the remaining chocolate chunks and peppermint candy. Drizzle with the remaining chocolate sauce. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and freeze until solid and scoopable, about 3 hours and up to overnight. Serve in a cup with a candy cane if desired.

CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• For crust, melt butter with chocolate in heavy small saucepan over low heat.
• Finely grind cookies in processor.
• Add warm chocolate mixture; blend until crumbs are just moistened.
• Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture in small bowl.
• Press remaining crumb mixture onto sides, then bottom of 9 inch springform pan with 2 3/4 inch sides.
• Freeze.
• For Glaze, bring cream and corn syrup to boil in heavy large saucepan.
• Remove from heat.
• Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth.
• Let stand until cool but still pourable, about 1 hour.
• For filling, working quickly, mix ice cream, 1 3/4 cups crushed candies, and extract in large bowl, until just blended.
• Spoon half of ice cream into crust; spread evenly. (Place remaining ice cream mixture in bowl in freezer).
• Sprinkle reserved 1 cup cookie crumbs over ice cream in pan; press gently.
• Pour 1 cup chocolate glaze over ice cream in pan.
• Freeze 1 hour.
• Top with remaining ice cream; spread evenly.
• Freeze until firm, about 4 hours.
• Stir remaining glaze over low heat just until pourable, but not warm.
• Pour over ice cream.
• Spread evenly.
• Freeze overnight.
• Run sharp knife between crust and pan sides to loosen cake.
• Release pan sides.
• Transfer cake to platter.
• Garnish with peppermint candies and serve.

MARY'S 'FAMOUS' PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM DESSERT

Steps:

• Crush vanilla wafers.
• Melt butter.
• Mix wafers, butter, and powdered sugar together. Spread 2/3 of mixture in bottom of 9X13 (or slightly larger) pan.
• Melt sweet and milk chocolate in a double boiler.
• Beat egg yolks, add to melted chocolate and remove from heat.
• Beat egg whites until stiff, add to chocolate mixture.
• Pour 2/3 of chocolate sauce over wafer mixture.
• Sprinkle with chopped nuts.
• Carefully spread softened ice cream (Mary's recipe says to cut in sticks and lay on top of nuts, but that kind of box is hard to find anymore). I use a wide spoon and put fairly thin chunks across the surface, then smooth it out a little to make sure all the chocolate is covered.
• Pour rest of chocolate sauce over the ice cream.
• Sprinkle with remaining wafer mixture.
• Freeze at least overnight or for a few days. Remove from freezer shortly before serving to make it easier to cut.