Eggnog...and Eggnog Ice Cream

Talk about having your cake and eating it too - over the holidays I had a mind to make homemade eggnog AND David Lebovitz's eggnog ice cream...and found I could do both at the same time. When I was reading Lebovitz's recipe from The Perfect Scoop it struck me that the ice cream's custard base was so extremely similar to most recipes for (cooked) eggnog I'd seen, that if I made a big enough batch, I could have both nog concoctions! 2 cups of the base went into chilled glasses and the other 2, into the ice cream maker: perfectly unctuous, rich eggnoggy deliciousness in both liquid & solid form. I prefer eggnog with black spiced rum but feel free to sub in your alcohol of choice - Lebovitz recommended bourbon & brandy. Sip your nog and eat it too!

Eggnog/Eggnog Ice Cream
Makes a quart of the base


Adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

*1 cup whole milk

*2 cups heavy cream, divided
*Good pinch salt
*2/3 cup sugar

*1/4 cup black-spiced rum (I use Kraken)

*1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

*Pinch cinnamon
*Pinch allspice

*6 organic eggs, divided

*1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine the milk, sugar, salt and one cup cream in a saucepan over medium and keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved and the milk begins to steam. Put the other cup of cream into a bowl and chill well. 

Whisk the egg yolks until the yolks are glossy. Temper the yolks by slowly adding hot milk mix to them, whisking until fully incorporated. Pour the eggy liquid back into the pan and cook, stirring all the while, until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon – just don't bring to a boil. Pour the mix through a fine mesh sieve into the bowl of chilled cream and add the spices, rum and vanilla. Stir well, then put in the fridge to chill overnight.

When you're ready to churn, use as much of the eggnog base as you would like, reserving any extra for immediate sippin'. To pump up those sipping servings, take about a tablespoon of egg white and a heavy pinch of sugar per serving and whisk together until peaks form, then gently fold the egg whites into the servings. Garnish both liquid and solid servings with freshly grated nutmeg and allspice. 

Meatball Cookies

My noted culinary genius pal Michael G has been baking up hordes of holiday cookies lately and out of all the goodies these "meatball" cookies most captured my attention, so after I secured the recipe I immediately set out to bake a batch. They were just as delicious as they looked, and I'm thrilled to have them in my cookie repertoire now. The scintillating spices mixed with notes of coffee, cocoa and orange conjure up a particularity warm and enveloping Christmas spirit, especially when they're paired with a mug of holiday blend coffee on a chilled December Sunday evening. May you enjoy them just as much as I do!

Meatball Cookies
Makes about 30 cookies

Recipe adapted from my friend Michael G

*2 cups flour

*3/4 cup sugar

*1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder

*1 tablespoon instant espresso

*1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

*1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

*1/4 teaspoon cloves

*1/4 teaspoon allspice

*1/4 teaspoon salt

*2 teaspoons baking powder

*6 tablespoons unsalted butter

*1/2 cup milk

*1 egg

*Scant 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

*1/4 teaspoon orange extract

*1/2 teaspoon orange zest

*1/2 cup broken walnuts

Heat the oven to 375. Add the flour, sugar, cocoa, espresso, spices, salt and baking powder in a large bowl and blend well. Grate in the butter and work with your fingers until a crumbly mixture is achieved.

Make a well in the center and add the milk, egg, extracts, zest and walnuts.  Stir with a large wooden spoon to combine until the dough is sticky and damp. Cover the dough and refrigerate for a few hours.

Scoop by the teaspoonful and shape into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10-11 minutes or until they are done. Let cool completely before glazing with a mix of hot milk, confectioners sugar and flavoring (I have flavored it with spiced rum or cocoa).

Paw Paw Ice Cream

Anyone out there a fellow fan of the paw paw? I'd wanted to try one ever since hearing of a "paw paw" in Baloo's jaunty song from The Jungle Book and I am eternally grateful to a rural DE pal who has been furnishing me with an allotment of paw paws around this time of year from stock growing wild on his property ever since he heard of my fascination. They're quite delicious, mild, sweet and creamy like a ripe banana, but with a decidedly tropical tang in the mix. They also have big oblong seeds, which make extracting the fruit pulp a little unwieldy, but are fun to use in all sorts of crafty business. For the past couple years I've been using my paw paws in a personal recipe for ice cream since it's a very easy and tasty preparation for the amount I get (usually around 4-5). They spoil very rapidly so I usually make the base the day before I know I'm going to get them. I do always feel slightly bad when I post a recipe featuring a highly elusive or specialized ingredient, but if you live east of the Mississippi, and are into foraging, go looking for some paw paws! The hunt will make them all the sweeter.

If you have cooked with paw paws before, please share your recipes so I can branch out next September!

Paw Paw Ice Cream
Makes about a pint

*3/4 cup paw paw pulp, pureed (from about 4 paw paws)
*1 cup heavy cream, divided

*1/3 cup whole milk

*1/3 cup vanilla sugar (sugar left to sit in a jar with a spent vanilla pod)

*A pinch of salt

*3 large egg yolks, whisked

*Juice of half a small lime, about 1 1/2 teaspoons 

Set up half the cream in a bowl within an ice bath to thoroughly chill it. Warm the other half of the cream and the milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan with a pinch of salt and the sugar until steaming, stirring to dissolve. Carefully temper the yolks with some of the hot milk before adding the eggy mix back to the saucepan. Cook over medium until the liquid thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. At that point, pour the custard through a strainer and into the chilled cream. Stir well and pop in the fridge for at least 5-6 hours, preferably overnight. When you're ready to make the ice cream, extract the pulp from the paw paws and puree, stir in the lime juice, then combine with the custard and freeze in the ice cream maker. Eat soft-serve when it's done, or put it into a proper container to let it ripen in the freezer.   

Toasted Marshmallow Ice Cream

How is it that it's nearly come to August and I haven't posted a single ice cream recipe yet!? Well, I decided that since I've dawdled this long, the first one of the summer better'd be a doozy - and let me tell you, this ice cream is a doozy. The other household half deems it the best ice cream I've ever made, surpassing even the famed cereal milk ice cream. This one oozes summer; it was born of a lazy, sticky evening out on the porch around the charcoal with sticks in hand, slowly and carefully turning marshmallows over winking-red embers. It also oozes pure toasted marshmallow flavor in every creamy cold bite: fire and smoke and hints of those charred sugary blisters from when you push your luck too far and a marshmallow bursts into flame. You must make this ice cream. Yet *another* reason to build a campfire or get a nice charcoal grill going this summer!

Toasted Marshmallow Ice Cream
Makes about a pint

Adapted from The Merry Thought

*5 oz marshmallows
*3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
*1 cup whole milk*
*1/4 cup sugar
*Pinch kosher salt
*1 scant teaspoon vanilla extract
*1/2 cup heavy cream, chilled

Find some roastin' sticks and recruit a partner to toast all the marshmallows over a dying fire, throwing them all in a blender. Combine the milk, sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium heat until steaming. Temper the yolks with a little of the hot milk, whisking constantly, then pour the egg mixture back into the pan over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Don't let it boil! Remove from heat and let cool just a touch, while stirring. Pass the custard through a sieve into the blender and blend for about a minute. Let sit for a few minutes, then blend again for another minute. Add in the cold heavy cream and blend for another 20 seconds or so. Pour the mix into a container and chill overnight or at LEAST 6 hours until entirely chilled. Whisk or blitz the ice cream batter well before churning, churn for about 20-25 minutes, and either enjoy soft-serve style or pop into a good container and let ripen in the freezer for a while longer. Enjoy with chocolate drizzle and a graham cracker, if you please!

*In complete honesty, I only had about half a cup of whole milk and subbed cream for the rest, so mine was, like, transcendentally creamy. Feel free to die young and happy with me and do the same, whether or not you have gallons of milk on hand. 

Mixed Nut & Dried Cherry Chocolate Bark

Chocolate bark is infinitely versatile, infinitely delicious. This is probably my favorite rendition of chocolate bark, because there's just so much of everything on it! If you can temper the chocolate correctly it makes for a great gift too, especially as it can be stored longer than your usual homemade baked goods. Even if you don't get the chocolate to temper perfectly, it still delights: I've given it out to many people who are happy to store it in the fridge. At some point I should probably get a candy thermometer to take the guesswork out of melting the chocolate to just the right point. In the meantime, I'll eat my fridge-cold chocolate bark and love it all the same!

Mixed Nut and Dried Cherry Chocolate Bark
Makes 4ish servings?

*1 bag (10 oz) high quality dark chocolate semi-sweet morsels

*1 small pinch ground allspice
*1/4 teaspoon sea salt

*1/2 cup hulled pistachios, lightly toasted and chopped
*1/4 cup almonds, lightly toasted and chopped
*1 tablespoon pepitas, lightly toasted and chopped
*1 tablespoon coffee beans, roughly chopped

*1/2 cup dried cherries, some chopped & some left whole

Melt the morsels in a heatproof bowl for 30 seconds at a time in the microwave, stirring after each round. When the chocolate is almost entirely melted, stir to melt the rest of the morsels and add the spice and salt. Combine the cherries, nuts, pepitas and coffee beans, remove about a third of the mix and chop it a little finer, then throw that into the chocolate, stirring to combine. Spread the mixture with a spatula onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet until it's evenly about a quarter-inch thick. Rain down the remaining nuts, seeds, coffee beans and cherries until there's a nice layer over the chocolate. I usually take another small pinch of sea salt and scatter some crystals over the chocolate at this point too. Pop the baking sheet in the fridge to chill the bark for a couple hours. Break into shards when hardened. Do store in the fridge if tempering chocolate ain't really your finest skill.

Quick Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream

I've posted uses for overripe bananas a few times already, but this is now far and away my favorite method of using up those speckled stragglers squirreled away in my freezer. I've used frozen bananas to add oomph to smoothies for ages, but I'd never tried to blitz them on their own until the other day when I wanted to make some cool and delicious treat, only to find I was out of dairy (save a couple cans of condensed milk). After some experimentation with the sweetened condensed milk and some peanut butter (and lots of scraping down the sides of my blender), I achieved my goal, and how! I'm shocked at just how well this mimicked ice cream with a solid custard base, in both mouthfeel and scoopability. I credit that to the higher levels of sugar in the overripe bananas as well as the addition of sweetened condensed milk. Whatever the sorcery, it made for a scrumptious, easy (and mildly healthier!) dessert.

Quick Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream
Makes about cup and a half, or 3 servings

*2 frozen bananas, peeled and sliced
*2 tablespoons peanut butter (I used chunky-style for some textural fun, but feel free to use smooth)
*1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Blitz it all together in your most powerful blender or food processor. My blender isn't the greatest, so there's a fair deal of scraping I have to do to get it all to blend properly, but if you have something top shelf like Vitamix, this should be a snap. Once it's getting...for lack of a better word, goopy, scrape it out into a container, press a round of Saran-wrap on top to prevent ice crystals from forming, lid it and pop into the freezer to harden again until you're ready to serve.

Note: Some googling turned up plenty of other delicious additives - must try Nutella next time!

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I'm happy to present another one of those stupid-simple, throw-some-stuff-together-and-chill ice cream recipes. And such a tasty one, too! Voluptuous coconut flavor, and no fussing around with egg custard necessary. I was inspired by this beautiful post on one of my new favorite cooking blogs, Feasting on Art, and adapted the recipe slightly from the one listed on that site. Next time, I think I'll have to mix in pieces of Mounds bars in the last minute of churning, for some extra deliciousness.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Makes about a pint

1 can (14 ounces) full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon coconut rum (optional)
Pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool before popping it in the fridge to chill thoroughly overnight. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Serve with a sprinkle of toasted coconut or a mint sprig, if desired.

Momofuku Milk Bar's Cereal Milk Ice Cream

We are heading up to NYC next month to catch a screening of The Master as early as one not attending Venice Film Festival can and, naturally, are going to be wedging in some great food around the main event. Having never been to any of the Momofuku establishments, I was browsing their menus and stumbled across Cereal Milk Ice Cream in the Milk Bar menu. I was absolutely delighted with the concept and decided that I couldn't wait until September, so I tried my hand at churning some out myself with their recipe which I found online here. As with nearly every Momofuku recipe I've seen, it's uh, involved, but eminently rewarding. This is quite simply one of the best ice creams I've ever made. I'm going to try it with Lucky Charms next time - Lucky Charms produces the finest of cereal milks.

Cereal Milk Ice Cream
Makes about 3 1/2 cups

*10 cups corn flakes
*1/2 cup powdered milk
*4 tablespoons sugar
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
*4 cups whole milk
*1 cup heavy cream
*1/2 cup sugar
*Pinch of salt
*1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*4 large egg yolks

Heat the oven to 275. Put the cornflakes in a large mixing bowl and crush them with your hands a few times. Stir the milk powder, sugar and salt together in a smaller bowl and add to the cornflakes with the melted butter, tossing to combine. Spread the cornflakes out on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for about 35 minutes, or until deeply caramelized. Let cool to room temperature.

Here's where it helps to have a small kitchen scale: combine 14 oz of the caramelized cornflakes and the milk in a large mixing bowl and let steep for an hour in the fridge. Set the rest of the cornflakes aside. Fair warning: this next part is gonna be gory. Strain the milk from the cornflake mush as well as you can. For me, this involved several laborious steps in which I squeezed milk out of gobs of the soggy mash through cheesecloth, and then strained that milk through a fine-mesh sieve, and then squeezed THAT gently through a coffee filter. All you need is a cup of cereal milk for the ice cream, so only gross yourself out for as long as it takes to get a well-strained cup!

Combine the cup of cereal milk with the sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a pot and heat over medium. Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl and pour the cream into yet another bowl over an ice bath. When the sugar has dissolved into the cereal milk and the mixture is steaming hot, slowly pour it into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper them. Scrape the eggy mixture back into the pot and place over medium heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom, until the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not let it boil! Pour the custard through a strainer into the cold heavy cream and stir over the ice bath to combine. Chill the mixture overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream machine for about 25 minutes or according to the manufacturer’s instructions. You can eat it immediately, soft-serve style, or pop it in a container and let it firm up in the freezer for a few hours. Crumble the remaining caramelized cornflakes on top when you serve it.

Lychee Sorbet

After absorbing the entirety of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop to the point where I have the ins and outs of putting together a frozen treat recipe down cold, I felt like this was a good time to start experimenting with my own concoctions. The flavor of this particular iced treat is inspired by a drink at a restaurant I used to frequent - the "Drunken Geisha" cocktail. If you like the lightly floral taste of these opalescent little lychee fruits, you'll be quite pleased with this sorbet.  

Lychee Sorbet
Makes a little over a pint (~2 1/2 cups)

*1 20 oz can of lychees in syrup
*1 lime, juiced
*1/2 teaspoon grenadine

*1 teaspoon lychee vodka

Puree all the ingredients together until smooth. I don't mind a bit of texture in my sorbets but if you'd rather strain it to remove all the solids, go for it. Chill thoroughly and then churn in your ice cream maker for about 20 minutes, at which point you can scoop it into a pint container to ripen a bit longer in the freezer, or have soft-serve sorbet right away! If you do pop it in the freezer, make sure to take it out a good 5-10 minutes before scooping, because it does freeze hard.

Lemon-Cardamom Shortbread

I love shortbread. I used to carry packets of Walkers cookies in my purse and fuss with the tartan wrapper before movies like a doddering great-aunt, an annoying habit that I've largely phased out thanks to recipes like this that allow me to make my own shortbread. This isn't a traditional Scottish recipe, but it's tasty and simple and results in sandy, buttery, shortbready deliciousness. The lemon and cardamom are completely optional, but the flavors work so very well together in this format.

 Base shortbread recipe cribbed from an old Gourmet magazine, recipe here.

Lemon-Cardamom Shortbread Cookies
Makes approximately one dozen cookies

*1 stick (1/2 cup) of good butter, softened
*1/4 cup superfine sugar (you can blitz regular granulated sugar in a food processor for same effect)
*A pinch of salt
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla
*1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
*Zest from one lemon

Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar together with a mixer on low. Stir together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add in piecemeal to the buttery mixture until a coarse, crumbly dough appears. With as little handling as possible, form dough into a flattish disk (or ball), wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Then, between wax paper roll the dough out to about a 1/4-1/3 inch thickness and cut with your favorite cutter. I used a circular cutter with a 2 1/2 inch diameter, in this particular case. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and pop in the fridge for another 20 minutes or so while the oven preheats to 375. The bake time really depends on how thinly you've rolled the dough, and what diameter the cookies are, but mine usually bake in about 11-13 minutes. Just keep your eye peeled for when the edges begin to brown, and then take them out. Allow to cool to room temperature, and enjoy!

Peppercorn Ice Cream

Whenever my husband and I go to  Han Dynasty, one of our favorite local restaurants, we always delight in an array of fiery noodles and meats all soaking in incarnadine slicks of chili oil, but there's no closer, unfortunately - save the requisite fortune cookies that come with the bill. I searched around and came up with the perfect dessert to cap a delicious Sichuanese meal:  Peppercorn ice cream, adapted from a David Lebovitz recipe. If you don't have Sichuan peppercorns on hand, just up the black peppercorn quantity a bit (or experiment with other peppercorns!). It makes for a dreamy scoop...decadently rich and piquant. Enjoy!

Peppercorn Ice Cream
Makes about 2 cups

*1/2 cup whole milk
*1/3 cup sugar
*Pinch salt
*1 tablespoon black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
*1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns, coarsely cracked
*1 cup heavy cream, divided
*3 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, salt, peppercorns, and half of the cream in a saucepan. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then strain out the peppercorns. Rewarm it over medium heat. Meanwhile, pour the remaining 1/2 cup cream into a good-sized bowl set in an ice bath and put a mesh strainer on top. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then pour it all back into the saucepan.

Stir constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the utensil. Just make sure the mixture doesn't boil! When it's done, pour the custard through the strainer, into the cream. Stir the mixture over the ice bath until it is cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the fridge, then freeze it in your ice cream maker for about 15-18 minutes or until properly frozen. Working with a smaller amount such as this, it usually takes less time to freeze than the manufacturer states. Pop it in an appropriate container to ripen in the freezer for at least an hour or two longer.

Viet-style Cafe Au Lait Ice Cream

This is simple to make, and perfectly captures the flavor of a Vietnamese-style iced coffee. It's tasty as is, with a shot of espresso poured over it affogato-style, or scooped into a glass of Vietnamese iced coffee in place of the ice. Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz, who else.

Cafe au lait float in the making

Viet-style Cafe au Lait Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart

*11/2 cups sweetened condensed milk
*11/2 cups very strong brewed coffee (Cafe du Monde chicory coffee is preferred; it can be found in some Whole Foods and at Vietnamese grocers).
*1/2 cup half-and-half

Whisk all of the above together in a bowl until well-combined. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker for 20-odd minutes or according to manufacturer's instructions. Scoop it into your container and pop it in the freezer for a couple hours longer to ripen.

Olive Oil Bundt Cake

I received this recipe from a good friend and my main culinary mentor, Michael G. I find it to be one of my favorite unfussy cakes; it's delicious with a serving of berries and a barking cuppa coffee. Make sure to use a good-quality olive oil since it's the star ingredient here. West Chester has a great specialty shop, A Taste of Olive, in which you can sample a wide variety of high-class oils and pick the one you fancy most - they've keep me happily well-lubricated in fine EVOO for years.



Olive Oil Bundt Cake

*5 eggs
*Orange zest from 2 small oranges
*1 1/4 cups sugar
*2 cups high-quality extra virgin olive oil
*2 cups flour
*1 teaspoon kosher salt
*1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder

Set the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the eggs, zest and sugar in a bowl. Beat with your mixer on medium speed for about a minute, then reduce speed to low and beat while adding the olive oil gradually in a steady, continuous stream. In another bowl stir together the flour, salt and baking powder, then add to egg mixture in three additions, mixing at low speed the entire time. Continue to mix just until batter is smooth and even.

Rub the inside of a 10 inch Bundt cake pan with a bit of olive oil and fill with batter until the pan is nearly full. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into its thickest part comes out dry.

Roasted Banana Ice Cream

I can't not buy a huge bag of bananas whenever I go to Produce Junction. They're so cheap. Plus, swimming in a banana surplus reminds me to make this tasty treat, which is almost as enjoyable to make as it is to eat. Let me tell you, there are few olfactory delights greater than the smell of roasting bananas in your apartment.

This recipe is tweak'd from Monsieur Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop. If you own an ice cream maker, but not this book, then I don't know what you're doing with your life.

 Roasted Banana Ice Cream
Makes about a pint

*3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
*1/3 cup dark brown sugar
*1 tablespoon butter, cut into small nubbins
*1 cup whole milk
*1/2 cup half & half (you can just use 1 1/2 cups whole milk; I had some H&H to get rid of)
*2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
*1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
*Pinch of kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place banana slices in a baking dish with the brown sugar and butter, and roast for 40 minutes, stirring once, until the bananas are nicely browned and sticky in bubbling sugar syrup. Scrape all the contents from the baking dish into a blender and add the remaining ingredients. Puree until smooth, then chill thoroughly and freeze in your ice cream maker for about 20-odd minutes or according to the manufacturer's instructions. Scrape the ice cream into a container and place in your freezer to firm up for a few hours before serving. You may refer to my post on Chocolate-Chile Sherbet for tips on how to chill the mixture, what exactly "vanilla sugar" is, and my recommended storing method.

Chocolate-Chile Sherbet

Sherbet ...sherbert...sorbet. I'm settling the score.

Sherbet, which a misguided but endearing contingent misspells as sherbert, is a frozen treat that may contain modest amounts of milkfat. Sorbet is the French word for sherbet, and is commonly used interchangeably, but it is worthwhile to note that true sorbet contains nary a wee drip of dairy. Fruit juice, pulp, liqueurs, sweetening agents, water, but no milkfat.

Pedantry aside, may I now introduce you to my favorite summer treat?  I present Chocolate-Chile Sherbet, adapted from sweet treat demi-god David Lebovitz's recipe for chocolate sherbet in The Perfect Scoop. You can very easily jettison the spice element in this by just using regular dark chocolate, but where's the fun in that?




Always anglin' for a lick

 Chocolate-Chile Sherbet

*2 cups milk, whatever % you have on hand. It's generally always skim pickin's for me.
*1/2 cup vanilla sugar (stick a spent v-bean in a little mason jar with sugar to keep for a while and voila)
*1/2 cup  unsweetened cocoa powder
*4 oz of chocolate cut with chiles; I always use Dagoba Xocolatl 74% Dark Chocolate, which I find at Whole Foods, but there are tons of specialty spicy chocolate bars out there.
*Scant 2 tablespoons of Chocolate Vodka; alternately, a chocolate or coffee-flavored liqueur would work. You don't have to include this, but adding a touch of alcohol makes it freeze niiiice 'n smooth.
*Pincha salt, pincha cayenne

In a pan, gradually bring half of the milk, sugar, pinches of salt & spice and cocoa to a boil while whisking subtly, then reduce heat to a simmer for 30 seconds before removing the pan from heat. Chop the chocolate and stir it in with the alcohol, followed by the other half of the milk. Use an immersion blender to smooth the mix out once all the chocolate has melted. Chill thoroughly (very important), then freeze in your ice cream maker for about 25 minutes or according to the maker's instructions. I usually chill my mix in a zip-lock bag submerged in a bath of ice water for a spell while I'm bustling around the kitchen, and then pop it in the fridge for a number of hours longer before freezing it (about 5-6 hours). Or, I chill it in the fridge overnight. I highly recommend storing it in these paper ice cream containers. The sherbet probably will need a bit of time in deep freeze to firm up after being churned in the maker, so make sure to have a good container on hand.