Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Ganache

I was attempting to be creative with my ice cream. I also discovered, shockingly, that I prefer a vanilla base with chocolate accouterments instead of chocolate base with chocolate mix-ins to create a chocolate craziness. Yes, I said it. I discovered this at my beloved Shake Shack, when after multiple tastings, it dawned upon me that I prefer the Shack Attack with vanilla ice cream and not the chocolate.

My sister made me these nom nom brownies for my birthday once that had a layer of ganache on top. I love that ganache. So, my plan was to make a nice vanilla ice cream with ganache swirls.

Vanilla ice cream getting ready to roll (ha)

So much chocolate, so little time

To help the chocolate melt faster, it is best to break it into pieces

Well, this is chocolate ganache...let's make this MORE chocolatey!!

Melt away! (as I say to the roll I've developed from all the ice cream I've been eating...)

Melted away, that was fast!

Ready to eat and totally to die for! Of course it's delicious, it's chocolate!

I can't quite remember where I pulled the ganache recipe, but it was pretty standard:

• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, broken into chunks
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp. chocolate extract

Very simple to make. Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add the chocolate. Let it melt and stir away. Then add the chocolate extract. Try not to lick straight out of the bowl before adding to your recipe. Note: because this is all heavy cream and fat, if you eat more than 3 tbsp. on a Tuesday morning before work, you will likely feel nauseous.

The ice cream recipe was adapted the Philadelphia style ice cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz:

• 3 cups heavy cream (or, 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. chocolate extract

So I ran into a problem while mixing. My ideal ice cream was going to be vanilla with ganache swirls. Something happened and it didn't quite make the swirl design I was hoping for. It became vanilla mixed with ganache and then random pieces of ganache. I think maybe the ganache was too liquidy? In any case, as I was layering in the ice cream into the container, I poured ganache in over each layer, so it kind of created a "ribbon". sort of.

Delicious recipe. I would totally do this again!*

*I may or may not have licked the plastic container that I stored this ice cream in clean after I finished eating the ice cream.