Chestnut Ice Cream with Chocolate Grand Marnier Sauce: 2000s Recipes + Menus : gourmet.com

2000s Recipes + Menus

Makesabout 2 quarts ice cream

November 2000

Chestnut ice cream? Topped with a chocolate-orange sauce, these scoops are too good to be missed.

1 cup roasted, shelled, and skinned chestnuts (1/2 lb in shell or 7 ounces bottled whole, see cooks' note, below)
3 cups whole milk
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (4-inch) strip fresh orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup heavy cream
6 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped (1 cup)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 to 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier, or to taste

Finely chop chestnuts and cook with 1 1/4 cups milk at a bare simmer in a large heavy saucepan, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Purée in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids).
Bring cream and remaining 1 3/4 cups milk just to a simmer in heavy saucepan and remove from heat.
Beat together yolks and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted.
Whisk 1/3 of hot cream mixture into yolk mixture to temper, then whisk yolk mixture into remaining cream mixture.
Whisk in chestnut purée and salt, then add zest. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, just until mixture registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not boil).
Immediately pour custard through a fine sieve into a clean metal bowl and stir in vanilla. Set bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and cool custard, stirring occasionally. Chill, surface covered with waxed paper, until cold, at least 3 hours.
Freeze custard in ice-cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Bring cream just to a simmer in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat and remove from heat. Add chocolate and butter, whisking until smooth. Whisk in Grand Marnier.
Serve ice cream with sauce.

Cooks’ notes:

Custard can be chilled up to 24 hours.
Nothing beats freshly roasted chestnuts for eating, but odds are you’ll cook with them more frequently if you use the already peeled, vacuum-packed kind. Two brands we particularly liked are Minerve and Eric Bur, which are available at specialty foods shops and some supermarkets.

Recipe by Lori W. Powell