Cadbury Cream Egg Ice Cream

A few of my friends got me the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer for my birthday and I was super excited! 

Ever since Mike found a recipe online for Cadbury Cream Egg ice cream, he's been asking me to make it, so yesterday was the day (it made him very happy!)

So far, I've made 5 different ice creams, sorbets and sherbets over the past few months and I'd say this one was #2 on my list so far (yes, #2 - I mean, who can compete with mint chocolate chip, right?). I'd highly recommend the ice cream maker attachment if you have a Kitchenaid mixer!  It works wonderfully!

Cadbury Cream Egg Ice Cream - Adapted from this blog

• 9 Cadbury Cream Eggs, frozen
  
• 1 1/2 cups homogenized milk
• 1 cup + 1/2 cup whipping cream (35%)
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder
• Pinch salt
• 6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Cadbury Egg Preparation:

Freeze your cream eggs for at least 4 hours to get them nice and solid (this makes it easier to chop once the inside "goo" is frozen...otherwise you're going to have a sticky mess all over the place!).  I took mine out of the freezer one by one and chopped them up and put them into a freezer bag, which I kept in the freezer during the process, as they seem to thaw quite quickly.  Keep these in the freezer until you need them. 

Ice Cream Preparation:

Step 1
Combine the egg yolks, sugar, cocoa, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a bowl. Whisk until the mixture is smooth, with no clumps of cocoa powder of sugar granules remaining.

Step 2
Combine milk and the rest of the cream in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge, stirring frequently. (I accidentally let mine boil for a second because I wasn't paying attention...woops.)

Step 3
Remove milk/cream mixture from heat. Slowly whisk about 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into bowl with the egg mixture. Whisk constantly until smooth and then pour the entire egg mixture into the saucepan.

Step 4
Cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. This should take about five or six minutes.

Step 5
Put the chocolate pieces in a heatproof bowl (Pyrex, metal, etc.) and pour the hot custard on top. Stir until the chocolate has melted evenly. (I left this for a few minutes to let the chocolate melt and then stirred...it was sooo velvety smooth)

Step 6
Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the custard into another bowl. (I only had a few little chunks and everything went through my sieve very easily).

Step 7
Add the vanilla and stir well.

Step 8
Place the bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice cubes and water. Stir occasionally until cool.  Mine took maybe 15-20 minutes until it became completely cool - not long at all, really.

Step 9
Press plastic wrap lightly onto the surface of the custard (this prevents "skin" from forming). Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (Can be made up to one day ahead.)

Step 10
Pour the custard into your ice-cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers directions.*  Freezing times vary by machine, but start adding the Creme Egg pieces about 3/4 of the way through the process.

*Mine only took about 20 minutes to get to the frozen stage...I think it was because the mixture was so thick, as most of my ice creams have taken about a half hour to get to frozen.  Just be sure you keep an eye on it so that your mixer or ice cream maker isn't straining.  I ended up stirring the cream eggs in by hand after taking it out of the machine because it had gotten thick & frozen very fast.

Step 11
Scoop the ice cream out of your ice-cream maker and into a freezer-safe container. Freeze for at least three hours.