Black Cocoa Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
This is not your traditional cookies & cream ice cream with pieces of Oreo cookies. With its rich black cocoa base and ribbons of sweet cream cheese throughout, it tastes as if you transformed an Oreo cookie into ice cream.
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Equipment
- Ice Cream Machine
Ingredients
Ice Cream Base
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- ½ cup black cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 egg yolks
- ¾ cup sugar
Cream Cheese Swirl
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Ice Cream Base
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Set aside.
- Add milk, cream, black cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt to a pot. Place over medium heat, stirring frequently, until warm and beginning to steam.
- Slowly pour some of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture, while whisking constantly to temper the egg yolks. Continue until all of the milk has been added.
- Pour the mixture back into the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon well.
- Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (optional) into a heat-safe container. Cover and let cool slightly at room temperature for 20 minutes. Then, place in the fridge and chill overnight, or until completely cold.
- Prepare the cream cheese swirl now. Instructions below.
- Churn ice cream according to manufacturer's instructions.
- Gently swirl cream cheese mixture into the ice cream base. You can also use the piping method explained in the notes below.
- Transfer to an air-tight container, cover, and freeze until firm.
Cream Cheese Swirl
- Using a mixer, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth.
- Add vanilla and salt and mix until combined.
- Slowly mix in powdered sugar until well combined.
Notes
Prepare Your Ice Cream Machine - If your ice cream machine has a bowl that needs to be frozen, remember to freeze it in advance so it's ready when you need it. I prefer to freeze it overnight to ensure it's fully frozen before using.
Tempering the Egg Yolks - This step is important because it allows the eggs to heat up slowly, so they don't curdle and cause little egg lumps in your ice cream mixture.
Cooking the Ice Cream - When cooking the ice cream, you'll know it's done when it coats the back of a spoon well. If you want to use a thermometer, it should reach this point around 160 - 180℉.
Strainer - Pouring the cooked ice cream base through a strainer or fine-mesh sieve is optional, but it ensures that you don't end up with any lumps or pieces of cooked egg yolk in your mixture.
Chilling the Mixture - I prefer to chill the ice cream base overnight to ensure it's fully cold and allow everything to meld together. If you don't want to wait that long to churn your ice cream, you can move onto the churning step once the ice cream base is fully cold.
Adding the Cream Cheese Swirl - You can do this in a couple ways:
- Drop small dollops of cream cheese onto the ice cream and gently fold them in.
- Spread a layer of ice cream into an air-tight container. Place the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag (or a plastic bag with the corner cut off) and pipe a zig-zag layer over the ice cream. Continue adding layers of ice cream and cream cheese until it has all been used.