Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream

With the rest of the heavy cream I had on hand, I made this coffee, chocolate, and nut ice cream that was well worth the effort. The combination is classic: you may have tried this at Baskin Robbins, where they call it Jamoca Almond Fudge.

The recipe comes from the Van Leeuwen ice cream book. I had no idea that their empire is so big now, that they’ve raised 18.7 million USD and have more than 20 retail locations. I’ve never had any of their products in person, but have been really impressed with the recipes in the book.

The base uses 6 egg yolks, cocoa powder, and 20g freeze dried coffee. I only had instant espresso (the Medaglia d’Oro stuff) and used a total of 15g, as it seemed like a lot. The final product had lots of java flavour with this amount. For the chocolate ripple (or ribbon, as Baskin Robbins calls it), you make a batch of hot fudge sauce (corn syrup, cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate, sugar, water). This, plus slivered almonds, are stirred into the freshly churned ice cream base.

The verdict? A definite winner, and one that we’ll add to our roster. It’s got a wonderful balance of bitter and sweet, and textural interest from the chewy chocolate sauce and crunchy nuts.