I've tried a few variations in technique using this recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/56803/very-chocolate-ice-cream/
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
2 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Every time, I get chocolate solid(s) that don't fully dissolve into the base. I'm using Baker's chocolate that does melt, not chips or anything with stabilizers!
The recipe calls for heating the base, then removing from stove and using the residual heat to melt the chopped chocolate. Multiple times, that has resulted in chocolate not fully melting and leaving solid(s) that don't melt, even if the base is heated again.
After some research on this sub, this time, I melted the chocolate in the microwave separately, ensuring it was smooth. I tempered my base to 170F, reduced it to 90F in an ice bath, then stirred in the melted chocolate (which was around 80F at the time). Some of the melted chocolate still solidified!
Pictured is my base after adding the melted chocolate (rip) and the seive removing most of the larger bits.
Obviously we still churn and enjoy the finished product, but I know I'm missing something and hate to lose chocolate at the seive stage.
What should I try next? Is it the temperature when adding melted chocolate to the base? Should I stir some of the base into the melted chocolate first, then put the thinned mixture back into the rest of the base? Do ice baths create too much temperature swing, and should I skip it entirely, just going to seive & fridge the base while warm? Is it actually important to add heavy cream later, rather than including it while tempering the base? Something else?
by snookums666
10 Comments
My chocolate used to do this how I fixed it was adding warm base INTO the smooth chocolate while still whisking the chocolate. Do a little at a time first then once it’s really started to work you can pour the rest in.
I’ve **always** had a heck of a time getting cocoa powder to dissolve.
For this reason, I only use unsweetened cocoa bars.
maybe melting chocolate via double boil, then whisking in milk while chocolate is still warm, then cool the now-chocolate milk and use in your base (might be saying the same thing you suggested in the last paragraph).
Set some of your dairy aside into a seperate saucepan. Primarily milk. You can then heat and dissolve in that small pan before adding all the contents back Ito the larger base.
Admittedly I do most icecream in larger multi pint batches so this is easier to do. But it is what I Doo to dissolve cocoa and fully.melt 70% cocoa chocolate.
Use a double boiler for melting chocolate. Personally, I’ve never had a great time microwaving chocolate and (I’m no scientist) I think the molecules act different, so I’ve never melted chocolate that way.
I sift my cocoa powder into the base. That eliminates the clumps that the whisk might not fully dissolve.
I also whisk the hell out of my chocolate bases during tempering. It’s amongst the smoothest ice cream textures I make.
Use a hand blender.
I heat my base to 145-155 degrees then the Vitamix takes over.
Bloom your cocoa powder in 150-200ml of almost boiling liquid, whisk to smooth paste, then melt your chocolate in that. Pour that into cold liquid and (immersion) blend.
That works for me.
https://jhermann.github.io/ice-creamery/D/Dark%20Temptation%20%28Deluxe%29/Dark-Temptation_2025-07-24_1.jpg
Cocoa is fat dissolvable so if you put too much watery ingredients like milk in it, this happens.
I don’t have any problems with dissolving cocoa powder/chocolate now when I add it at first to the eggs and sugar (before adding milk) and it dissolves in there, or if I make a chocolate milk with veerry slowly adding milk to cocoa.