Midnight Chocolate Ice Cream
Made with a combination of black cocoa and dark chocolate to produce the deepest chocolatey taste imaginable. Perfect for those indulgent summer afternoons when only a rich frozen treat will do.
If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know I have a deep appreciation for the darker side of chocolate. My cookie recipes tend to favor 70% chocolate, and every cocoa-based recipe on the site uses dutch process. A beloved recipe here is this chocolate mascarpone buttercream, and although my primary focus for that recipe was the cheese; it gets a lot of attention because of the dark & rich color of the cake and the buttercream which had some black cocoa in it. And while we are on that…
What is Black Cocoa?
If you haven’t heard of it before, it might sound like an exotic ingredient, but chances are you’ve already tasted (and loved!) it because it’s what’s used to make Oreos. Black cocoa is exceptionally dark in color and rich in taste a result of the removal of all the fat in the alkalizing process (sometimes you might hear it referred to as double dutch cocoa).
Midnight Chocolate Ice Cream
This ice cream recipe uses a combination of black cocoa and dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids) to make super dark, aka ‘midnight’. As much as I love using black cocoa, I rarely go all in with it because it tends to be bitter in taste – very different than the chocolate we as a society have become accustomed to consuming (which frankly, is a lot closer to milk chocolate). But in this recipe, I go all in with the black cocoa for a deep effect. And, because I also use melted chocolate which rounds out the chocolatey taste. Together the two ingredients produce the deepest, richest homemade chocolate ice cream recipe.
Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream
Most chocolate ice cream recipes are custard based; this means they use a combination of egg yolks and dairy which make the ‘cream’ part of our dish. The fat in the yolks is what keeps the consistency smooth, even when frozen. Alternatively, Philadelphia style ice cream doesn’t have eggs and gets its smooth consistency from other ingredients or methods; this NYT recipe uses quite a bit of corn syrup (you guys know corn syrup is not a favorite ingredient of mine) and Jeni uses a mix of corn syrup (though not nearly as much as NYT), cream cheese and cornstarch to achieve the custard texture without the eggs.
Guess what? We need none of those here! The fat from the chocolate, even though it’s heavy on the cocoa solids, is enough to give us perfectly creamy and smooth ice cream – even when frozen solid, like this popular David Lebovitz sorbet. In developing this recipe, I kept David’s chocolate method in mind and I remembered an eggless chocolate recipe from Amy over at Chew Out Loud which I had made and loved a few years ago (I especially appreciate her use of brown sugar).
Note: this ice cream can be a bit grainy from the cocoa. That doesn’t come through when you eat it, it’s very smooth, but you might be able to see small granules when it’s frozen. Make sure to cook the cocoa & sugar enough so that you get rid of most of those.
How to make midnight chocolate ice cream
- Warm the cream, pour over the chocolate. Mix to make a thin ganache.
- Heat the sugar, milk, cocoa and salt until sugar has dissolved.
- Add ganache to the mix and whisk to combine.
- Remove from heat, add vanilla and then chill the base overnight.
- Churn in your ice cream maker the next day.
Recipe Ingredients
Chocolate
At least 70% cocoa solids. Lindt is widely available at grocery stores and is one of my favorites. Theo Chocolate is another favorite (so smooth!). Do not use chocolate chips, even if they are dark. The chips contain wax to help them keep shape and won’t melt as well.
Cocoa
For the darkest effect I use KAF’s black cocoa. If you don’t want to invest in a new ingredient, you can use dutch process cocoa. I recommend Guittard’s Rouge (the hue of the ice cream will be lighter and possibly a bit reddish brown).
Heavy Cream
Or heavy whipping cream. It’s possible you could use canned coconut milk as a substituion but I haven’t tried it.
Milk
Whole milk is best and 2% will work fine. I wouldn’t use a lower fat percentage as it might affect the creaminess of the final product. If you are trying to make this vegan, you might use soy or almond (but if you have it or know how to make it I bet hazelnut milk would be amazing here!)
Vanilla
Use pure vanilla, not artificial. If you are using the extract and not the paste (the paste is thicker, shows the bean speckles) you’ll need a little less. Use your judgement by tasting it. Also, if you feel very fancy you could scrape down a vanilla bean.
Sugar
Dark brown because of the increased molasses flavor which adds a deeper caramel-y dimension. You can substitute with light brown if you only have that.
Salt
I use fine sea salt so this is how I wrote my recipe. If you have something else, start with 1/2 teaspoon and taste it to see if you like more.
Midnight Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 45g or ½ cup black cocoa or dutch process
- 170g or 1 cup chopped dark chocolate, 70-75% cocoa solids
- 200g or 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 480g or 2 cups whole milk
- 480g or 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- half teaspoon fine sea salt
Method
- Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
- In a pot, warm the cream until bubbly around the edges. Pour over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has fully melted and you have a thin, smooth ganache. Set aside.
- In the same pot add the milk, sugar, sea salt and black cocoa. Whisk to combine then cook over medium heat while whisking until the sugar and cocoa granules dissolve, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the ganache to the pot and whisk mixture together until well combined. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Check that salt/vanilla is to your taste.
- Pour base into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve, to catch any unmixed lumps. Cover the bowl and set in fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours. Freeze ice cream machine bowl, if using.
- The next day churn the ice cream according to machine instructions.
Did you make this recipe?
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Thank you so much for sharing this lovely recipe and it’s the best recipe ever made, it’s so chocolatey and personally i think it’s better than the ones in the market. Ops i had put a teaspoon of instant coffee powder in to bring out the chocolate flavour, this is what i do with my chocolate muffins, and i think it works well with the chocolate ice cream as well ☺️
Clearly my efforts to convert the recipe to using my scale/weights failed. It tastes OK but it is PITCH black. Good for Halloween I guess. But I want more traditional chocolate looking version shown in the images. I cook by weight and assumed 1/2 cup black cocoa was the same as 4 ounces of black cocoa. For the black cocoa, I used The Cocoa Trader Black Cocoa for Baking. Also, I tried to convert a 100% cocoa baking bar to 70% by replacing 30% of the weight with sugar. Would you just use the 100% chocolate bar in this recipe?
I’ll try again using “cup” measurements the best I can and an actual 70% bar to see if I can get closer to chocolate joy.
Appreciate the recipe, very creamy — in texture, not color!
Hi Sharon, that is about three times the amount of cocoa you needed (1/2 cup cocoa = 45g = 1.5oz) so I can imagine it was very dark! I have added gram measurements. As far as the chocolate, a 100% chocolate doesn’t have the same sugars and fats so it won’t produce the same texture or flavor. A 70% cocoa solids bar will help you achieve something that looks more like the photo.
This is one of the best ice cream recipes I have ever made, and definitely the best chocolate ice cream! Absolutely delicious, creamy, and so chocolatey! I made the recipe exactly as written, and wouldn’t change a thing.
that’s awesome to hear lindsey! This is an older recipe and it’s nice to see it get a little love =)
This was very good!
This is the BEST ice cream I’ve ever made!
I used a Salt & Straw ice cream base I’d already made then melted 170g dark chocolate, 42g cacao berry extra brute, 1 tsp jacobsen salt, and 2 tbsp brown sugar with 1/4 cup hot water before incorporating into the plain base with a stick blender. And 10 chopped halloween oreos at the end of churning. I was going for something like Handel’s Midnight Madness ice cream; totally nailed the ridiculously creamy chocolatiness but my cocoa wasn’t black so the color is lighter.
Great recipe ????
Thanks for the recipe! I tried a delicious chocolate buttermilk ice cream from a store near me and wanted to make something similar at home and used your recipe as a base! I swapped out the bittersweet chocolate for a mix of semi and bittersweet and used about 5.5 oz. I also switched out half a cup of the milk for buttermilk, adding it at the end! It came out well and I liked your trick with the cocoa powder to make sure it didn’t come out grainy. Once I finish this quart (which came out deliciously!) I’ll try it again as written.
Ben, I’m intrigued by your use of buttermilk – will have to try that!
Hi, how much Ice Cream does your recipe make? I have an Ice Cream maker, it’s a 4-to-6-quart machine, would I need to double the recipe to use my machine? I need to make enough for 8- to – 10 people.
Very good! rich chocolate flavor which is lovely. I used the Cuisinart ice cream maker that she used and it worked really well. a lot of the recipe is waiting and the active mixing part doesn’t take very long, so it was pretty easy for a first timer. Only thing was that I found as the ice cream froze for longer that it became more grainy in texture. still good, but not as creamy as some in-store ice creams. Not sure if it’s something I did. my mom says that can be more typical of home made ice creams
Hi Lexy, yay can’t believe you already made it! It does get grainy with time in the freezer, I think that is the cocoa. Have you ever bought Dolcezza’s ice cream? Their dark chocolate does the same thing. I speculate it has something to do with the cocoa separating from the base. I have it on mind to find a way to prevent this
Hi! Maybe my brain is tired and this is a stupid question, but I usually bake by weight and I’m so puzzled trying to figure out how exactly you measure 1 cup of chopped chocolate since it varies so much by how finely you chop it! 😅 like the Lindt bars are 3.5 oz, do you have a typical number of bars you use that I can go off of? Thanks! 🙃
Hi Kelsey! Not a stupid question at all. Honestly, I just chop into ‘chocolate chip’ sizes and pile it in until I reach a cup. I love those lindt bars! I’d say 1 bar would equal about 3/4 cup. So for this recipe, a bar and a quarter of another? if that makes sense!
Okay perfect! I got two just in case 🤗 I need to do a cake order over the next two days and then I am TOTALLY rewarding myself with this ice cream 😂🙌🏻 Thanks!
I really want to try this! I have black cocoa I rarely use, so this would be perfect. I’m always inspired by your recipes 🙂