Vanilla Ice Cream with Toasted Chocolate Covered Almonds

This is a copycat recipe of the Hagan Daz version. It turned out pretty well, though next time I will use more Vanilla. (I only used 2 teaspoons.)


It was good... Really good. Here is the basic recipe.

1 cup whole or 2% milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups Heavy Cream
2-3 teaspoons High Quality Vanilla Extract

For the Almonds
1 1/2 - 2 cups unsalted raw almonds
1/2 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
pinch of sea salt



I used the Cuisinart CIM-20 Series Automatic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker.



Toast your almonds at 250 degrees for about ten minutes or until you can smell that lovely warm toasted smell coming from you oven. Make sure you don't over do it and burn them.



Next you need to melt your chocolate chips. You can do this in a microwave but it is tricky and if you heat them to much they will become a chalky mess. My preferred method is to use two bowls that nest into each other. In the bigger bowl heat water in the microwave for 60 seconds. Pour the chocolate chips into the smaller bowel to heat for about 15 seconds in the microwave. Sit the smaller chocolate bowl on the larger bowl with water. the hot water will provide sufficient heat for the chocolate chips to melt.
Just be careful when you set the bowls together. If you have to much water in the one then it will overflow.



Stir the chocolate until it is smooth in texture.



Add the almonds.



Stir until almonds are fully coated.




Spread them onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and then put them into the fridge to harden.





Whisk the milk and sugar together for at least three minutes. You want to make sure that the sugar is fully dissolved. Add your cream and vanilla. Whisk. Then pour into ice cream maker and let it process for 25 min until thickened.



After 25 min your almonds should look like this, the chocolate has hardened and it has a matte sheen to it. Break the almond clusters apart.


Add the almonds to the thickened ice cream mixture. I ended up adding only a cup.



It is done when it looks like ice cream. You can see that it is so thick it sticks to the paddle.

Let it ripen in the Freezer for about 2 hours. Serve and enjoy!