July is National Ice Cream month! Do you know about Stracciatella (pronounced stra-chuh-tay-la)? Stracciatella is ice cream with irregularly-sized shavings of chocolate added. The chocolate shavings offer a slightly crunchy texture and eliminate the difficulty of biting through frozen mini chocolate chips. Stracciatella is usually make with a vanilla ice cream base, but other flavor bases can be used. Today I’ve decided to make one of my favorite flavors, coffee.

Also, this ice cream recipe is made in the Philadelphia-style so it contains no eggs - it’s a little easier to make than custard-style ice cream, and you won’t end up with a bunch of leftover egg whites to use up. Plan ahead - for best flavor and texture, this ice cream base should be refrigerated overnight before processing in an ice cream maker.

Be sure to use high quality, flavorful ground coffee. A medium to coarse grind is fine - it’ll be strained out of the ice cream base before churning.

Be sure to use really good chocolate too. I’m a dark chocolate fan, but milk or bittersweet work fine - just use whichever one you prefer.

In commercial settings, melted chocolate is drizzled into the ice cream during the churning process, but I find I get better results at home with shaved chocolate.

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• Xanthan gum https://amzn.to/3iv8htm

• ice cream machine https://amzn.to/2D8TeFv

• ice cream storage containers https://amzn.to/2VKh152

• ice cream scoop https://amzn.to/3gn8j4y

• deli containers https://amzn.to/3gsYeDl

Coffee Stracciatella Ice Cream (Stracciatella al caffe)

makes 1 1/2 quarts

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups (705g) heavy cream

• 1 cup (230g) milk

• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup (167g) light corn syrup

• 1/4 teaspoon (2.4g) fine salt

• 1/2 cup (40g) ground coffee

• 1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml or 2g) pure vanilla extract

• 3/8 teaspoon (.08g) Xanthan gum (optional)

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream, milk, sugar, corn syrup, and salt to a gentle simmer.

2. Remove from heat and stir in the ground coffee (and optional xanthan gum, if using); allow coffee to steep in the milk/cream mixture for 30 minutes.

3. Strain ground coffee grounds from the mixture, pressing to get all the liquid from the grounds; discard coffee grounds.

4. Pour coffee infused ice cream base into an airtight container and chill in the coldest part of your refrigerator for at least 12 hours (24 hours is better - can be made several days in advance).

5. Churn the ice cream base in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions; adding shaved chocolate during the last minute or two of churning.

6. Transfer to ice cream to an airtight container and store in the freezer.

Notes

• This ice cream freezes very hard - allow to soften at room temperature for 10-15 minuets for easier scooping, or microwave in 10-second bursts until soft enough to scoop (30 seconds in my 900w microwave).

• Other stracciatella flavor bases to consider: vanilla, matcha, chocolate, banana, cherry, mint, hazelnut, etc.

• To make chocolate shavings, use a sharp vegetable peeler to shave the sides of a chocolate bar. My kitchen was warm on the day I shaved my chocolate so I ended up with a bunch of chocolate curls, but they completely break apart during the churning process so don’t worry if your chocolate doesn’t curl.