One Track Mind

I don't know if I'll ever learn. Really, the number of times I've blown it in the kitchen because I'm trying to juggle too many things at once is beyond counting. You would think I would know by now and refrain from tackling more than one, or at a maximum, two projects at the same time. But no.

Case in point - my daughter had a couple of friends coming over for a quick dinner before we headed out to a movie. I decided to make chili since I had the ingredients on hand and it is a quick, easy meal I could throw together in a coma. Once I got going on that, though, I realized that chili needs cornbread to go with it. No problem. I make chili and cornbread together all the time. Then I realized that we couldn't have friends over for dinner and not have dessert! I figured I'd make my easy, trusty brownie recipe. No problem, right? Well, a small problem. When I'm rushed for time, and juggling three recipes, I don't always read as carefully as I should. I added twice the amount of melted chocolate to the batter as I should.

So how was the meal? The chili was good, the cornbread was underbaked, so it was kind of cornbread pudding, but tasty cornbread pudding. And the brownies? Well, they just weren't right. A little dry. The texture and taste were off and I was saddened to have spend all that time and chocolate making a pan of brownies that no one wanted to eat.


After staring at that pathetic pan of wrong brownies for two days, fearing I'd have to chuck the whole thing in the garbage just to get it off my counter, I had a brilliant idea. Brownies and ice cream together are delicious. How about brownies in ice cream? The ice cream hid the dryness problem of the brownies and the brownies provided a delicious textural counterpoint for the ice cream. Fabulous!

Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream

- adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

8 oz (230 g) milk chocolate with at least 30% cocoa solids, finely chopped
1-1/2 cups (375 ml) heavy cream
1-1/2 cups (375 ml) whole milk
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
Big pinch of kosher salt
4 large egg yolks
2 tsp Cognac
Brownies with walnuts (about 1/2 of a 9 x 9-inch pan)

Combine the milk chocolate and cream in a large, heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted, then remove the bowl from the saucepan. Set it aside with a mesh strainer over the top.

In a medium saucepan warm the milk, sugar, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer into the milk chocolate mixture, add the Cognac, and mix together. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator 4 hours or overnight. Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. During the last few minutes of churning, crumble in the brownies.