Rocky Road Ice Cream
An inadequate metaphor for the state of America, and perhaps an inadequate amount of cocoa powder.
Last week when I decided I would make Rocky Road as this week’s flavor, I did so for reasons of comfort (i.e. the chocolate) and for what seemed like the aptness of the name as a metaphor for the current political moment. Now that the ice cream is made, I’m not sure it achieves either of those things.
Honestly, I’m just exhausted with the state of American politics. I’m sure you all are as well. But since it still (unfortunately) takes up so much of my mental bandwidth, the only writing I could likely muster at this moment would be something political. And I don’t want to bore you with that (nor do I want to bore myself). So lucky for you, this post is going to be relatively short text-wise. I’ll stick mostly to the pictures and the process.
Rocky Road: it’s chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and toasted almond bits mixed in throughout. I used this Salt & Straw recipe for making the chocolate base (yes, I’ve referenced this video before, in the Matcha ice cream post to be exact…you could probably just watch the video and skip everything that follows here). Then I added the marshmallows, toasted almond bits, and some chopped-up chocolate chips (my own little personal flourish).
I started by making the chocolate syrup: 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. You heat the sugar and water, take it off heat, and then stir in the cocoa powder until you have a syrup. Then let it cool to room temperature.
Next up is the base. Combine the sugar and corn syrup with the milk and xanthan and then heat until the sugars dissolve. Transfer to another container and cool. Then add the cream and then the chocolate syrup.
After that, the base is done. I let it sit in the fridge for about 6 hours.
Since I don’t like making mix-ins, I was glad that these three were pretty easy to pull together. I roasted the slivered almonds for about 8-9 minutes.
Here it is churning away, reaching what Tyler Malek calls the Wendys Frosty consistency:
Anyway, the mix-ins were added, but it was a messy process and I didn’t capture any of it. Here’s the aftermath:
As for the taste, I don’t have much to say because I gave away the entirety of this week’s batch to some of my former teaching comrades. All I tasted were the remnants of what was left in the freeze bowl.
The little I did taste did not seem chocolatey enough to me. The chocolate flavor felt lacking and one of my former colleagues agreed. I would add more cocoa powder in the future. Or maybe I need to figure out how to make a ganache that doesn’t have a grainy texture.
Anyway, I’ll let two of my former colleagues give you the final verdict:
I thought the chocolate was smooth and delicious. It was also not too sweet which I really appreciated. A gentle flavor — not the ultra sweet you often get with loaded ice cream. Maybe too many marshmallows though? I think that’s sacrilegious to say about rocky road though so I’m hesitant to share it.
I thought it was delicious and perfect ice cream. The chocolate was perfect and I love hella marshmallows.
Well, it sounds like it came out alright!
See you next week, as we enter our potentially weekslong wait for America to do what other countries have figured out how to do in a day. Until then, wishing you all lots of health, happiness, and ice cream in the frightening days ahead.