Java Chip Ice Cream
Creamy, dreamy java chip with chunks of bittersweet chocolate immersed in a heavenly coffee-scented ice cream.
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Stir together ¼ cup of the milk and the 4 teaspoons of corn starch in a small bowl and set it aside. Put the cream cheese in a large bowl and also set it aside.
  2. In a medium-large pot (at least 4 quarts), mix together the remaining 1¾ cups of milk, the cream, sugar, syrup and salt. Bring them just to a very low simmer. The mixture should be just starting to bubble at the edges, steamy but not boiling. Take the pot off the heat, add the coffee beans and stir them, cover the pot, and set it aside for 60-90 minutes. At the end of the steeping period, remove the coffee beans with a slotted spoon.
  3. Return the pot to the stovetop, bring the mixture to a boil over a medium-high heat and cook the mixture for 4 minutes, stirring or whisking it occasionally. Stir the milk and cornstarch slurry to make sure it is well combined and add it to the steeped milk/cream base. Return the base to a boil and continue cooking it, stirring or whisking frequently, for about 2-3 minutes, until it has thickened enough to coat a spoon well.
  4. Add 1-2 ladles of the base (¼ – ½ cup) to the cream cheese and whisk it well, until the mixture is smooth. Initially the mixture may look separated, but with enough elbow grease, whisking quickly the softened cream cheese and the small amount of base will meld into a smooth paste. Then add the rest of the base, stirring to combine it all into a smooth liquid.
  5. Place a lot of ice cubes in a large bowl and sit an open gallon-size plastic freezer bag with a ziplock top in among cubes so it stands up. Carefully pour or ladle the base into the bag. Seal the bag, burp out any excess air, and add cold water to the ice cubes to leave bag sitting in an ice bath.
  6. Let the base cool down for 10-15 minutes in that ice bath (it must be cool or even cold to the touch on the outside of the plastic bag), then pour and squeeze it from the bag into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions for churning the base. (I say both pour and squeeze because at the beginning it pours, but to get the last bits out you have to squeeze the bag.)
  7. About 3-4 minutes before the ice cream is finished churning, add the chopped chocolate in small batches over the course of a minute so that the chocolate becomes dispersed in the base.
  8. Transfer the soft ice cream to a freezer-proof container and freeze it for a few hours until it sets.
Recipe Notes

Make your chocolate chunks not much bigger than a chocolate chip – mini, regular, or jumbo. They don’t change shape of soften in the ice cream:)
Don’t forget to chill your ice cream maker base at least 12 hours (preferably 24 hrs) before you make the ice cream. It needs that long to fully chill before you use it.