Chocolate Beet Ice Cream

Remember all those beets? We had way more than fit in that red and blue tart, so Kirk puréed and froze the extra roasted beets. I just picked some more this weekend, so we decided to use up a bunch, this time in a dessert:

This is chocolate beet ice cream, and it is delicious. Do not be afraid! It is awesome.

Kirk got the idea from River Cottage, a BBC Show about a guy who grows lots of great food in England. I think he's rich and has an estate to play with, but it's still a good show despite the jealous-making aspect of it.

The River Cottage recipe called for eggs, so was really more of a frozen custard. As I mentioned before, we are not fans of ice cream with eggs in it, so we modified this recipe to be a Philadelphia-style ice cream. Here's how we did it to make a half gallon:

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup half and half

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/3 lb. roasted beet purée (room temperature)

1/2 lb. semisweet chocolate chips, melted

Heat the milk until it just starts to bubble, then remove it from heat. Add sugar and salt and stir until dissolved in the hot milk. Stir in half and half and the remaining ingredients until thoroughly blended. Chill in fridge for a half hour before putting it in the ice cream maker for about 45 minutes. Then freeze it for a few hours before serving.

It's hard to describe how this tastes, except to say that it's chocolatey and beety. That doesn't really do it justice — especially if you can only imagine pickled beets, or if you think you don't like beets. (If the latter is the case, I suggest you grow some and taste anew. Huge difference!) It's like a grown-up chocolate ice cream: not too overpoweringly sweet, and a little earthy (in a good way). It's complicated. 

But you should try it. It's a win for color alone — gorgeous!

And even Jonas liked it.