Rocky Road Ice Cream

This recipe yeilds just a hair under two quarts! I have a two quart ice cream maker and it is just about to the brim once the toppings are added.If you have a 1.5 quart machine just pour in the mixture until it is 3/4 of the way full. Take the extra and place it in a freezer freindly container toss in a few of the toppings and freeze for 8 to 12 hours and it will be just as good as the ice cream that comes out of the machine!

Note: before you start (or the night before), put your ice cream maker bowl in the freezer so it’s nice and cold.

First thing you want to do is in a medium sized saucepan over medium low heat, heat the sweetened condensed milk and the cocoa powder slightly. You are not trying to cook it you are just heating it while you stir the cocoa together so that you get it all incorporated into a nice smooth chocolate sauce. Once it is incorporated pull it off the heat and set it aside to cool.

Once the milk mixture is cooled, add in the half and half, vanilla extract and heavy cream and stir well (I just used a regular spoon.) Once it is all mixed together stick your saucepan in the freezer while you chop the nuts and prepare the ice cream maker.

Chop the almonds. I did a rough chop and tried to chop them different ways so you get a different size bite each time.

Once you have the nuts chopped and your marshmallows measured out, get the ice cream maker bowl out of the freezer and put it in the ice cream maker. Set it up so it is ready to use. Take your chocolate mixture out of the freezer and pour it into the ice cream maker. Turn the ice cream maker on. Set your timer for 35 minutes.

At the 35-minute mark add in your toppings and let it incorporate for another 5 minutes.

Once this is done scoop it out of the ice cream maker and into your freezer containers. Mine was definitely firm enough to serve right then. It would have been a little firmer than soft serve. I stuck it in the freezer for 2 hours and then I had it in an ice cream cone!