Introduction
Have you wondered just how amazing it would be to make your ice cream at home? We did, and we were at first put off by the idea of having to buy an ice cream machine... But then we thought machines are taking our jobs. It's time to hit back and get our jobs back!
The result is truly remarkable: a refreshing stracciatella (chocolate chips) gelato made without an ice cream machine!
Preparing this handmade ice cream is not hard at all, but it does require 2 minutes of your time every hour, for up to 8 hours. So it's ideal you do this when you are at home, say on a Sunday.
How does the ice cream maker work? It is freezing the mixture while stirring it constantly, thus preventing it from becoming a block of ice. The stirring will help develop tiny ice crystals whose structure keeps them apart from one another and makes it easy for you to spoon through. Alas, not very a scientific explanation, but hopefully it makes our job clear: we need to stir the ice cream to make it creamy.
If we can stir it every 30 minutes, or even 1 hour, before it forms a block, then mission accomplished! In the steps below, we will show you how to do it. Don't worry, it will be easy and effortless.
Also, as here at Foodaciously, we strive to make tasty recipes healthier and diet-friendly, we have used dark chocolate and sugar-free sweetener erythritol.
Try opting for dark chocolate with at least 70% cacao solids, 80% and 90% would be ideal, as they have fewer and fewer sugars. Here we have used the 99% to keep the sugars almost to zero.
Erythritol is a fantastic sugar replacement for sweet treats and desserts. It's a natural ingredient that tastes like sugar, but it doesn't get digested. So you'll get the same yummy sweetness but without the calories. Amazing!