Ice cream is becoming one of my favorite desserts to make. It's pretty low effort because there's zero baking involved and the ice cream machine does half of the work. If you're working off of a solid recipe, you can't lose.

I had an occasion to make festive ice cream this week- it was Taco Tuesday and Cinco de Mayo on the same day. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to celebrate those two, so I hosted a little soirée. I made some tacos (didn't see that coming huh), jalapeño margies and lastly, Mexican Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

I debated between three different chocolate ice cream recipes, all from my trustee Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. There was "Ben's Chocolate Ice Cream," the rich one, "Jerry's Chocolate Ice Cream," the complex one and "Light Chocolate Ice Cream," the subtle one. I went with my boy Jerry's recipe because it seemed liked a happy medium, not overly rich or weak in the chocolate department. In order to make it a proper Mexican chocolate, I added cinnamon and cayenne pepper to taste. They key is to go heavier on these spices because after the ice cream freezes, those flavors become less intense. The spice proportions I gave you below are rough. For the cinnamon, I added a teaspoon at a time, blended, and tasted until there was a significant hit of cinnamon. For the cayenne pepper, I went shake by shake until it was noticeably spicy, but not bothersome spicy. I wanted that flavor to be more subtle.

After freezing this puppy for hours and giving it a long awaited taster, I was officially into this ice cream. I loved the rich chocolate with the cinnamon, the crunch of the choco chips and the spicy friend that hit you lightly in the back of the throat <lobbing joke your way>. This ice cream needs to come out more often, not just for Mexican holidays celebrated mostly by frat boys.

Mexican Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Recipe based off of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book

Ingredients
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon
A few to five shakes of cayenne pepper
3/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Melt the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler over hot, not boiling, water. Gradually whisk in the cocoa and heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. (The chocolate may "seize" or clump together. Don't worry, the milk will dissolve it.) Whisk in the milk, a little at a time, and heat until completely blended. Remove from the heat and let cool.
2. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and vanilla and whisk to blend.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and blend. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 to 3 hours, depending on your refrigerator. I went with I hour and change.
4. Whisk the cinnamon and cayenne pepper into the mixture, transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions. Mine took about 25-30 mins. Add chocolate chips when you are a few minutes away from being done

Dessert Fiend