Malted vanilla with chocolate covered pretzels

By fiveandspice • August 24, 2012 • 12 Comments

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Author Notes: We have gotten totally spoiled by living near a bunch of really good ice cream shops with all sorts of great flavors. A favorite of mine is malted ice cream - in ice cream form, not in a shake/frappe form. It may not be terribly sophisticated but I adore malt (and malted milk balls), probably because we had a malt shop in town that made insanely thick malts - complete with whipped cream a wafer and a cherry on top - when I was growing up and it was where we went for treats on warm summer evenings. Anyhow, back to the present. Earlier in the summer our neighborhood ice cream shop (aka our near daily after dinner destination) had both malted vanilla and a chocolate ice cream with pretzel pieces. I had a scoop of each together, but what I really wanted was to have them combined in one flavor (plus the pretzel bits weren't coated in anything to keep them from getting soggy, and something definitely needed to be done about that!)...so, ta-da!
This is basically a malted version of Cook's Illustrated's vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate covered pretzel nubbins swirled in. I usually don't use corn syrup in anything, but I've got to say, it does a nice job of help to keep the ice cream from freezing too hard. - fiveandspice

Makes a bit over 1 quart

Chocolate covered pretzel bits

3/4 cups salted pretzel sticks broken into little bits (you know, the size you would want sprinkled through your ice cream)
8 ounces finely chopped dark chocolate
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature

Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper. Gently melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir in the butter until smooth and the butter has completely disappeared.
Drop the pretzel bits into the chocolate and stir until all the pretzel pieces are coated. Then, using a fork, lift the pretzel bits out of the chocolate several at a time and push them onto the lined baking sheet, trying to make sure the individual pieces are separated from each other, for the most part. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill until the chocolate has hardened. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Malted vanilla ice cream

1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 egg yolks
2/3 cups malt powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
chocolate covered pretzel bits (from above)

Combine the cream, milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat to a bare simmer, then turn the heat down. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, malt powder and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar.
When the cream mixture is hot, whisk a ladleful of the hot cream into the egg yolks (whisk vigorously!) to temper them. Repeat with one or two more ladlefuls. Then, pour the egg mixture into the pot with the rest of the cream mixture.
Cook the custard mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it has thickened to a custard texture and coats the back of a spoon (it will be around 180F). Pour the custard through a fine mesh strainer into a large metal bowl, then stir in the vanilla.
You can chill your custard over an ice bath, but I have hated ice baths ever since organic chemistry (I don't like bain-maries much either for the same reason), so I just stick mine, covered, into the fridge and leave it overnight or until it is completely chilled.
Transfer your custard to your ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer's instructions until it reaches the consistency of soft serve, adding the pretzel bits in the last minute or so of churning.
Eat immediately (mmmm, soft serve), or transfer to an airtight container and chill for a couple hours until firm.