Chocolate Dipped Strawberries in a Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I'm sensing that the country is now in full Strawberry Season swing. My food blogging friends at Daydreamer Desserts, Steamy Kitchen, White on Rice, and Citron et Vanille have recently posted about their strawberry creations. If you have been paying any attention on Taste Spotting or Food Gawker it seems like every other photo contains some form of strawberries. I love seeing everyone's creative take on the strawberry -- it's such a delicate and versatile fruit. 

As with most things in life, simplicity is best. Just let the individual ingredients stand out and shine on their own.  For my latest strawberry creation, I wanted to create something simple that would portray the sweet and lively strawberry flavor in its best light. Just imagine eating chocolate dipped strawberry with a scoop your favorite vanilla bean ice cream. 

In this recipe, I dipped pieces of freshly diced strawberries into melted dark chocolate and froze them on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. I then made a simple and delicious vanilla bean ice cream. Just keeping it simple.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

1 cup diced strawberries

6 ounces dark chocolate

I diced the strawberries into bite size pieces. I then melted 6 ounces of dark chocolate. You can melt chocolate in your microwave or you can use the double boiler method. If you are using the microwave, I would suggest you do it in 10-15 second intervals and stir the melted chocolate until it is completely melted.

Next, mix in half of your diced strawberries into the melted chocolate. I used two forks to cover and coat the strawberries with chocolate, remove them one by one and place them onto a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Once you have repeated the steps with the remaining strawberries, place the baking sheet in the freezer. I would suggest you leave it in the freezer for a couple of hours, and then remove the frozen chocolate strawberries from the sheet and place them in a freezer safe container or a ziploc bag. 

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, adapted from the David Lebovitz book The Perfect Scoop:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1 vanilla bean pod 

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

pinch of salt

In a medium saucepan heat up 1 cup of the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and salt. Split the vanilla bean pod lengthwise and use the tip of the knife to scrape out the vanilla bean seeds. Place both the vanilla beans and the pod into the sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a slight boil and then temper the egg yolks with the mixture. Place the ice cream base back in the saucepan and return it to the heat.  Once the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon and you can swipe a line on it, remove from the heat. 

Pour the ice cream base into a heat proof bowl and add the rest of the cream and vanilla extract. Stir and place the bowl into an ice bath. Let cool for 1 hour and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Pour the chilled ice cream base through a fine mesh strainer -- the vanilla seeds should be small enough to flow through the strainer. You can rinse the vanilla pod, dry it out and leave it in your sugar jar to infuse your sugar with a beautiful vanilla aroma (great in your morning cup of coffee). 

Follow your ice cream maker instructions. Once the ice cream is at a soft serve consistency, transfer it to a freezer safe container. Alternate a layer of vanilla ice cream with your frozen chocolate-covered strawberries.

Strawberries remind me that spring is here and summer is just around the corner. You'll probably see a couple more strawberry ice cream related posts before the end of strawberry season. Enjoy the sunshine.

If you have any requests, please leave them in the comment section below. 

Thank you. 

Bao