Stracciatella is an Italian gelato flavor that is perfect in its simplicity. Finely shaved chocolate in a sweet cream ice cream base.

After Ben and Jerry’s invented chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in 1991, unfortunately, many ice cream producers have been either too lazy to make the cookie dough, or too lazy to to shave the chocolate for stracciatella. And so, we are left with freezer aisles featuring the blasphemous flavor of chocolate chip ice cream.

Please do not eat this:

It even says 1/2 the fat so what’s the point? It even says 1/2 the fat so what’s the point?

Chocolate bits in ice cream should either melt in your mouth (thanks to being tiny wisps) or they should be chunky but an even, consistent crunch. Chocolate chips are pointy and won’t melt in your mouth with the ice cream because they are engineered specifically not to melt until they hit the oven inside cookies!

So, here I am trying to put good back into your world with a little recipe to liven up that plain Jane stracciatella. I used a banana base along with Central Market’s Hatch Chile Chocolate bar (dark). Delicious, simple, and easy to make.

Ingredients 3 very ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch discs

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cup whole milk

2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk powder

3/4 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

4 grams of a chocolate bar (I suggest a chocolate infused with chiles or citrus for fun) Directions On a skillet over medium heat, heat up the bananas, brown sugar, and water, until the bananas are mushy (but not dissolved). Strain the bananas into a cup. Use an immersion blender or strong whisk the bananas until liquified. Whisk in the egg yolks and set aside. Heat the milk, cream, milk powder, and sugar over medium-low heat and stir lightly until the powder and sugar are dissolved. Turn off the heat. When the milk mixture is below 70 degrees C, pour the bananas-egg mixture into the milk-cream mixture on the stovetop. Mix to combine. Turn the heat back to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches between 74-78 degrees C on a candy thermometer . Pour it through a strainer into a bowl with lid or Tupperware, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Churn your ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Just before the ice cream is done churning, use a microplane or fine cheese grater to grate the chocolate directly into the ice cream bowl while it finishes churning. Careful not to drop a chunk of chocolate into the ice cream! When it’s spotted with polkadots and churned to your liking, place it in safe storage in the freezer for a few hours or overnight to solidify. Scoop and enjoy! I recommend this as the base of an affogato or a boozy milkshake with a shot or two of rum 🙂