1/3-1/2cupsugarto 67-100 grams, to taste. For sweeter chocobar use 100 grams
1 & 1/2cupsheavy cream
1teaspoonvanilla
For Dipping The Ice Cream
400gramschocolateI use 70% cocoa, you can use sweeter chocolate
5tablespoonsoilI used avocado oil, can use coconut oil or vegetable oil
Instructions
Add 500 ml whole milk to a pan on medium-high heat. Stir often and let it come to a boil which will take around 4 to 5 minutes. When it comes to a boil, lower the heat to low-medium.
Let it simmer on low for 10 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of milk powder to it. I mixed the powder with a little bit of milk (hot milk from the pan) in a small bowl before adding it so that it dissolves easily. Stir and let simmer 5 more minutes,
Then, add the sugar. You can add anywhere between 1/3 cup (67 grams) to 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar. If you are using milk chocolate for dipping the bars, I would suggest using 1/3 cup. If using dark chocolate use 1/2 cup. Stir and let the sugar dissolve.Cook 3-5 more minutes. In the end, we want milk to be reduced to half which is 250 ml. This took around 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the pan from heat. Your thickened/evaporated milk is now ready. Let it cool down to room temperature.
Add 1 & 1/2 cups heavy cream to the steel bowl of your stand mixer (or use your stand mixer). Beat the cream using the wire whisk attachment on medium speed for 1 minute. We don't want any peaks here, just beating it a little.
Then add the prepared evaporated milk to the cream. Also, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Now, again beat the mixture on medium speed for around 2 minutes. We are not looking for any peaks here, just the mixture should become thick and creamy. You can see the consistency of the mixture in the photo below. This consistency gives that creamy texture to the ice cream bar.
Pour the prepared mixture into the ice cream mold. Cover and then insert wooden ice cream sticks in each compartment. If your mold doesn't have space for inserting ice cream molds, cover with an aluminum foil and then make small slits with a knife and then insert the sticks through that space. Freeze 24 hours.
Once ice cream bars are frozen, prepare the dipping chocolate before taking it out of the freezer. I have used dark chocolate here with 70% cocoa solids. Place chocolate into a bowl and place it over a pot of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl (with chocolate) should not touch the surface of water. This is called the double boiler method for boiling the chocolate.
Add around 5 tablespoons of oil, I added avocado oil. You can use coconut oil as well. Stir and let the chocolate melt completely. Remove bowl from heat and let it cool down a little to room temperature. Then transfer it to a tall glass so that you can easily dip the entire bar into the chocolate.
Take the mold out of the freezer. This ice cream melts quickly so there's no need to run it under warm water. I usually just run a knife around and then pull gently. It should come out. If not, then you can place the mold under running warm water for a few seconds and then try again. Meanwhile, place a sheet of parchment paper over a baking tray and keep it ready.
Dip the frozen bar into the melted chocolate. Dip it completely so that it gets coated from all sides. Make sure chocolate isn't hot when you dip the bar into it.
Remove the bar from the glass and hold it over that sheet of parchment paper so that all the excess chocolate drips there. Hold it for a minute or two until the chocolate dries off and sets. Since, we have added oil and created a magic shell, this will solidify pretty quickly. Do not place the choco bar on that parchment paper before the chocolate has set else it won't get a smooth finish. Once set, place it on parchment paper and proceed with dipping more bars.This is the plain choco bar.
If you want to make it with nuts, first dip the ice cream bar into the chocolate. Then take it out, sprinkle it with nuts (chopped almonds) immediately. Let the chocolate set and then dip it in chocolate again. This way you will have a nutty choco bar. If you want, you can even skip the second dipping in chocolate and just let it be garnished with nuts. Make all choco bars similarly.
Notes
Use good quality chocolate: using good quality chocolate is crucial to how your final choco bar will taste. So use a very good tasting chocolate. I used dark chocolate from Max Brenner which was really good. You can use either dark or milk chocolate.
If you don't want to use oil while melting the chocolate, you can simply use plain chocolate. But remember to temper the chocolate in that case. Without tempering, the chocolate would melt and not set completely and you will have a problem dipping your choco bar.
Another easy way to dip a choco bar is using melting wafers or candyquik. But again, use a good quality one, my recommendation is to use Ghiradelli melting wafers.
If you don't want to thicken the milk, you can straight away use around 250 ml of evaporated milk. l definitely recommend to cook and thicken the milk though, that makes the ice cream really delicious.