Espresso Gelato

Some years ago, I purchased a cuisinart ice cream machine. At that time, my kids gave me a book, The Ultimate Frozen Dessert Book.  While I have not made a lot of the stuff in the book, I have made the Espresso Gelato which has been a favorite.  I did alter the recipe by adding Heath Bar pieces at the very end.  One more note, the cuisinart ice cream machine is not a good device.  Ice cream once churned needs to freeze guickly.  It just can't with the Cuisinart I purchased.  A friend, Megan Costello, loaned me her machine, a Breville unit that pre-chills the machine's canister, which is perfect.  So, my advice, purchase a high end machine to make your ice cream.   So, here we go.

Ingredients

• 5 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• ⅔ Cup granulated sugar
• 2 TB packed brown sugar (I use dark not light)
• 1 Cup Whole milk
• 2 Cups Heavy Cream
• 2 TB instant Espresso Powder (I use - Medaglia D'oro, espresso instant coffee)
• 1 Teaspoon Good quality Vanilla extract
• ¼ Teaspoon salt
• 2 Heath Bar candy bars, chopped into ⅛-¼ inch sized pieces (set aside)
• 2-3 plastic freezer containers

Procedure

1. Beat the room temperature egg yolks, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a medium bowl with a whisk or an electric mixer at medium speed until the mixture has the texture of beaten batter, about 3 minutes.  Set aside.  I use the whisk and it works great.  When the mixture turn to a pale yellow, its done.
2. Heat the milk and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles frizzle all around the pan's inner edge.  Whisk in the espressor powder and desolve.
3. At this point, you need to temper the egg mixture with the hot milk.  To do so, whisk about ⅓ of the hot milk into the beaten egg-yolk mixture and stir until smooth.  Turn the heat to very low.
4. Then add another ⅓ of the milk to the egg mixture stir until smooth.  Finally, add the remaining milk to the custard.  
5. Please note: If you have an electric stove, use a second burner when you start to combine the milk and egg mixtures and set the stove to low. 
6. To continue, stir the mixture constanly until a few puffs of steam rise from its surface and it's thick enough to coat the back of a wood spoon, about 5 minutes.
7. This is a very important step.  Strain the mixture, through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl to remove any bits of egg that have inadvertently scrambled, taking care not to scrape out any solids that may have cooked onto the bottom of the pan.  
8. Stir in the vanilla extract and salt.  
9. If you have an ice cream machine that DOES NOT pre-cool the ice cream canister (in the machine), you will need to chill the mixture in the refrigerator over night.  Also, these types of machines, require putting the machine's canister (used to make ice cream) in the freezer for at least two days.  If your machine, like the Breville pre-chills the canister, you are good to go once the custard is ready.
10. Follow the instructions for your machine for making ice cream.   
11. My Breville machine alerts me when I can add other ingredients.  At that point, I add my Heath Bar pieces and churn for about 2 more minutes.  At which time, I put the soft mixture into freezer containers and into the freezer for at least one day.  If your machine is a Cuisinart or another brand that only churns the custard and does to alert you as to when to add other ingredients, you will need to add the Heath Bar pieces once the mixture starts to look like soft serve ice cream.
12. Put the containers in your freezer until ready to serve.  Serve and enjoy.