homemade pumpkin ice cream with chocolate chips and walnuts

 

I really wanted to come up with a recipe for pumpkin ice cream that tasted like the kind you can get at the ice cream shops that mix up toppings in your ice cream on a marble slab.  Since I live over 200 miles from the nearest marble slab ice cream store, homemade is as good as it gets.  Honestly, it's better.
I tried making pumpkin ice cream without using a custard base, and it didn't work out.  This ice cream really needs the depth of flavor a custard base offers~  when I used just a cream/sugar base it tasted like it was missing something.  Your taste buds want to compare this ice cream to pumkin pie, so it needs to taste as rich.  It's fantastic.   Perfect with a simple sugar cookie, a warm chocolate cookie, or a drizzle of homemade hot fudge and some whipped cream.   Or by itself, in large spoonfuls, late at night.

homemade pumpkin ice cream with chocolate chips and walnuts
an original recipe by rachelle

2 cups cream
1 cup milk
2 eggs plus 2 yolks
1 cup plus 2 TB sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 (20 oz) can pumpkin
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves

later:
1/4 cup chocolate chips, blended or chopped
2 TB chocolate chips, left whole
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Combine cream and milk in a saucepan, bring to a boil and turn off immediately.  Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine egss, sugar, salt, spices and pumpkin, mix until fluffy.  While mixer is running, pour 1 cup of the hot cream into the pumpkin egg mixture.  Keep adding hot cream, one cup at a time, slowly, to temper the eggs.  After everything is combined, pour the mixture back into the saucepan.  Bring up to 170 degrees exactly, then turn the heat off.  Stir in vanilla.  Cool mixture overnight and prepare in ice cream maker-  add chocolate chips and walnuts after ice cream has frozen at least halfway so they don't sink to the bottom.

**oh, and I added a bit of red and yellow food coloring to make the color better. i stopped counting drops after i accidentally dumped too much red and had to even it out with lots of yellow.  just start out with a few drops and work from there.**

Party batch recipe:
(2 regular sized batches)

4 cups cream
2 cups milk
4 eggs plus 2 yolks
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
a whole huge can pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 cup chopped chocolate chips
1/4 cup whole chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Hey look I used proper punctuation and capitalization today!