Continuing with the True Blood theme, in April of 2020 I asked actor Rob Kazinsky what his dream flavor of ice cream would be. Here is where things started to get a little tricky. Like I've complained about before, I have a really hard time working with ingredients or combinations that I don't personally like, even if I know it is for someone else...and they LOVE it. It can sometimes be hard for me to tell if the finished product is good or not, simply because I just don't like the combo. One of my most loathed combinations is fruit and chocolate. I don't understand how so many people love this combo. I can tolerate orange or banana with chocolate, but all others—especially raspberry and strawberry with chocolate—immediately make my stomach churn.
So, I tried something a little different. Rob said he was a big fan of chocolate and cherry, but I wanted to give that combo a new twist! I decided to swap the chocolate with some ruby chocolate. It was a bit risky, because ruby chocolate tends to be more sour and fruity than other chocolate. The color, despite the name, tends to look a little muddled once you start using it in something like an ice cream base. In order to rectify the aesthetics, I used the fruity notes as a foundation and added in a small amount of black currant puree. It was just enough to change the color and enhance the fruity notes, without giving it a distinct currant flavor.
For the inclusions, I opted for some roasted cherries and a chocolate crunch. I roasted some bing cherries with a little sugar, cornstarch, salt and lemon zest until they were nice and jammy. Next, I worked on a crunchy chocolate element, kind of like that stuff that is in the middle layer of a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. I love that stuff. The crunch and cherries were folded into the ice cream and I garnished it with a little more of the chocolate crunch. It wasn't my favorite, and I don't think I'd work with ruby chocolate again, but I think Rob might be into it. Maybe... ( I still don't like fruit and chocolate.)
This looks so good and I don't even know what Ruby chocolate is but I want to find out. Thanks for posting this. I'm going to look around and see if I can find or make something like this. BTW - I always have a hard time determining if the finished product is good, even if I like the flavors :)