Double Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

I asked a teacher I know what her favorite ice cream was, in order to make it as an offering of a coping mechanism for back to COVID-schooling. Her favorite was Swiss Almond Haagen Daaz, and I can't leave well enough alone so I wanted to add another layer of chocolate almond to it.  The result was a sea salt vanilla ice cream with chocolate almond butter swirl and chocolate covered almonds. I purchased chocolate almond butter for the swirl but found it lacking on the chocolate front. This meant I ended up melting dark chocolate into it to up the ante - meaning this can be made with plain almond butter if that's all you can find.  The extra chocolate helps it drizzle better!

 My roommate says this is her favorite ice cream so far (bless her letting me stack our freezer full of ice cream containers), but she has said that about most of them....no photos, because most of it was gifted away!

Vanilla Sea Salt base adapted from Love and Olive Oil.

For Ice Cream Base:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

4 large egg yolks

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

For Mix-Ins:
1 4oz dark chocolate bar (70% or higher is best)

Almond butter (Sprouts has chocolate almond butter if you can find, but I would still add chocolate)

Chocolate Covered Almonds (Trader's Joe's Sea Salt ones are the best, but any chocolate covered almonds will do)

Create an ice bath. Place lots of ice and cold water in a large bowl, then nest a slightly smaller (heat-proof bowl) inside. Pour 1 cup of the heavy cream into the smaller bowl and place a fine mesh sieve over top. 

In a saucepan, cook remaining cream, milk, sugar, and salt over medium heat. Stir regularly, until sugar is dissolved and mixture just starts to steam. Remove from heat.

Temper the eggs by slowly whisking in a little of the hot milk mixture. Continue to add a little, whisking madly, until well incorporated and the color of the eggs has paled. Transfer yolk mixture back into the remaining milk mixture in saucepan, whisking to be safe. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened (it should coat the back of a wooden spoon after about 2–3 minutes).

Pour mixture through sieve into cold cream. Add vanilla and let cool to room temperature. Stirring rapidly over the very cold ice bath will hasten this process. You can either stir over ice bath until completely cool or refrigerate, at least 3 hours or overnight.

While ice cream base cools, create choco almond swirl.  Break half of your chocolate bar into chunks and place in a mug. Microwave for 30 second intervals until melted.  Stir in 3-4 large spoonfuls of almond butter. Adjust to taste, by adding more melted chocolate or more almond butter until satisfied.

Once custard is cooled, process accorded to ice cream manufacturer's instructions.  Once ice cream is consistency of soft serve, add almonds. Turn off ice cream maker. Drizzle chocolate almond butter mixture on bottom and sides of your ice cream containers.  Alternate layers of ice cream and drizzle until complete.  Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.