Just about every gelateria in Italy features a bin of stracciatella, vanilla ice cream with chocolate “chips.” It results from a technique that clever Italians devised for pouring warm, melted chocolate into cold ice cream. The flow of chocolate immediately hardens into streaks, which get shredded (stracciato) into “chips” as the ice cream is stirred. The trick to stracciatella is to pour it into your ice cream maker in a very thin stream during the last moment of churning. If your aim isn’t very good, or your ice cream machine has a small opening, transfer the melted chocolate into a measuring cup with a pouring spout. (If you’re using a microwave to melt the chocolate, simply melt the chocolate in the measuring cup.) The trick is to pour it not on the turning dasher (mixing blade) but into the ice cream itself. You can also drizzle it over the ice cream as you layer it into the storage container, stirring it very slightly while you’re pouring.

　　

Ingredients

makes enough for 1 quart (1 liter) of ice cream

　　5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (do not use chocolate chips)

　　

Step 1

In a clean, absolutely dry bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring it until it’s completely smooth.

　　

Mixing It In

Step 2

Drizzle a very thin stream of the warm chocolate into 1 quart (1 liter) of ice cream during the last possible moment of churning. If the chocolate clings too much to the dasher, remove the ice cream from the machine and drizzle the chocolate into the frozen ice cream by hand while you layer it into the storage container, breaking up any chunks as you stir.

　　The Perfect Scoop