Homemade Chocolate Gelato

Crème anglaise is the cooked base to make gelato. To begin, pour the heavy cream in a pot.  Scrape the seeds of half of a vanilla bean into the cream, along with the vanilla pod.  Heat the cream on medium-low heat.  Stir constantly until cream reaches a temperature of 170°F, and then turn it off.

In a bowl, add the egg yolks, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Use a whisk to give it a quick mix. Should be a thick dough-like mixture.

Temper the chocolate egg-yolk mixture by ladling hot cream while whisking it. Repeat until the mixture is loose enough to pour into the hot vanilla cream. Proceed with cooking the cream mixture on low until it reaches back to 170°F. Make sure to stir constantly.

Once the cream is done cooking, you've made crème anglaise.  Let it chill in the fridge over night (ideally). You want the crème anglaise to be as cold as possible before spinning it in the ice cream maker.

Using whatever machine you may have, spin the crème anglaise following the manufacturer's instructions. For this recipe, my old-school machine takes 20 minutes.  When the gelato is made, scoop it out into a container and let it setup in the freezer for a couple of hours (or overnight). Enjoy!