Fudge Brownie Ice Cream – Creamy dark chocolate ice cream is loaded with chewy fudge brownies and drizzles of hot fudge. This is the best ice cream you’ll ever have!
It’s finally here…my first ever chocolate ice cream recipe! And this one was well worth the wait, people.
But before we get to the recipe, why did it take so long to get here?? Well, the answer is this…I don’t like chocolate ice cream. Or should I say, I didn’t like chocolate ice cream.
I am a chocoholic, no doubt. But I have never really been a fan of chocolate ice cream. It’s just boring to me. It wasn’t until I had dark chocolate ice cream that I realized why…regular ice cream just isn’t chocolatey enough!
But don’t you worry…this chocolate ice cream does not have that problem! It’s made with rich, dark chocolate ice cream for the base, loaded with chunks of chewy fudge brownies, and swirled with gooey hot fudge. Fellow chocoholics rejoice!!
Check out my Fudge Brownie Ice Cream!
How This Ice Cream Is Made
The Ingredients
As I mentioned above, this ice cream is loaded with chocolate to make it the most chocolatey ice cream you’ve ever had. It’s not just the chunks of fudge brownie and swirls of hot fudge that make this so chocolately, but they definitely help! But it’s also the dark chocolate ice cream base.
The ice cream base is made with unsweetened cocoa and bittersweet chocolate to get a deep chocolate flavor. Don’t worry, thought, all the cream and milk in the base help balance out the bitterness and make the chocolate ultra rich.
Secret Ingredient
What you may not know is that any chocolate recipe has a secret ingredient to deepen the flavor even more. Do you know what it is??? It’s brewed coffee! I remember first seeing this trick on a recipe of Barefoot Contessa where Ina made homemade brownies. I was in shock that she was adding coffee to the recipe!
But I’ve since learned that it makes such a difference! Plus, you don’t even taste the coffee in the ice cream – you just taste a deeper, richer chocolate flavor. I use this same trick in these Nutella cupcakes.
The Process
This ice cream is made with cream and milk. A lot of my other ice cream recipes are made with egg yolks to thicken them up. But this recipe using cornstarch instead. Other than that little difference, the process is very similar:
- Heat milk base up and cook for a few minutes
- Heat chocolate sauce and add to milk base
- Strain mixture and stir over ice bowl to cool down to room temperature
- Cover and chill completely in fridge
- Remove from fridge and freeze in ice cream machine
- Layer frozen ice cream with fudge brownie pieces and hot fudge
- Freeze for a few hours to firm up
Tips & Tricks
Here are a few tips to make sure this ice cream comes out perfectly:
- Make sure to read the directions of your ice cream machine before starting. For my machine, I needed to freeze my ice cream bowl for 24 hours before using. I keep it in the freezer at all times to make sure I’m never waiting on it for my ice cream recipes.
- The ice cream base is heated through before it’s put in the ice cream machine. Therefore, we’ll need to chill the ice cream before putting into the ice cream machine. You always want to add a cold ice cream base to an ice cream machine to ensure that the machine will freeze the ice cream properly.
- If using homemade brownies, make sure they have completely cooled before adding to the ice cream. Otherwise, the warm brownies will melt the ice cream and it will take longer to freeze.
The best part about making homemade ice cream is that you control the ingredients. Therefore, you can load this ice cream with however many brownies pieces or swirls of hot fudge that you want! Long gone are the days for digging for brownie pieces in your ice cream!
Fudge Brownie Ice Cream
Ingredients
For the ice cream base:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 4 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 cup brewed coffee
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the fudge brownie mix-ins:
- 5 fudge brownies
- 1/2 cup hot fudge sauce
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup milk and cornstarch to make a slurry. Set aside. Grab a large bowl and fill it with 2 cups of ice and 1 cup of water. Nest another bowl into that bowl so that it's sitting on the ice water. Place a strainer on top of the inner bowl. Set this setup aside.
- In a medium saucepan, add remaining milk, cream, 1/2 cup sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes then add in slurry. Continue cooking for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, add softened cream cheese and whisk to smooth it out. Add about 1/4 cup of heated milk mixture and whisk together until smooth. Add mixture back to rest of milk.
- Place cocoa, coffee, and last 1/2 cup of sugar in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium-high heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate. Add to milk mixture and stir. Add in vanilla extract and stir.
- Pour mixture through mesh sieve into chilled bowl. Stir to cool down the mixture. Place plastic wrap on top of milk mixture to prevent film from forming on top. Chill in refrigerator until really cold, at least 4 hours.
- Once chilled, it's time to freeze the ice cream. Freeze ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions (mine took about 15 minutes to freeze).
- When the ice cream is finished, spread half of it into rectangular glass container with a lid. Crumble half of the brownies over the ice cream. Then finish with a drizzle of about 1/2 of the hot fudge. Repeat layer one more time and then spread top of the ice cream into one flat layer. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the ice cream and then cover with the lid. Freeze until firm, about 4 hours.
Notes
Pin for later:
More treats you’ll love:
Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches
Birthday Cake Remix Ice Cream‘
Triple Chocolate Cookies
What brownie recipe did you use?
I want to make this ice cream but omit the coffee as will be serving to children. Do I have to add another liquid to substitute or can I just omit the 1/2 c coffee all together? Do I add extra chocolate to make up for the richness? Thanks!
The coffee really enhances the chocolate flavor so maybe you could use decaf? If not, just use water instead.
I am ready to try this recipe but I do not see where to include the 1 1/2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate. Can you please advise?
I’m so sorry about that mistake! I’ve updated the recipe to make sure to include the chocolate. Let me know how it turns out for you!
Ooh my goodness!!! This looks fabulous 😀 I would LOVE scoop of this right now!!
You’ve hit on my weakness. I love cold and creamy desserts! And add chocolate to the mix and I’m in dessert heaven. This is certainly a treat that my family would love. I’m putting it on the menu for next weekend.
I love chocolate but I’m with you on the ice cream from the store not being chocolatey enough for me either. I can’t wait to make this!
For a chocolate lover like myself this is so dangerous! I might finish it myself 🙂 I am already freezing my ice cream bowl !
Delicious, creamy and tasty. I love it.
What a texture! Back here if I want this kind of ice cream I need to get a tub of Ben and Jerry’s 😀 Wuld love to make such ice cream myself. I am more and more convinced I need to get myself an ice cream machine because no-churn is fun but I want a bigger challenge 😀
So indulgent and extremely delicious with the dark chocolate and the fudgy brownies scattered through!
I need this in my life now. Like holy cow it looks amazing!!!!!
That texture is incredible! Definitely the way good ice cream should be. And such a wonderful way to bring down the heat this summer – yum!
This looks amazing! Truly! I want to make this fudge brownie ice cream asap! It has two of my favorite things mixed together!
We love making homemade ice cream! I have added this to our list of must makes this weekend!
Brownie + Ice cream – Oh yes! I want to lick my screen. I am so glad you pu them together! That looks incredible, Sharon! Rich and comforting. great recipe!
Wow, this looks amazing! I love getting chunks of brownie mixed into my chocolate ice cream when we go places and it would be so yummy to make my own at home.
Ahhh, this is a fabulous ice cream – one that can easily make my hot summer day cooler. Fabulous texture and just the way I like my ice cream to be!
Yum! Gimme all the chocolate in the delicious recipe.
This has blown me away! I was looking for an ice cream recipe that didn’t have eggs and this looks so heavenly! Can’t wait to make this!!
Wow that looks so good! I’ve tried making my own ice cream but it’s never came out like this!
I desperately want to make my own ice cream. Every time I try, it comes out awful. 🙁
I wish I had a big bowl of this ice cream right now! Looks out of this world delicious!!
Such a delicious summer treat!
That looks delicious! Chocolatey fudgey ice cream is one of my favorite things ever.