Chocolate Malt (Non Dairy) Ice Cream

We’re experiencing our usual “Indian Summer” weather here in California, which means that it’s been over 95˚ for the last four days.  It’s the kind of weather that screams ice cream.  I was given a Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment for my mixer for Mother’s Day, and I’ve only used it once.  The hot weather seemed like a good excuse to put it to use. 

I was imagining all sorts of delicious flavor combinations but finally settled on chocolate malt.  As I've said before, Mr. RK does love anything chocolate and I've always loved malt balls, so it seemed like the perfect solution.  I used non dairy creamer as the base and Scharffenberger unsweetened chocolate.

You should always go for the best quality chocolate that you can afford, because it does make a difference.  I sweetened this with agave so that it would be a guilt free treat.  

I adapted a recipe from the master of ice cream, David Lebovitz.  He wrote a book called The Perfect Scoop, which I don’t own but wish I did.  I am a regular reader of his blog.

I wanted to use pure barley malt powder, but I couldn’t find any so I had to resort to malted milk powder.  I’m still looking for the real thing, but technically, this ice cream is not vegan because of the milk in the malt powder.  

The flavor was outstanding, garnished with malt balls, it was the perfect treat at the end of a 99 degree day. 

Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

3 cups Natural Non-dairy creamer (I used Wildwood but Silk will work too)

10 tablespoons (155 ml) Agave nectar

2 ounces (55 gms) Unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1/3 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cup Malt powder

Pinch of salt

In a small saucepan, heat the agave and unsweetened chocolate over the lowest heat possible, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is melted. 

Transfer this to a large bowl and sprinkle the cocoa powder over the melted chocolate and stir it until it’s incorporated.

Put one cup of creamer into a blender with the malt powder and salt and blend.

Whisk the malt/creamer blend into the agave/chocolate blend and then mix in the rest of the creamer.

Chill this for at least 3 hours, if not longer.

Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.