The best chocolate ice cream in the world.

There is no easy way - unless you're a professional food photographer in which case you'd be using anything other than actual ice cream - to photograph chocolate ice cream without  making it look like...something else...

See? Here is the same ice cream but photographed at night, by artificial light after we'd had some. See how glorious moussey it looks? That's how it tastes if you eat it not long after making it. Even a few days' later it's still delicious.

I hesitate not in saying this is the best chocolate ice cream you can get. I mean, very probably my dad's chocolate ice cream was better. And his chocolate chestnut ice cream was damn brilliant. But aside from that, you can search high, you can search deep but you won't find a better, simpler, chocolate ice cream recipe.

I know because believe me - credemi - I've tried.

And, how sweet that this recipe didn't come from some vast volume of ice cream recipes. I didn't steal it from a gelateria, or my dad's shop. It was in the fold out pamphlet of recipes that came from my Panasonic ice cream maker.

I've doubled the quantities, because the original made about two portions' worth (how is it that doubling it seems to make more than double if you see what I mean?). If you can, make this in the morning for eating in the evening. That way it will have had a chance to set a bit, but not go rock solid. It will never be that good again although of course, like all ice cream, it will keep in the freezer for weeks/months.

This last batch I made was using eggs from our own chickens. Coincidence or not it was the best I've ever made. So tasty I wanted to eat the whole lot.

You will need:

4 egg yolks - freeze the whites to make madeleines or macaroons or friands another time
100g granulated sugar
160ml of milk - I use semi skimmed and it's always been fine
2tbsp cocoa powder - I always use Green and Black's
100g good plain chocolate - I always use Waitrose Continental  (70%), the packet looks unassuming (black with a vanilla coloured banner across the middle) but don't be fooled, it's superb chocolate
240ml of double cream, although I have just chucked the entire 300ml tub in there as this is what Waitrose's comes in and 60ml of cream left in a tub is of no use to anyone.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale. Do this in a heat proof bowl or a bain marie. You can do this by hand using a little whisk. Don't be a cissy. You don't need an electric whisk.

Mix the milk and cocoa powder together to make what looks like a birruva mess. Add this mixture to the egg mix. Place the heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water (or put the bain marie on the stove if you're posh and have one, a bain marie that is). Stir until it thickens.

When it's done, take off the heat and chuck the chocolate in and stir gently but firmly. You will have at the very least broken this into pieces, or if you can be bothered, cut it into smaller pieces. I never can be bothered and it goes in in big, chunky, pieces and it's fine. You get the occasional shard that doesn't melt but I quite like that as it's a bit choc chippy in the final ice cream.

Put it aside to allow to cool - whilst it's doing this cover the actual surface with a layer of baking parchment. Because I'm posh, I have ready cut circles for just this purpose. Whisk the cream until it's thick and stir into the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before placing in your ice cream maker.

This is no time to be wailing that you don't have an ice cream maker. YOu're not taking this seriously enough. You need one. When it's done decant into a suitable freezer container and freeze.

Eat with abandon and try to forget about the fact that you don't have a pension. If you eat enough of this ice cream, anyway, you probably won't live that long.