The rainy weather in Johannesburg at the moment is probably not ideal for ice-cream eating, but make it so long for when the sun comes out! It only has 4 ingredients, and you do not need an ice-cream maker to make it! After tasting Tartufo at Bar Tre Scalini in Rome in 2005, I have been trying to recreate this delicious dark chocolate ice-cream. Tartufo (tahr-too-foh) means “truffle” in Italian. Not that this ice-cream tastes or smells like truffles (thank goodness!).
To my knowledge, Tartufo can only be found at Bar Tre Scalini in Rome. Dubbed as “the original black truffle”, the dessert is a delectable ball of rich, dense dark chocolate ice cream topped with whipped cream. The ice-cream, widely known as “Tartufo Tre Scalini”, is like nothing you’ve ever tasted. Neither Häagen-Dazs, nor Paul’s Home-made Ice-cream comes close to this Italian gelato. It was created by the head of the Ciampini family in 1946 and is still made from the same secret recipe. It contains 13 varieties of Austrian chocolate – no wonder it tastes so good!
Seeing that we don’t know how soon we will be able to visit Italy again, try my version so long! This delicious dark chocolate ice-cream only has 4 ingredients, and you do not need an ice-cream maker to make it!
1 x 397 g tin condensed milk
6 large egg yolks
250 ml cream
200 g dark 70% Lindt Couveture chocolate
- Combine the condensed milk and egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer for 2 minutes on high.
- In the meantime, heat the cream in a medium saucepan. When the cream is hot but not boiling yet, remove the saucepan from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted.
- Pour the cream and chocolate mixture into the egg and condensed milk mixture in a thin stream while beating the mixture with the electric hand mixer.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on a medium heat while stirring until the mixture has thickened.
- Remove the saucepan from the stove and transfer the mixture into a mixing bowl. Prepare an ice bath by placing ice cubes in cold water in a large mixing bowl and lower the mixing bowl into the ice bath. Be careful that the water does not seep into the mixing bowl. Set aside for about 45 minutes or until the mixture is completely cool.
- Cover the mixing bowl with a tightfitting lid or cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Transfer the mixture to a container suitable for freezing and freeze for 2 hours. - Remove the container from the fridge, beat the mixture with an electric hand mixer for 1 minute on medium. Seal the container and return it to the freezer. Repeat this process again after two hours.
- Remove the ice-cream from the freezer 10 minutes before you want to serve it so that it can soften slightly which will make scooping easier.
Makes 1 liter.
Tartufo should not be confused with an Italian frozen dessert with the same name (see the Tartufo Bomba photo below). The latter is also know as “Bomba” and usually consists of two or more flavors of ice cream, often with either fruit syrup or frozen fruit — typically raspberry, strawberry or cherry — in the center. It is typically covered in a shell made of chocolate or cocoa, but cinnamon or nuts are also used. The original truffles (bomba in this case) were created just after the French Revolution by French chefs and were chocolate confections made to resemble the prized fungi of France. These sweet confections were given at Christmas time as gifts. It has been only during recent times that ice cream truffles, or tartufos, have made a comeback. Typically, in Italy, a tartufo is a vanilla ice cream ball that has a cherry and some nuts in the center. The ball is then dipped in chocolate and can be covered with nuts or chocolate shavings.
