Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan ICE CREAM!

I'm not that sure I can adequately describe my love for the Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan bar. 

It completes me.

My love for it may surpass my love for Don Draper.  (This is going to be Mr. E's most favorite post ever.)

If I were on death row, they would certainly be part of my last meal...along with tiramisu, caramel brownies, and a Grimaldi's pizza.  And an amaretto sour.  Or seven.

I always, always have one of these bars in my "chocolate basket" (you have one, don't you?), just waiting there for me to break off a few squares. (A minimum of 4 squares, and up to 8.  Per sitting.  Sittings may occur every 30 seconds.)

Ok...I think you feel the love that I have for these bars now.  I obviously wanted to do *something* with them for Candy Bar Week, but honestly, I was afraid baking with them would ruin their perfection.  Making my own would just defeat the purpose...I love them as is.

I decided to add them to ice cream. 

Using the ice cream method found in Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones (thanks for the rec, Andy & Monique!), I created an almond ice cream, flavored with almond paste, swirled with a fudge ripple, and strewn with chunks of my beloved Ritter Sport.  Angels were singing.

If you love these Ritter Sports, or almond, or chocolate, or ice cream...I BEG you to make this.  It tastes like a cold, creamy Ritter Sport with Marzipan.   
This ice cream is seriously one of my favorite recipes I've featured on the blog. LOVE. IT.

Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan Ice Cream

for the ice cream:
5 egg yolks
7 ounces almond paste (not marzipan)
2/3 cup sugar, divided
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
20 squares (1 & 1/4 bars) Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan
1/3 cup fudge ripple

for the fudge ripple:
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP sugar
1/2 cup water
6 TBSP dutch-process cocoa
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
(fudge ripple recipe from Sweet Cream & Sugar Cones)

make the cream base:

Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl and place a fine mesh strainer over a smaller bowl/4-cup measuring cup.  Set aside.

Beat egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, and almond paste together until smooth, about 2 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, combine the remaining sugar, cream, milk and salt.  Heat over medium-high heat until bubbles form around the edge and the mixture is almost or at a simmer.  Reduce heat to medium/medium-low.

Scoop 1/2 cup of the cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture and whisk until combined.  Repeat with one more 1/2 cup scoop of the cream.

Stir the cream in the pan while slowly pouring in the egg yolk mixture. Stir and heat for 1-4 more minutes, until the mixture has thickened, coats the back of a spoon, and holds a clear path when a finger is run across it.

{You'll test this while it's in the pan, but I'm showing you here just so you know what you look for.} 

Immediately pour the mixture over a fine-mesh strainer placed over a bowl or large measuring cup. Stir in the almond extract. Place the container in the ice bath and stir occasionally, until cooled.

(The cream will thicken more as it cools.) Remove from ice bath, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

make the fudge ripple:
Combine the sugar, water, cocoa, corn syrup and salt in a saucepan. Whisk over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a simmer.

Remove from the heat and add in the chopped chocolate.  Let sit for 1 minute.  Whisk the chocolate until smooth, then stir in the vanilla.  Let cool, then place in a container, cover and chill before using.

make the ice cream:
The next day, coarsely chop the Ritter Sport bars.  Place chopped bars and container for storing the ice cream in the freezer while you process the chilled cream in your ice cream freezer.
(This is the one I have.)

Add in the chopped Ritter Sport during the last minute of churning.  Scoop the finished, soft ice cream into the chilled storage container, drizzling in the fudge ripple.  Press a piece of plastic wrap on top.  Freeze for several hours until firm.

Scoop, sigh, donate bathing suit to Goodwill. 

Remember...it IS Candy Bar Week!  That means you need to click on over to...

...Cookies & Cups for Whatchamacallit Popcorn...

...and Confessions of a Cookbook Queen for Mounds Layer Cake!

You know those girls are always up to something dangerous! ;)

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