Chantilly Meringuée or Elegant Ice Cream

(Chantilly Meringuée or Elegant Ice Cream
-adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 2 - Julia Child)

Special Equipment Needed

-a stand mixer is very helpful for this recipe. A hand mixer will do in a pinch.

-candy thermometer is very helpful unless you are familiar with finding the soft-ball stage using the ice water technique (which is actually quite easy)

-freezer-friendly containers for freezing the meringuée

INGREDIENTS:

For the Meringue Italienne

2 C granulated sugar
2/3 C water
3/4 C egg whites—about 5-6 large or extra large eggs
big pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Chantilly Meringuée

1 recipe of Meringue Italienne
2 C chilled heavy cream
2-4 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: if you want to make this chocolate, 1/2 C unsweetened chocolate + 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate, chopped)

1) To make the Meringue Italienne
Measure out all the ingredients before you start—this makes the process go much more smoothly
-combine the water and sugar in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and set over medium high heat
-do not mix with a spoon, instead, swirl pan slowly by its handle to mix the sugar and water
-continue to swirl the liquid as it comes to a boil
-continue to swirl until it turns from cloudy to clear
-stop swirling pan, cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer while you beat the egg whites

-in the bowl of the stand mixer, beat egg whites for about a minute—until they start to become foamy
-add the cream of tarter and salt
-beat, gradually increasing the speed to high, until the egg whites form stiff peaks
-beat in vanilla
-stop beating and go to next step

-remove cover from your sugar syrup, and insert candy thermometer if using
-raise heat and boil rapidly
-when the bubbles start to look thicker, watch the temperature or start dribbling drops into iced water
-boil until the mixture reaches the “soft-ball stage”—when it makes a definite but blobby shape when you try to form it into a ball under the ice water, or 238 degrees on your thermometer

-once the sugar syrup has reached the soft-ball stage, immediately start beating the egg whites again on medium speed
-carefully and slowly pour the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream into the egg white mixture as it beats until you’ve used all of the sugar syrup
-continue to beat the egg whites on medium high until shiny, stiff peaks form out of the mixture and the bowl is cool to the touch—about 10 minutes
-stop beating and set aside

2) to make the Chantilly Meringuée
-beat the cream until it has doubled in volume (don’t beat so long as to turn it into butter)
-beat in vanilla extract
-with a spatula, fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into your Meringue Italienne mixture to lighten it.
-then scoop out the remainder of the whipped cream onto the meringue mixture and fold it in as rapidly and as lightly as possible—you want to try not to deflate the mixture too much
-once the mixture is combined, scoop it into a freezable container (we use a Tupperware container) and place in freezer until you’re ready to eat it. It will take a few hours to fully freeze, but even if it’s not fully frozen, it will still taste delicious

For the optional chocolate version:
-when you come to step 2, making the Chantilly Meringuée, melt the chopped chocolate in a double boiler or a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until just melted
-beat the melted chocolate into the cream
-then follow the remainder of the Chantilly Meringuée instructions for folding the cream into the meringue mixture.