The best ice cream in the world

We are finally done interviewing job candidates and initial offers have been made. We are hiring multiple positions, and the two that are permanent and have the potential to be permanent were offered to my two favorite job candidates, neither of whom I went to dinner with. Now I have my fingers crossed that the offers are accepted, and we won't have to do any more interviewing!

On Thursday morning we woke up to a cold house. Jeff got out of bed about an hour before me, as he often does, and noticed that it felt very cold, so he went to the basement and huddled up in blankets to play video games. It wasn't until he came to get me out of bed that he thought to check the thermostat – it was 12°C/54°F, which is more than just a little bit colder than we normally keep the house. It became clear that our furnace was not working at all, and it was about -20°C/-4°F outside so something had to be done immediately. We brought our only space heater from the basement into the bedroom, and called the phone number on a note that was taped to the furnace. Fortunately, within half an hour someone was at our house. He said that fixing the furnace would probably be a five or six hour job, and they had a full schedule that day, so he wasn't sure they'd get to it. We left the back door unlocked for him, went to work, and tried not to think about it for the rest of the day.

It was a long and busy day at work, and we didn't get home until after 6 PM. We had gotten no phone call from the furnace guy, so were fully expecting to walk into a cold house. We were thinking about the possible need to either buy more space heaters and close off rooms or spend the night in a hotel. We were suddenly worried about our pipes freezing. However, I opened the door and felt a wave of heat. They had come and fixed the furnace, just figuring everything out by themselves (including where the space heater was, as they needed it in order to work) without bothering us. We called the furnace guy immediately, and he said that he was able to move other service jobs until after the weekend, knowing that our situation was urgent. Amazingly, a large portion of what they had to do fell under warranty, so the hours of work and complicated parts hardly cost us anything (comparatively speaking). It is a very good feeling when something goes wrong and then instead of being a huge difficult problem it winds up being smooth and easy, and people are competent and nice.

Now for something completely different: ice cream. I have mentioned before that I believe the best ice cream in the world comes from Prince Puckler's in Eugene. My favorite flavor is called Muddy River, and consists of malted milk chocolate ice cream with a ribbon of caramel running through it. Since there is nothing like it anywhere near here, I have been working at trying to replicate it on my own. I am pleased to say that this weekend I think I succeeded. At the very least I made something that I like a lot, and even if it is not quite the same as Muddy River from Prince Puckler's, it shares enough of the major qualities to satisfy me. I have borrowed heavily from other recipes, but the specifics of the ingredients and the process are important and reflect my own testing. So, here is the recipe:

Possibly the best ice cream I have ever made

3 cups half and half (10% milk fat)
1/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup malt powder (Horlick's, which is available at British grocery stores, online, and I am told at Mexican grocery stores though we don't have those here)
6 ounces milk chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 30%)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 can dulce de leche caramel (I made my own using this method)

1. In a medium bowl, stir the malt powder into 1 1/2 cups of cold half-and-half. It is important that it is cold, because the malt powder does not mix in properly if it is hot despite what it says on the package. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, break up the milk chocolate. Set a fine wire mesh strainer over the bowl, and set aside.
3. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cup half-and-half, the sugar, and the egg yolks. Set over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches a temperature of 160°F (the temperature at which salmonella is killed). Remove from the heat immediately, being careful not to over cook.
4. Pour the cooked egg mixture through the strainer into the bowl with the chocolate, and let the chocolate melt for about a minute, then whisk together the chocolate and egg mixture. Add the malt mixture by pouring it through the strainer (to catch any lumps of malt powder that did not dissolve), and whisk together. Stir in the vanilla.
5. Refrigerate this mixture overnight (less time is probably fine, but I don't know how long it takes to get fully chilled). Freeze in an ice cream maker according to directions (I use this one, or at least the version of it that they made eight years ago).
6. Transfer this newly frozen ice cream into an airtight freezer-safe container, in the following manner: layer about one fourth of the ice cream into the container, and then drizzle about one third of the caramel on top. Repeat two more times, then finish with a layer of ice cream. Cover tightly, and freeze in the freezer for at least four hours before serving.

Let me know if you decide to try it, and whether you run into any problems. Meanwhile, there is still some left (though not much) and I will be having some tonight!