Read this recipe all the way through before starting (a good practice at all times, but especially here). Note that it is critical to have all your ingredients measured and ready to go in this recipe, as there isn’t time while preparing to stop and “catch up.” I’m not trying to scare you. This isn’t a difficult recipe, but it’s not one with any pauses.

You’ll need to have an ice bath ready. I don’t have an ice maker, so I line a 4-quart bowl with ice packs and leave it in the fridge. Do whatever is easiest for you.

In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, warm 1 cup of the heavy cream with the cocoa. Whisk constantly until blended, bringing to a gentle boil. Turn down to a low boil for 30 seconds, whisking all the while.

Remove from heat. Add the chocolate. I find switching to a large metal or wooden spoon easiest for this step. Stir constantly, until chocolate is melted. Add the rest of the heavy cream, stirring to blend.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Scrape the pan with a spatula. It will be messy, and you won’t be able to get all the chocolate out. That’s okay. Set a strainer into the bowl, right into your creamy chocolate.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the pan. Keep the heat very low. Whisk your eggs. Returning to the pan of warm milk, pour slowly into the bowl, whisking all the while. By pouring slowly and whisking constantly, you will avoid scrambling the eggs.

Pour the milky egg mixture back into the pan. Using a heatproof spatula, whisk, or wooden spoon, stir constantly over medium heat, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the mixture thickens.You may also notice it lightens in color a bit. This will take 2-4 minutes, but be patient. By now the pan will look a mess. That’s okay.

Once the custard is ready, pour it through the strainer into the bowl of waiting creamy chocolate mixture. Stir until blended. Add the almond extract. Almond extract is powerful stuff. Don’t go overboard on it. Now put this bowl into your ice bath and stir until the custard cools. Relax. The hard part is over.

This unlovely but useful photo depicts cooled custard resting it an ice bath, pre-freezer, pre-ice cream maker.

If you are still freezing, ladle the custard into the freezer safe vessel or vessels of your choice, add the marzipan, and cover well with plastic wrap, and freeze for at least 4 hours. When I still-froze in the bowls, I added five pea-sized pieces of marzipan per portion. If you are freezing the entire batch, 4 ounces of marzipan, broken up into pea-sized bits, seemed ample to me both still-frozen and when added to the ice-cream machine. If you are a person who loves additions to ice cream, add the entire tube.

If you are making this with an ice cream maker, chill the custard at least 4 hours in the refrigerator, covered, preferably overnight. It may thicken. That’s okay. Once it is thoroughly chilled, make it in the machine following the manufacturer’s instructions.

If, like me, you struggle with pouring soft-serve ice cream from the freezer bowl into its intended storage vessel, do as I did and have your ice bath ready again. Placing your storage vessel into the icy bowl makes the entire tipping/scraping performance far less anxiety-inducing.

As homemade ice cream lacks commercial preservatives and stabilizers it doesn’t keep well beyond about a week, growing icy and rather gummy. But I doubt this will present a problem.

Notes:

Despite my purchase of chocolate-covered marzipan, I opted to use the more commonly found baking marzipan, available in 7-ounce tubes. In addition to being highly pliant, those who prefer a high “stuff” ratio in their ice creams may add more than 4 ounces.

Any leftover marzipan can be frozen, well-wrapped, for your next baking or ice cream making adventure.

A highly unprofessional method of breaking up chocolate bars entails attacking the wrapped bar with a meat tenderizer, your merciless fingers, or a rolling pin.

You could, of course, make this using that chocolate covered marzipan available now.  You can also play with flavors-vanilla, coffee, ricotta–the permutations are endless.