Jazz'd up chocolate ice cream

It's been a while now that I've been wanting to get a hand on some golden dragées...which can either be almonds with a coloured sugar coating or candy coated chocolates in the shape of almonds. Typically, these are brought out for weddings or baptisms, but I find them so pretty I thought it wouldn't hurt to just use them in everyday desserts...

So I went hunting around looking for golden ones, and eventually found Martial dragées (http://www.dragees-martial.com/) which is probably one of the biggest dragées makers in France. When I was selecting what colour to choose, I saw that each had a different meaning...just like flowers! Pink meant joy, Green was hope, "Caroline blue" is elegance, Red is love..of course..and Gold is brightness. That is what I was looking for, something that would add some brightness and razzle dazzle to dessert. And dessert turned out being a home made chocolate & spice ice cream (recipe below). I have an ice cream machine since quite some years now, used to use it all the time but unexplicably have been ignoring it this last year... Nonetheless, an ice cream machine never betrays and nothing beats home made ice cream!

Recipe for razzle dazzle chocolate & spice ice cream:

Ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks
• 125 g sugar
• 1/2 liter of milk
• Vanilla
• 60 g dark chocolate, melted
• Pinch of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (quantities depend on your personal taste)
• Golden dragées (or whatever colour you like)

How to make it:

Mix the egg yolks, melted chocolate and sugar in a bowl. Bring the milk, spices and vanilla to boil. Pour the boiling milk over the cold egg/chocolate/sugar mix while stirring. Return to heat and continue to stir until the cream starts to thicken. If you have a thermometer, the mixture should not go beyond 82-85 C. Boiling must be avoided at all costs! Remove from heat and stop cooking process by placing pan in cold water. In a mixer, crush the dragées only for 2-3 seconds and use add 2/3 of it to the ice cream mixture (keep the remaining 1/3 for decoration). Place mixture into an ice cream machine for the amount of time indicated by your machine. I strongly recommend that the ice-cream be eaten the same day as it is made- fresh and delish!