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Formulated recipe

Magnum-style ice cream bars

Magnum-style ice cream bars, overhead view

Ice cream on a stick coated in chocolate, with that thin shell that cracks at the first bite. The coating is what makes it a real magnum, and the temperature you dip it at decides whether it comes out like paper or like armour.

Did you know?
Ways to make it— same mix, different method

Ingredients

For 1 kg

Tick each ingredient as you get it ready.

IngredientAmount%

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Step by step

9 steps · follow the order for the best result

Chef's notes

  • ·Do not skip the cold ageing: it hydrates proteins and stabiliser and clearly improves the texture.
  • ·The serving temperature depends on your recipe: if you formulate to a softer PAC than your freezer (say -11 °C with the chest at -18 °C), temper it for 5–10 min before serving; if the PAC matches your freezer, it can be eaten straight out.
  • ·Why formulate at -11 and not at -18 °C: even though your freezer sits at -18 °C, formulating at -11 makes the ice cream tastes better — at -18 it is so cold that the taste buds barely pick up the flavour and the fat is slow to melt in the mouth. And keeps better: ice cream formulated at -11 and kept at -18 has less free water, suffers less from Ostwald ripening (ice crystals joining and growing) and keeps its creaminess longer.
  • ·Keep your own notes: write down the POD and PAC that work best with your machine.

Equipment

Compressor ice cream makerNo pre-freezing of the bowl Kitchen thermometerPasteurisation check Precision scaleWeighed to the gram Tubs and spatulaBlast freezing and storage
Result

The texture
spot on

Crisp outside and still creamy inside: that is the whole point. The thickness of the coating depends on the temperature you dip at, so you choose between a paper-thin shell that breaks on its own or armour you have to bite through.

High, stable creaminessFine structure, no crystalsBalance of sweetness and fat
Magnum-style ice cream bars, texture detail

Everything about
Magnum-style ice creams

The coating is 75 % couverture and 25 % cocoa butter, and the temperature you dip at decides the thickness: the hotter it is, the thinner the shell.

The ingredients and what each does

Every ingredient has a technical job: cream brings fat and creaminess, milk powder raises the non-fat solids, the sugars set the sweetness and the freezing point, and the stabiliser controls crystal growth during storage.

Technique and controlling the numbers

Adjusting the POD (sweetening power) and the PAC (antifreezing power, given as a target temperature) lets you match sweetness and hardness to your taste and your machine. With the selectors in the side bar the formula recalculates itself and you will see how the amount of each ingredient changes.

Storage and common mistakes

Store at -18 °C in an airtight container and avoid freeze-thaw cycles. The commonest faults are not ageing it enough, too much sugar so it never freezes properly, and over-churning, which whips in too much air and wrecks the texture.

Recommended for this recipe

Equipment and ingredients that make the difference.

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Answers to your questions

Frequently asked questions

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Recipe
1

Ingredients

70 % or white chocolate couverture75 %
Cocoa butter25 %

You choose the ice cream

The recipe does not tie you to any flavour: inside the chocolate shell goes whatever ice cream you like.

See all the ice cream recipes →

The chocolate coating

  1. Melt at 50 °CMelt the couverture together with the cocoa butter in the microwave up to 50 ºC. For 8 magnums, about 225 g of couverture and 75 g of cocoa butter.
  2. Stick blenderBlend it thoroughly with the stick blender.
  3. Into a tall, narrow jugPut the mix into a tall, narrow jug.
  4. Cool to 32-40 °CLet it cool to 32-40 ºC. Temperature sets the thickness: hotter means a thinner shell. It is a matter of taste. If you want it almond-studded, stir almonds into the coating.
  5. Dip quicklyDip the ice creams in and out of the chocolate coating quickly.
  6. Drain and freezeDrain on kitchen paper, keep them in freezer bags and into the freezer.

The ice cream and the mould

  1. Pick your ice creamFor the ice cream you can follow whichever recipe you like from the ice cream section.
  2. Into the moulds, fastStraight out of the machine, into the moulds and into the freezer for at least 4 hours, better overnight.
  3. Fast-freeze before dippingIf you have fast-freeze, put it on full 1 hour beforehand: to dip them they have to be very hard or they won't come out of the mould.