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Rich, dark, ultra-smooth, and creamy chocolate meets a hint of orange in sweet ice cream like no other you’ve ever tasted.
If you’re skeptical of the chocolate and citrus combination, one taste will be all it takes to convince you. (And if you don’t love the darkest of chocolate, any chocolate you love will work beautifully in this ice cream.)
Chocolate Orange Ice Cream
We tried a Chocolate Orange flavored ice cream while we were in Montreal and Sean declared it the best one he tried throughout our vacation.
It really was fantastic. So, naturally, I couldn’t resist trying my hand at recreating it. Four (maybe it was five ?) batches later, this ice cream has been declared one of Sean’s all-time favorites.
Do you love the chocolate and orange combination too? Don’t miss the EASY to make Chocolate Covered Oranges that my family adores!
Over the years, I’ve made this ice cream with extra dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, regular cocoa powder, and special dark cocoa powder too. It works every single possible way.
Sean and I love it best with the darkest of dark chocolate, however, my boys like it best with semi-sweet chocolate. The final color of the ice cream will be determined by how dark your chocolate is. As you can tell by the photos here, it will vary a good bit.
I’ve made this both with and without orange zest, as well as with store-bought juice. The zest makes a big difference in the results, especially when using fresh orange juice.
Fresh and store-bought orange juice will both work well. The fresh orange juice produces a milder flavor with a little more sweetness to it. The store-bought orange juice was just enough stronger than fresh I preferred it in the end.
The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!
With over 70 recipes here to choose from, there’s sure to be an ice cream for everyone! If you’re new to making ice cream, the best and easiest vanilla ice cream is a great place to start.
Don’t miss this Ice Cream Maker Review for all the information you need to find the BEST Ice Cream Maker for your needs! Spoiler alert – our top-rated machine under $50 just might surprise you. It sure surprised me!
Looking for more dessert recipes? Creamy Orange Sherbet is an old-fashioned frozen treat that I always associate with trips to visit my grandmother when I was a child. She loved sherbet and it was often found in her freezer.
Dark Chocolate Orange Ice Cream
Ingredients
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1½ cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup special dark unsweetened cocoa
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon finely grated orange zest
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Whisk together the sugar, cream, milk, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, and orange zest in a medium size saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer while stirring occasionally for 2 minutes.
- Add the chocolate chips and continue stirring while the chocolate melts. Remove from the heat and stir in the orange juice and vanilla extract. Let cool and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
- Pour the chilled mixture into your ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer's directions.
Notes
{originally published 9/12/14 – recipe notes and photos updated 6/6/22}
Do I freeze mixture and then put into my ice cream maker?
No. "Let cool and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Pour the chilled mixture into your ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer's directions."
Those flavors, wow!!!! I seriously need a big bowl of this soon!
I seriously want to make this right now! So amazing!
I think I'm going to need to buy an ice cream maker. This ice cream (and all your ice cream recipes) looks amazing! I'm a big dark chocolate fan…and ice cream fan!
Can this be done without the ice cream maker? I would love to try it but, alas, don't own a maker and cannot afford to buy one – please help those of us who don't have an ice cream maker…. PLEASE!
Yes! You can and I have done it! Here are the directions: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/07/making-ice-crea-1/
Oh sweet mercy. This is the ice cream I've been waiting for. AMAZING. I'm with Sean.
Amazing pictures…and recipe ! Love it !
Amazing ~ we love making homemade ice cream, this will be a fun new flavor for us. 🙂
Just freezing now, tastes amazing.
This was really good but a bit too sweet for our taste. I think next time, I will use a 1/2 cup sugar insead of the 3/4 cup you call for.
Oh Mary! I just saw this on Pinterest and can't believe I missed it in September. It's totally gorge and I want to make a sugar-free version!
This looks so delicious! One question – no egg yokes needed? Thanks!!
No eggs at all! I love the ease of this recipe.
"barefeet" is not a word. It's "barefoot" or "bare feet".
I am well aware of that. The beauty of having my own corner of the internet is being able to create a blog name that makes me smile. Barefeet In The Kitchen is simply my personal preference for the spelling here.
All the best,
Mary
I tried this recipe twice and it would not freeze for me at all.
I am just a little concerned about adding orange zest and juice to the milk and cream. Won’t it curdle? I am going to give it a shot anyway, dark chocolate+orange is to me, devil’s food. :))
Hi, The pictures are amazing. I am thinking of giving it a try this weekend. Did you use whole milk in this recipe?
Yes, I use whole milk.
Thank you. I just made the ice cream with 2% milk. It was really dark and intense which is how i prefer my ice cream. I actually just saw your comment, so next time I am going to try it with whole milk and store bought orange juice.
It seems to be a phenomenon that ice cream recipes NEVER reveal how much they make. I make enough for about 75 people every Fourth of July, so I really need to know how much I need to add to this recipe. How many servings does your recipe make? My citrus trees have given me bushels and bushels and bushels of tangelos this year, so I’ll be substituting tangelos for the oranges. (I hope freezing the juice and some zest will work..!)
Most of my recipes make about 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream. So, approximately 4-6 servings, depending on size. I’ve never made enough ice cream to serve a crowd that size! That would require a massive ice cream maker, and likely more than a few of them. Have fun!
(and this will work great with frozen juice and zest – enjoy!)
I have an ice cream maker where the bowl actually has to be frozen, so do you think the mixture would still need to be chilled?
Yes, definitely. A warm ice cream base will cause your ice cream bowl to thaw quickly.