Chocolate Fernet Gelato

We had this sophisticated, decadent Chocolate Fernet gelato recently at Masseria in DC: I love the combination of bitter herbs with intense chocolate; our version comes pretty close. It's intensely chocolatey, with a very complementary accent of Fernet's woodsy bitterness, and the texture is perfect, even right out of the freezer, with an appealing "fudginess". We've made this with good quality dark chocolate as well as Abuelita Mexican chocolate that has sugar and cinnamon. 

Intense chocolate and a hit of bitter herbs

We started with Ina Garten's Deeply Chocolate Gelato and tweaked it based on what we had in the house.

400 ml     14 ounces Whole Milk
150 ml      5 ounces Heavy Cream
100 g     1/2 cup    Sugar

  1 pinch   1 pinch  Kosher Salt
 85 g       1 cup    Cocoa Powder, unsweetened
 60 g       2 ounces Chocolate, chopped fine or grated fine
  4         4        Egg Yolks
 55 g     1/4 cup    Sugar
150 ml      5 oz     Fernet Branca

Heat Milk, Cream, 1/2 cup Sugar in saucepan until sugar dissolves and milk barely simmers.
Add Cocoa Powder and Chocolate, whisk until smooth.
In mixing bowl, mix Egg Yolks and 1/4 cup Sugar on high for 5 minutes, until light yellow and thickened.
Temper by pouring hot Chocolate mixture slowly into the Egg mixture while the beater is running: you don't want to cook the custard.
Pour the mixture back into the pan which held the Chocolate and stir constantly while heating to 180F.
Take off heat, let cool a bit, and add Fernet.
Cover and chill well.
Process in ice cream machine for 30 minutes; it won't thicken significantly but the gelato will set up nicely for service when frozen.
Pour into freezer containers and freeze overnight.