No-Churn Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Last week at Amazon. I cleaned out my desk on Thursday. Fifteen years of accumulation fit into two boxes: a Le Creuset mini Dutch oven I kept at work for reheating soup, three framed photos (James, Hana, Jisoo's hands making mandu), a small onggi pot I kept on my desk for decoration, and a stack of architecture awards that I put in the recycling bin because the awards were for work that no longer defines me. James said, "You recycled your awards?" I said, "The awards are for systems that will be deprecated in two years. The onggi pot is forever."

My last day was Friday, June 28. I walked out of the Amazon building at 5 PM, carrying my two boxes, and I stood on the sidewalk in the South Lake Union sun and I took a breath. The breath was different from every breath I had taken for fifteen years. It was the breath of a free person. Not free from work — I have more work now than I've ever had, between Banchan Labs and Hana and the kitchen. Free from the wrong work. Free from the meetings about meetings. Free from the architecture reviews that no longer mattered. Free to make kimchi full-time. Free.

Grace met me at the SoDo kitchen on Saturday morning. She said, "You are here now." I said, "I am here now." She said, "Full-time?" I said, "Full-time." She nodded. She said, "Good. There is work to do. The August box needs your attention. The gochujang supplier is unreliable. And the new recipe card design needs a revision." She handed me an apron. I put it on. I was an employee of Banchan Labs, full-time, for the first time, wearing an apron, standing in the SoDo kitchen, holding a spatula in one hand and a baby monitor in the other (Hana was napping in the break room portable crib). This is my life now. This is the life I chose. The apron fits.

The recipe this week is a simple Korean cold noodle soup — mul-naengmyeon — because it is the last week of June and the city is warm and the cold buckwheat noodles are the perfect food for a new beginning in summer. Thin buckwheat noodles, cooked and rinsed in ice water. Served in a cold beef broth — chilled, slightly tangy, with a whisper of mustard. Topped with sliced cucumber, Asian pear, a hard-boiled egg half, and a drizzle of rice vinegar. The bowl is cold and refreshing and the noodles are chewy and the broth is clean and the whole thing tastes like starting over. I am starting over. The noodles understand.

The naengmyeon was for Friday — for the exhale on the sidewalk, for the cold bowl that tasted like starting over. But Saturday belonged to Hana, who woke up from her nap in the break room and wanted something sweet, and I thought: I am a full-time employee of Banchan Labs now, I have no meetings, I have no architecture reviews, I have all the time in the world to make ice cream from scratch without a machine. No-churn chocolate chunk ice cream is the dessert version of that breath on the sidewalk — it asks almost nothing of you, it requires no special equipment, no corporate infrastructure, no fifteen-year career in distributed systems. Just a bowl, a whisk, and the willingness to wait. The apron fits. The ice cream is setting. We are free.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 6 hr (includes freezing) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
6 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

Instructions

Whip the cream. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cold heavy cream on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 3–4 minutes. Do not overwhip.
Make the base. In a large bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and salt until combined.
Fold together. Add roughly one-third of the whipped cream to the condensed milk mixture and stir gently to lighten it. Add the remaining whipped cream and fold carefully with a rubber spatula until just combined — streaks are fine. Overmixing will deflate the cream.
Add the chocolate. Fold in the chocolate chunks, distributing them evenly throughout the mixture.
Freeze. Pour the mixture into a 9x5-inch loaf pan or a freezer-safe container. Smooth the top with a spatula. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent ice crystals. Freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight, until completely firm.
Serve. Let the ice cream sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before scooping. Serve in bowls or cones and enjoy immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

No-Churn Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream — Cold, Simple, and Completely Free