HAZELNUT GELATO

Preparation 30 minutes, plus chilling and freezing Makes about 1 litre This ice cream has a gentle flavour. If you want a more obvious taste, steep the nuts in the milk overnight.

100g hazelnuts, toasted

160g caster sugar 500ml whole milk

4 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

150ml double cream

3 heaped tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread

2 tbsp toasted chopped hazelnuts

1 Grind the nuts in a food processor with 50g sugar until finely chopped – be careful not to over-process as they will become oily. Blend in a splash or two of the milk for 30 seconds. 2 Put the remaining milk and hazelnut mixture into a pan and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse until cold. 3 Strain the nut milk through a muslin-lined sieve into a clean pan (squeezing the nuts to obtain as much flavour as possible) and put over a medium heat to warm through.

4 Mix together the yolks and remaining sugar in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Blend the warm milk into the yolk mixture. 5 Return the milk to the cleaned-out pan and cook over a medium-to-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Be careful not to overheat or the mixture will curdle. 6 Pass the mixture through a sieve (to remove eggy threads) into a chilled bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract. Chill until cold.

7 Churn the hazelnut custard and cream together in an electric ice-cream maker according to the instructions or put in the freezer and beat every two hours until smooth. Once the ice cream has reached a creamy consistency, transfer to a freezerproof container, adding small dollops of chocolate spread and swirling with a skewer to create ripples. Sprinkle the nuts over the surface. Leave to freeze completely. Remove about 20 minutes before serving.