HAZELNUT GELATO

This ice cream has a pleasingly gentle flavour. If you want a much stronger taste, steep the nuts in the milk overnight.

MAKES about 1 litre

PREPARATION TIME

30 minutes, plus chilling and freezing

COOKING TIME 15 minutes

100g hazelnuts, toasted 160g caster sugar 500ml whole milk 4 large egg yolks 1tsp vanilla extract 150ml double cream 3 heaped tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread

2tbsp 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 30sec.

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 get as much flavour as possible)

and put over 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 milk to cleaned-out pan and cook over mediumto-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Be careful not to overheat or it will curdle.

6 Pass the mixture through a sieve (to remove egg threads) into a chilled bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract. Chill until cold.

7 Churn the hazelnut custard and cream together in an ice-cream maker according to the instructions or put in the freezer and beat every 2hr until smooth. Once it 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 20min before serving.