Roasted Hazelnut Vanilla Ice Cream
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1cup hazelnuts, shelled, skins on
- 1vanilla bean
- 2cups milk
- 1cup heavy cream
- ½cup sugar
- ⅜teaspoon kosher salt
- 1tablespoon Cognac or aged rum
- 1tablespoon vanilla extract
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Spread hazelnuts on a rimmed baking pan and roast, stirring once or twice, until fragrant and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack.
- Step 2
Split vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape seeds into a saucepan. Add vanilla pod, milk, cream, ¼ cup sugar and the salt. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, rub still-warm hazelnuts in a clean dish towel to remove skins. Take saucepan off heat and allow cream to cool while you prepare hazelnut paste.
- Step 4
In a food processor, place ½ cup hazelnuts, remaining ¼ cup sugar and the Cognac or rum and purée until a paste forms, 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape paste into saucepan holding milk mixture and return it to medium-low heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally until paste dissolves, 5 to 7 minutes. Discard vanilla pod and stir in vanilla extract. Transfer to a bowl and place in refrigerator or set into an ice bath to chill. Coarsely chop remaining hazelnuts.
- Step 5
When mixture is cold, pour it into bowl of an ice cream machine along with ¼ cup chopped hazelnuts and churn according to manufacturer’s directions. Transfer to a container and freeze until solid, at least 2 hours. Let sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving, or in refrigerator for 15 to 30. Sprinkle with remaining hazelnuts.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Note that the pod has been in milk, so it should not be saved in sugar.
Discarding vanilla pods is a dreadful waste! Dry them and put into a jar of sugar = vanilla sugar in a few days. If you want to get fancy, process granulated organic sugar until it is fine, not powdered. UK style caster sugar, vanilla-infused to boot.
I’ve made this a few times and it is hands down my favorite ice cream, which shocks me because hazelnut is not my preferred nut. But man, this is good.
Absolutely love this ice cream. Turned out beautifully. I also recommend straining after you take it off the heat and before freezing.
First, you’ll get the best results with fresh, sweet hazelnuts. Second, I found that 1 T vanilla intruded more than I liked on the hazelnut flavor. Add gradually. The flavor of the cognac mostly disappeared. Next time I will spring for Frangelico and use it in place of some or all of the cognac and vanilla. Also - I used a full cup of hazelnuts for the paste another 1/2 cup folded in. It wasn’t too much.
I used 2c cream, 1 c whole milk. Fifi wants less salt: 1/4? tsp????
Added some mini chocolate chips to this, which made a kind of hazelnut rocky road ice cream. It needed very little time to churn in my ice cream machine - it firmed up in under 5 minutes. Maybe this was due to the paste in the base, or the fact that I froze a cup of the base while the rest was chilling in the fridge, and added both to the ice cream machine. Either way, it was a real crowd pleaser!
Discarding vanilla pods is a dreadful waste! Dry them and put into a jar of sugar = vanilla sugar in a few days. If you want to get fancy, process granulated organic sugar until it is fine, not powdered. UK style caster sugar, vanilla-infused to boot.
I always do this. Makes perfect sugar for all baked goods!!!
Note that the pod has been in milk, so it should not be saved in sugar.
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