Coffee Ice Cream And Hazelnut Gelato

Many of you who read my spring dinner and dessert posts have been anxiously awaiting the ice cream and gelato recipes. Well, I won't make you wait any longer. Here they are! Both of these recipes are from David Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop.

Coffee Ice Cream With Coffee Chocolate Chunks (adapted from The Perfect Scoop)
(Printable version)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (I used Starbucks Breakfast Blend)
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee (I used Starbucks Pike Place Roast)
1 cup coffee chocolate chunks

Preparation

Combine milk, sugar, coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan.

Warm over medium heat, and turn off heat source after mixture is warmed. Cover and let steep for 1 hour.

(This mixture tastes just like what we called coffee milk when I was little. My dad would pour a little bit of coffee in a small glass and add lots of milk and sugar to it. We thought we were really drinking coffee like grownups!)

Set up an ice bath. I like to use my roasting pan since it's very deep and can easily fit a large bowl in it. I fill it with some ice and then water. Set this aside.

Rewarm the coffee mixture. Pour remaining 1 cup of cream into a large bowl, and set a strainer over the bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

Slowly pour the coffee mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. It's important to keep the egg yolks moving and to slowly pour the coffee mixture so the warm mixture does not cook the yolks.

Scrape the contents of the bowl back into the saucepan, and return the saucepan to the stove.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula.

Immediately pour the custard through the strainer, and mix it with the cream. Discard the coffee beans.

Stir in the vanilla and finely ground coffee.

Then place the whole bowl in the ice bath, and stir the ice cream occasionally until it is cool.

Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, and then follow the instructions that came with your ice cream maker.

Pour the ice cream into a bowl and stir in the coffee chocolate chunks.

Serve with your favorite ice cream toppings!

I love hot fudge!

Gianduja-Stracciatella Gelato -- or Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato With Chocolate Ribbons (adapted from The Perfect Scoop)
(Printable version)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups hazelnuts
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
4 ounces high-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
5 large egg yolks
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (not chocolate chips)

Preparation

Toast hazelnuts in 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Let them cool just enough to handle, and then rub them with a kitchen towel to remove the skins.

Finely chop them in a food processor.

Combine milk, 1 cup of cream, sugar, and salt in a saucepan, and warm over medium heat. Once warm, remove from heat, and stir in hazelnuts.

Cover and let steep for 1 hour.

Place milk chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Heat remaining 1 cup cream in small saucepan just until it boils, and then pour the cream over the chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set a strainer over the bowl (if you have two strainers because you'll need a strainer for this next part too).

Set a strainer over a medium saucepan, and pour the hazelnut-infused mixture through it. Discard the hazelnuts after squeezing as much liquid from them as you can.

Rewarm the hazelnut-infused mixture.

Set up an ice bath. I like to use my roasting pan since it's very deep and can easily fit a large bowl in it. I fill it with some ice and then water. Set this aside.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks together.

Slowly pour the warmed hazelnut mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. (Again, it's important to keep the yolks moving so you don't cook them with the addition of the warm mixture.)

Scrape the yolk and hazelnut cream mixture back into the saucepan, and cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, over medium heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula.

Pour the custard through a strainer into the chocolate mixture. Stir in the vanilla.

Then place the whole bowl in the ice bath, and stir the ice cream occasionally until it is cool.

Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.

Melt the semisweet chocolate in microwave-safe bowl. I like to use my Pyrex measuring cup because it has a pour spout on it.

Follow the instructions that came with your ice cream maker, and when the ice cream is almost finished mixing and freezing, very slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate in a thin stream. If too much chocolate gets stuck on the dasher, you can transfer the ice cream to a bowl and stir the chocolate in by hand instead.

Serve with your favorite ice cream toppings!

These are only two of the amazing ice cream recipes within this book. I can't wait to try so many more! There are also tons of granitas, sorbets, sherbets, sauces, and toppings. It is definitely one of my best cookbook purchases -- now that I'm obsessed with my ice cream maker.

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And just a shameless plug for myself -- because if you don't root for yourself and have confidence in yourself, who else will, right? I wish Ten Speed Press had responded to me when I sent in my resume and asked to be considered for a freelance cookbook copy editing position (which is pretty much an unattainable dream now that Ten Speed is owned by Random House.) Perhaps if I had copy edited this book, then people trying to make their own ice cream cones would be instructed to put their baking sheets in the oven rather than the "over."

I find mistakes and typos in my cookbooks and even in my favorite food magazines pretty frequently. (For example, my Spring 2010 issue of Entertaining from Cook's Illustrated said Spring 2009 on the cover.) Being an editor, I completely understand that everyone makes mistakes, but I'd like to help ensure that those mistakes don't end up in my favorite cookbooks. So once again: If anyone is looking for a freelance cookbook copy editor or recipe editor, you can read more about my experience on my About page. Chronicle Books, are you reading this?

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And now I just have one question for you: WHEN are you going to make these recipes?