Hazelnut ice cream

The full flavour of roasted hazelnuts from pure nut paste, with no eggs.

Nut paste brings a lot of fat to the mix, so the recipe uses less cream and more milk. The nut fat makes the ice cream just as creamy as dairy fat, and no eggs are needed. The quality of the paste is what counts: 100 % paste made from well-roasted nuts tastes like a hazelnut dessert, while cheap pastes with sugar and oil taste flat.

Type: Classic cream ice cream · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 600 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 200 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 25 g skimmed milk powder
  • 140 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 30 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 90 g hazelnut paste 100 % (100 % hazelnuts, roasted)
  • 0.5 g salt (optional, a pinch — brings out the nuts)
  • 50 g hazelnuts (roasted) (for topping or folding in at the end, chopped, for sprinkling)

Making the mix

  1. Mix the skimmed milk powder and dextrose with the granulated sugar (mixed dry, they won’t form lumps).
  2. Heat the milk and cream in a pan to about 60 °C, then whisk in the sugar and milk powder mixture and keep stirring until it has completely dissolved.
  3. Put the nut paste in a tall container, pour in about a glassful of the warm mix and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Then stir in the rest.
  4. Cool the mix quickly in a bowl set in iced water.
  5. Cover and age in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
  6. Blitz the mix briefly again before churning — the nut fat can separate on the surface.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix no higher than the fill line (with a smaller bowl, churn in two batches) and churn for 30–40 minutes, until it has the consistency of thick whipped cream.
  3. Transfer to a chilled container, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours.

Total time: 7 h 30 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the chilled mix — no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the ice cream thickens. There’s no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours beforehand (until you can no longer hear the coolant sloshing inside). The mix must be thoroughly chilled.

Total time: 8 h 20 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Divide the chilled mix between CREAMi tubs, filling each no higher than the MAX line (a full batch makes about two standard tubs).
  2. Put the lids on and freeze on a level surface for 24 hours.
  3. Place a tub in the machine and run the Ice Cream program.
  4. Use a spoon to dig a well about 4 cm wide in the centre, all the way to the bottom, add 2 tablespoons of chopped roasted hazelnuts and run the Mix-in program.
  5. If the ice cream is crumbly or powdery, run Re-spin (many users add 1–2 tablespoons of milk first).

Programme: Ice Cream

A standard tub holds about 470 ml, a Deluxe tub about 700 ml. Don’t fill above the MAX line, and freeze it level — the machine doesn’t handle an uneven block well.

Total time: 29 h 3 min

Method — No-machine method

  1. Pour the chilled mix into a deep metal or glass container (a baking dish, for example) and put it in the freezer.
  2. After 45 minutes, stir the mix thoroughly with a whisk, spatula or stick blender, working the frozen edges into the centre.
  3. Repeat every 30 minutes, 4–5 times in all, until the ice cream is thick and smooth.
  4. Leave to harden for another hour.

Without a machine you get more ice crystals and less air, so the ice cream is denser. Every stir breaks up the crystals, so don’t skip any.

Total time: 8 h 55 min

Stages

Preparation
15 min
Cooking
10 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
4 h
Churning
35 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
7 h 30 min

Serving and storage

Sprinkle with chopped roasted hazelnuts. Excellent alongside chocolate ice cream in the same bowl.

In a sealed container with cling film pressed onto the surface it’s best within a week; after that, ice crystals start to build up. Never refreeze ice cream that has melted.

Tips

  • You can make the paste yourself: roast the hazelnuts at 160 °C for 10–12 minutes, rub off the skins with a tea towel and blend in a powerful blender for 5–10 minutes until they release their oil.
  • Pistachio, almond or peanut paste works the same way (add a pinch of salt with peanut).
  • The ice cream contains nuts — let your guests know when serving.

Why it works

90 g of paste contains about 55 g of fat — almost as much as 170 g of cream. But at freezer temperature nut fat is more liquid than milk fat, so the ice cream is softer and holds less air. That’s why the recipe also includes milk powder: its proteins help trap the air bubbles.

Sources