Blogging about food gives you a whole new awareness of other food blogs out there. Now that I read so many food blogs, I feel a lot more tuned into food from all over the world. The downside though is some of the blogs are so amazing, that I get blog envy :-(. But then you get back in the kitchen and take inspiration from some of these great blogs. I am regular reader and fan of the The Kitchn and my mouth literally watered when they posted a recipe for salted almond ice-cream last week. I am a sucker for salty sweet ice-cream with salty caramel ice-cream being my absolute favourite. Maybe the reason I like salty sweet ice-cream is because I have fond memories of eating ice-cream on the beach and maybe some of that salty sea water tainted the flavour.
The making of this ice-cream was not without drama! I was anticipating some problems as I was using a Gaggia Gelatiera and it’s pretty precarious at the best of times. However the drama started from the very beginning with the custard. The phone rang at a delicate moment of the custard making, I stopped stirring and it started to curdle. In a blind panic I decided the whole thing was ruined and I should throw it out. After my five minute mini-tantrum, I calmed down and googled ‘Can you save curdled custard!’ I found some useful sites and went with a solution to rescue my near curdled custard by cooling it and whisking it with the food processor. I was lucky in that the custard had only started to go wrong and I caught it just in time. Somehow I ended up with lovely smooth, silky creamy custard.
Salted Almond Ice Cream
I converted the amounts to European (metric) measurements.
500ml full fat milk
250ml of cream
5 egg yolks
75g of granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Nut praline
80g chopped almonds
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Heat the milk and cream in a non stick saucepan over medium heat. When the mix starts to froth and bubble around the edges, take off the heat and leave aside. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Whisk until the mixture is thick and pale yellow in colour. Continue whisking the eggs and carefully pour about half of the hot milk into the eggs, all the time whisking. Once the eggs and milk have combined, pour it back into the saucepan with the remaining milk. On a very low heat, cook the egg and milk mixture. *Stir constantly*. Keep stirring until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Next pour the custard into a glass bowl and stir in the almond and vanilla extracts, and set aside to cool. (To speed things up, place the glass bowl in a bowl of iced water)
To make the nut praline, toast the almonds in a frying pan just until they start to go brown. As soon as they begin to toast add the sugar and salt. Cook over a medium heat. Once again, stir constantly. As soon as all the sugar has melted and the nuts caramelize to a dark brown colour, take off the heat. Put the nut praline on a cold plate and leave to cool. Once cold, you can break the praline into pieces.
To be honest I have never attempted making ice-cream without an ice-cream maker but I know The Kitchn have some good methods for this. I put my custard into the ice-cream maker and churned for about fifteen minutes, then added the cooled praline, then churned for a further fifteen minutes. Then I placed the ice cream in the freezer to freeze overnight. I had the usual niggles with the Gaggia. Does anyone out there have a Gaggia and have any problems? I have figured ways around it, but ice-cream making with this baby is never easy. Ciao.
