Hazelnut Custard Ice Cream

My mum borrowed her friend Dora's ice cream maker. This recipe is a combination of a few recipes I found in the recipe booklet that came with the ice cream maker and from the hazelnut gelato recipe at Epicurious.com.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup whole milk
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
4/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts  (*Extra delicious if roasted: bake in oven at 350 degrees, stirring every 5 minutes for 20 minutes or until you can smell their fragrance. Be careful not to burn!)
** Try to buy hazelnuts without the skin because it can be time consuming and difficult to remove them.

Directions

(1) Roast hazelnuts and rub off any skins in a kitchen towel, then cool completely.

Pulse with 1 tbls sugar and a pinch of salt in a food processor until finely chopped.

Transfer to a heavy saucepan and add heavy cream. Bring just to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat and let steep, covered, 1 hour.

(2) In a medium sized sauce pan heat milk until scum forms on top and milk bubbles on edges.

With a fork mix sugar and egg yolks.

Slowly pour 1/2 of milk into egg mixture, stirring constantly. Pour mixture into a different sauce pan, add remaining milk, blend well.

Stir constantly, cooking about 5 minutes or until mixture coats spoon and thickens slightly. Don't let it boil (make sure the temperature does not go beyond 175 degree F. Custard can burn easily (I learned this the hard way:( Immediately pour custard through cleaned sieve into a metal bowl, then set bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and cool, stirring occasionally. Chill custard, covered, until cold.

(3) Blend hazelnut mixture with custard. Place in ice cream maker and follow instructions.

Ice Cream maker instructions:

(1) Place chill chamber in freezer overnight.
(2) Pour in your ice cream ingredients
(3) Turn a few times to "churn". After churning about 5-8 minutes ice cream is ready!  Transfer to a separate container for harder ice cream and to store for later.

Optional topping: Nut Fudge Sauce

2 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 oz (3 squares) unsweetened chocolate
2/4 cup cream
1 t. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Mix together in sauce pan the sugar, brown sugar, chocolate, cream, and butter. Cook over medium heat until the mixture crinkles around the edge of the sauce pan. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla and chopped nuts. Serve at once.

My brother and I about to have some ice cream:)