I couldn’t help but eat half of this gelato before it even had a chance to freeze and went to heaven. The hazelnut heaven.
What makes you choose a recipe to try the first time you open a cookbook? An enticing photo? A favorite ingredient used in the recipe? Raves you read on food blogs?
All of the above? For me, it is sometimes the technique that is used. I’m all ears when there is an extraction of flavorful juices. 5 minutes after I read Dorie rubbing the warmed-up sugar with lemon zest in one of her recipes, I was zesting oranges. The result was Orange Grove Cookies.
And when I read David instructing to squeeze the soaked hazelnuts to extract their juices, I knew I had to try the recipe. Even tough it is quite early to decide that this is my favorite recipe from the book, there is a strong hunch that it just may be.
A special recipe like this deserves special treatment. I decided to serve it in between wafer halvas. It is quite common in Turkey to eat ice cream smeared on top of the delicate and crunchy wafer halva discs. If you’re living in the US, here is where you can buy it from.
Gianduja Stracciatella Gelato Recipe
Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
Ingredients
- 1+1/2 cups (185 g) hazelnuts, toasted
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 4 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Method
- Rub the hazelnuts in a kitchen towel to remove as much of the papery skins as possible, then finely chop them in a food processor or blender.
- Warm the milk with 1 cup of the cream, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Once warm, remove from the heat and add the chopped hazelnuts. Cover and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Put the milk chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Heat the remaining 1 cup (250 ml) cream in a medium saucepan until it just begins to boil. Pour it over the milk chocolate pieces and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set a mesh strainer over the top.
- Pour the hazelnut-infused milk through a strainer into a medium saucepan, squeezing the nuts firmly with your hands to extract as much of the flavorful liquid as possible. Discard the hazelnuts.
- Rewarm the hazelnut-infused mixture. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm hazelnut mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
- Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the milk chocolate mixture. Add the vanilla and stir until cool over an ice bath.
- Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
- In a clean and absolutely dry bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring it until it’s completely smooth.
- Start freezing the gelato in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Drizzle a very thin stream of the warm chocolate into 1 quart of ice cream during the last possible moment of churning. If the chocolate clings too much to the dasher, remove the ice cream from the machine and drizzle the chocolate into the frozen ice cream by hand while you layer it into the storage container, breaking up any chunks as you stir.
oh for heaven’s sake, have mercy! I can’t keep up with all the decadent recipes you post and that I want to try immediately. 😉
Great photos. I can just imagine how good the gianduja gelato is with the wafer discs.
Hi Hilda – This one is a must-try. Excellent recipe, thanks to David. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Mary – It really was hazelnut heaven.
That looks wonderful, I am really craving hazelnut gelato, and those chunks of chocolate….? YUM.
Cenk, what a scene!! I’d love to take a huge bite from that wafer 🙂 Although I am a huge ice-cream fan it’s been quite a while since I churned my last batch 🙁 I was planing to make a batch of lavander ice-cream, after that this will be the first one to try!
Keep up with the good work!
Mindblowing photography and recipe! I can quite imagine how fantastic it must taste…
Dearest Cenk – Hazelnut has such a mystifying magical taste – deeply nutty yet so different from all the other nuts. If ever I’m at a traditional gelateria, I always go for gianduia. If you opened a gelateria, I’d be first in the queue 🙂 Have a lovely time in Bodrum.
Cenk, this is a mean, mean post! I wish I could have some and I love the way you served the gelatto.
OMG…This IS heaven!!! I drool and I drool an I drool …just stunning pics top it off!
Hazelnuts are by far my favorite nuts. I loved Nutella as a child and it reminds me of that special time in my life everytime I eat it. Great idea to sandwich the ice cream like that…..I must run out and get this book- I’ve read so many great things about it!
Beautiful photos as always.
That’s what I call a variation on a classic. Good stuff.
Wow! That looks so delicious. I can’t wait to try it too. I had marked the recipe in my copy of The Perfect Scoop and now I’ll really have to get to it.
Thanks!
I love gelato, but it is difficult to find a shop that makes it in my small town in S.C. so, I have to make it myself when I get a craving. I appreciate all of the recipes I can get my hands on. Check out this “cool” article about gelato at foodista.
I’m just about to mix up this Gianduja Gelato tonight, so I haven’t yet tried it… but, the Rice Gelato from David’ book is to die for. You must give it a whirl!
Also, I tried the Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream and couldn’t quite get it to freeze properly, not sure what happened. I had a few cans of sweetened condensed milk that I brought over from the States that I needed to use so I figured I’d try that recipe :).
Hi Jen – Sorry to hear about the Vietnamese coffee ice cream.. I am surprised to hear that the result wasn’t any good. Please do try it one more time with a new can; it really is to-die-for! And I’ll make sure to whirl a batch of rice gelato!
When I read “discard the hazelnuts” I confess I tear fell from the corner of my eye. So I £accidentally” dropped some of them back while straining it. How clumsy of me! >:-) Had a little trouble with the stracciatella part. My chocolate was a bit too warm and started to mix too well with the ice cream, so I stopped the machine and finished by hand. Absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing it !