Coffee Hazelnut Ice cream

The best things about summer holidays?

• Singing. I'm talking full on, high pitched and squeaky; for so long that I lost my voice juuust a little (In For The Kill and Bad Day are some 'nostalgic' faves at the mo)
• Wearing a billion bracelets; it doesn't matter if they get in the way, no writing for exam papers is happening here!
• Light not fading until late evening which is useful when you want to take photos of food
• Time for making and drawing, I'm such a craftoholic
• Ripping 5 years worth physics notes out the folders, ready for note burning time.

Oh yeah, and one little thing called ICE CREAM. 

Coffee and hazelnut ice cream to be exact, fo reals. This combo is amaze-faces! The hazelnuts jazz up the earthy flavours of the coffee. 

Pro tip! (if you like these flavours): grind toasted, skinned hazelnuts with coffee beans, then brew like normal in a cafetiere, and top with cinnamon (woah there, blog name inserted unintentionally :/ ).

In real life, there's those 5 minutes, which seems like an eternity, that you have to wait for ice cream to get warm enough to scoop; you impatiently scrape at the edges of the ice cream container to get those delicious slivers of melty heaven. But apparently, the laws of ice cream make it so that when you want it to stay cold (e.g. for taking photos), oh no no no, the ice cream is a melted puddle as soon as you turn around.

Although shooting this was one of the most stressy times of my life, it was really fun in the end. The only other time I've photographed ice cream was one of my verrrryy early posts...let's say that the photos probably aren't really beneficial for your eyes. So it was interesting to see how much difference nearly 1 year made. 

and just look at that crackle in the ice cream. Ahhh, look again. Man alive, that makes me hungry.

Luckily, I noticed the ice cream dripping away just as I was about to clear up, and managed to capture an ultra satisfying .gif of it!

mmmm melty...

Coffee Hazelnut Ice cream

adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream   (Base Recipe)

1/3 cup (2 oz / 55g) granulated sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup / golden syrup
3 tbsp powdered milk
2-3 tbsp instant coffee (depending on taste)
2 cups (500ml) milk (anything 1% or above)
1 cup (250 ml) light cream (aka single cream)
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cream cheese (low fat is fine)
1 heaped tbsp hazelnut butter (no added salt or sugar)

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a large saucepan and whisk over a medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, then turn the heat onto low.

Combine the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture in a small bowl, then add this back into the saucepan. Turn the heat up to medium-low and continue to whisk for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together the cream cheese and hazelnut butter. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture until smooth, then whisk in the rest.

Pour the mixture into a jug and put it in the fridge / freezer until it is completely cool; or pour into a ziplock bag, seal it, then put into a bowl of water and ice until completely cool.

Pour into your ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturers instructions. Transfer to a container and put in the freezer for a few hours until firm.