Found! Dark Chocolate Meringue Drops

Waaaaay back in 2009, I blogged about these Dark Chocolate Meringue Cookies.  I made them several times - they were wonderful!  But as happens, I moved on to new recipes and they fell out of my regular rotation.  They were not, however, forgotten.  But when I tried to go back and make them some time in the last year, the website had undergone an upgrade and much of the old content disappeared, including my cookie recipe.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Phin was flipping through a cookbook.  Out fell a copy of the recipe that I must have printed out at some point. Anyway, so as not to lose it again, here it is: 

Dark Chocolate Meringue Cookies

5 oz dark/bittersweet chocolate (60-75% cacao) divided
2 TBSP cocoa (dutch processed, sifted after measuring)
3 TBSP cocoa nibs (optional - I don't use)
1/3 c (about 3 large) egg whites at room temp
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 c sugar (minus 1 1/2 tsp if not using nibs)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 3 oz of chocolate in microwave. Set aside to cool. Chop remaining 2 oz into mini-morsel size pieces. Add tartar to egg whites in bowl of a mixer.  Beat until soft peaks start to form. Add 2 TBSP sugar and beat for 1 min. Slowly add remaining sugar one tbsp at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Keep beating until the meringue turns thick, smooth, opaque and glossy - about 2 minutes more. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for additional 30 seconds. Turn off mixer.  Fold in chocolate (melted and chopped) and cocoa, until no streaks remain. Do not overmix. Scoop onto 2 cookie sheets lined with silpat or lightly greased parchment paper by the rounded tsp.  Bake for 8-12 minutes until just set, rotating pans and switching positions half way thru.  Cool on pans for 1-2 minutes and then lift parchment/silpat off the pans to a cooling rack and leave until completely cool - 15 min. Cookies should have a crisp crust that shatters but be soft inside. Makes apprx 40 cookies.

By the way, these cookies freeze really well.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I thought I'd pop my head up to say hi and that while blogging time remains elusive, sewing and knitting continues apace. At last count I have 10 unblogged sewing projects and at least 2 knitting ones. C'est la vie.  But I'm hoping to find some time to photograph these projects this week. Fingers crossed.

Over the last few months, I've tried a bunch of new to me recipes and here is the real winner from the bunch: chocolate crinkle cookies from ATK. They are like mini brownies, but in cookie form. And the crackled sugar coating really makes them one of the more attractive things to come out of my oven.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
½ cup (1 1/2 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups packed (10 1/2 ounces) brown sugar
3 large eggs
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder, (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners' sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl.
2. Whisk brown sugar; eggs; espresso powder, if using; and vanilla together in large bowl. Combine chocolate and butter in bowl and microwave at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture until combined. Fold in flour mixture until no dry streaks remain. Let dough sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
4. Place granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar in separate shallow dishes. Working with 2 tablespoons dough (or use #30 scoop) at a time, roll into balls. Drop dough balls directly into granulated sugar and roll to coat. Transfer dough balls to confectioners’ sugar and roll to coat evenly. Evenly space dough balls on prepared sheets, 11 per sheet.
5. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until puffed and cracked and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cool completely on sheet before serving.

If you are thinking, but how do they taste? The answer is really really good!  They are chocolate decadence. 

The cookies are rather large as you are directed to make them. I found that one cookie was enough. But really is one cookie ever really enough? So, on my next batch I made half of the batter/dough into the large size cookies (2tbsp) and half into much smaller cookies (scant tbsp). It worked out well.

I need to tinker with the timing of baking the smaller size. The larger cookes, which I baked first came out fudgey and dense, and smaller cookies came out more like a rich cakey brownie. So, depending on your brownie preference, you can adjust your cooking time so you have either a more fudgey or a more cakey result.  (I am a fudgey girl all the way!)

Anyway, if you crave a very chocolaty almost brownie, I highly recommend giving this recipe a shot.

Popovers, Because You Asked

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw these popovers that I made this morning for breakfast. A few people asked for the recipe.

Easy-peasy Popovers from themom100.com

1 cups minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons canola oil
1 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten

Combine first three ingredients, stirring until smooth. Whisk eggs into flour mix until smooth. Grease muffin or popover pan. Fill half way with batter (makes 12). Place pan in a cold oven and set for 425. Bake without opening the oven for 25 minutes. Check. Bake for up to 30 minutes until deep golden brown. Eat warm with Nutella or jam. 

I prefer Nutella.

Old New York in My Kitchen: Diner Corn Muffins

Have you ever found something that you didn't realize you had been looking for until the moment you found it? This is one of those stories.

About five years ago the diner in my parents little Brooklyn neighborhood closed; the family that owned it sold the property after 35 years. That's NY real estate for you. Locals - including my family - still lament it. It was the go-to place for brunch or lunch or when you didn't feel like cooking dinner, with a menu that was immune to food fads, yet always seemed to have what you wanted.

Anyway, since then I've found myself periodically trying recipes for corn muffins and corn bread, without really being clear on what I was looking for, but always feeling disappointed with the results. For whatever reason, I decided to give this recipe a try.

This was exactly the muffin I had been craving without even knowing it, albeit at about half the size of its diner kin. If you aren't familiar with the NY diner corn muffin, it's not the sort of thing you would eat with chili con carne or that you would consider adding corn kernals, cheese or jalapeno's to. NO way. The classic NY diner corn muffin is a little sweet, definitely corney, moist and appropriate for breakfast. When you ordered it you would be asked if you wanted it toasted (you did) and it would come to your table all buttery from being split (crown from base) and thrown onto the griddle in a pool of butter, most likely next to a pile of bacon.

Split the wrong way

There is something distinctly throw-back-ish about this classic diner corn muffin, and that is sort of why I like it. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was happily munching on one. Here is the recipe, which some kind soul posted on tasteofhome.com 

1-1/4c cornmeal
1c all purpose flour
1/3c packed brown sugar
1/3c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1c buttermilk
3/4c vegetable oil

Directions: In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugars, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, beat egg, buttermilk and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 425° for 12-15 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Yield: 1 dozen.

Quick Quiche!

One of my favorite things to bake and eat over the last year has been quiche.

I really craved dairy during pregnancy and found it equally satisfying during the early months of motherhood. With limited time and patience for baking, I developed this very basic recipe for a crustless quiche that was the perfect use for leftovers. My quiche making eventually got to a point (obsession?) where I started trying to generate more leftovers in order to have more quiche fillings.  

Calling this a recipe is an overstatement. It's actually a ratio based on how many eggs you want to use. The basic ratio is: 

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 oz cheese (cheddar, gruyere, a blend...)
1 oz of one or more fillings
salt and pepper to taste

So, if you want to use 4 eggs, you would add one cup of milk, 4 oz of cheese and 4 oz of as many fillings as you would like. When it comes to cheese and fillings, you really can use more or less to suit your tastes.

Leftover Veg, diced leftover ham and gruyere

What do I mean by fillings? I mean leftovers. For example, the rest of the broccoli or spinach from last night's dinner. Or leftover roasted chicken or ham that's been diced. Or a few strips of bacon that you've crumbled. You really can use just about any vegetable or meat that you'd enjoy as long as it isn't too wet. As for cheese, use whatever suits you - cheddar, gruyere, mozzarella, blue cheese, feta..

Leftover bits of broccoli, mushroom and sauteed spinach.

Just put all your fillings in a pie plate (for a 3 or 4 egg version) or another small or large dish that will hold everything, keeping a bit of the cheese aside for topping. In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour the egg mix over the filling and top with cheese.

With a dusting of parmesan on top!

About 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven should do it. Just be careful not to drop yours onto the kitchen floor.

Yeah. This happened. 

Enjoy your quiche warm or cool with a side of soup or salad.  I ate my many quiches during the winter with this awesome and easy tomato soup. Perfect!

Breakfast Baking: Cinnamon Swirl Bread

The abominable weather in the Northeast is really derailing my sewing posts - it's been impossible to photograph anything. My blue welt pocket trousers are finished, and the Craft Lounge is currently covered in a light layer of fluff from the ongoing construction of my faux fur cape. But you'll have to settle for more baking on this frigid day.

Without realizing it, I seem to have shifted the focus of my baking from dessert to breakfast this month.  I suppose it's because of my previously mentioned recuperation from holiday indulgences. Whatever the case, I'm really enjoying breakfast lately.

One of my goals is to become a better bread baker. I'm fine, just not proficient. I just don't have a long enough bread baking history to have experience on my side. So, when I was thinking about another tasty, somewhat sweet but not extravagant breakfast item to bake, I landed on Cinnamon Swirl Bread.

Naturally, I turned to King Arthur Flour. This recipe is one that also appears in their Baker's Companion Cookbook, which is my go-to cookbook for baking.

This is a yeast raised bread, and the blocks of time when you are letting the dough rise, rise again, bake and cool are perfect for sewing. And, oh my gosh, I don't think the house has ever smelled quite as amazing as when this was in the oven. Cinnamon overload! 

The very helpful thing that I learned about bread with this loaf is about doneness. Most yeast risen loaves are done when the internal temperature reaches 190F. I like tricks that eliminate guess work.

Cinnamon swirls!

Look at how swirly it came out! I'm really happy with how it looks and tastes. Toasted with a little butter or served with a schmear of peanut butter or nutella, this bread is exactly what I wanted. It's delicious and not terribly sweet, but still feels like a treat. My only change to future loaves may be to add some raisins to the dough instead of just to the swirl.

Do you multitask when you have a whole day free to sew, bake or whatever other hobbies you enjoy?

His and Hers Muffins

I like chocolate in just about everything baked.  Really, doesn't a handful of dark chocolate chips enhance just about every cookie, muffin and sweet bread?

I think so. Phin, well, not so much.  But I have a solution for muffins: His and Hers.

Heavenly Healthy Banana Muffins

Last week, I decided to make KAF's Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread as muffins. Only, I like banana bread/muffins with chips, and Phin prefers without.

Aside: did you know that you can make just about any quick bread (ie: breads leavened with baking powder or soda rather than yeast) into muffins? You can. A quick bread recipe that is supposed to be baked in an 8 1/2" or 9" loaf pan will make about 1 dozen muffins. Just bake for about 25 minutes and test for doneness. So, if you have a favorite pumpkin or cranberry bread or apple walnut loaf, go for it.

Back to my muffins. To please both of us, I made the batter according to the recipe and filled half the muffin tin using turquoise cupcake liners. Then I added a handful of chocolate chips and filled the other half of the tin using orange cupcake liners. 

Hers on the left and His on the right.

Different liners makes it easy to tell whose is whose, and we both get our muffins exactly how we like them.

The muffins came out really tasty. I'm usually suspicious of "healthy" recipes since they are often made with low/no fat or low carb products or are artificially sweetened. I simply do not eat these sorts of engineered foods. Real food and everything in moderation is my general eating philosophy, and this recipe delivers that - whole grain, modestly sweetened, healthy nuts and loads of banana flavor even without the added flavoring. It's good for this time of year when I have the urge to bake but, after so many holiday indulgences, want to exercise a bit of restraint. I even used buckwheat honey, which has a very dark molasses flavor and a wealth of antioxidants and other health-boosting properties.

Do you have any easy baking tricks like my his and hers muffins?  Do you have favorite recipes for when you want something warm and delicious out of the oven that isn't such an indulgence? Please share!

Bread: A Much Needed Victory!!

So, I had a much needed victory in the kitchen while it was snowing yesterday. Not only did my second try at this bread look good from the outside...

Good looking on the outside!

 But look at the inside!

Big airy holes!!

 

This is how its supposed to look. And it has a crisp, shattering crust, lots of airy holes, a nice soft crumb and tastes good, too.

I realize now that I made some kind of measuring error in my first sorry boule. This time I measured by weight, which is how I normally bake. Conversions are in the follow-up article about the bread. The dough looked totally different when I measured by weight, so I knew at once that I had made some kind of mistake last week.

So, the verdict is that this recipe is as easy as promised and, when I actually measured correctly, the results were great. I can see myself making this bread often. I do like kneaded breads, but don't always have the time to be home to do all of the rising and punching down in one day. With this bread, I mix the dough one afternoon (it takes 5 minutes including clean up), rise untouched until the next morning, and by lunchtime am taking the bread out of the oven.  

 

Anyway, three cheers for bread. I'm already thinking about all kinds of variations with whole grains and other enhancements.

Now with Four Times the Fail for Your Viewing Pleasure

Last weekend was an epic fail. Sometimes things just don't go your way with knitting and sewing and baking. I'm usually pretty good at planning my projects and having successes. But every so often I get hit with a whammy or two... or four... 

First up, a few weeks ago I bought some 100% genuine Ewok fur.

The poor muppets that had to die for my fur!

Um. yeah.  I had been looking for sweater knits, but this is undeniably better, don't you think? It's faux fur with vinyl/rainwear spots.

 
Unlike she who enabled me into buying this fabric, I decided that for such an over the top fabric, I needed a simple pattern. Enter Burda 12-2010-101

I was seduce by how simple this pattern is to sew: just a front, a back and sleeves.  But, oh my, how (1) boxy on my figure and (2) not so easy to fit! Seams and darts - these are a curvy gal's friends. How did I forget that straight lines are not for me? Sigh.

Drag lines say we need an FBA

I graded out at the hips and now they are puffy. Oy.

Shoulder point in wrong place

And I decided I didn't really like the drop shoulders on me; they just looked sloppy. But taking them in led to all kinds of problems...

Ouch - really really binding.

Binding and pulling. Just not good.

Could I redraft the entire armscye, back and sleeve? Well, yes. But overall, this is how I ultimately feel about this pattern on me/my figure:

Frankenface.

Yeah. This gets a rousing meh from me. On someone who is a little more proportional, I think this could be chic. But on me, I think it just isn't going to work without significant alteration, which sort of defeats the point of this being an easy pattern.

Thank goodness I muslined!

Next, I cast on a new knitting project as a palette cleanser.

This is Habu textiles Kibiso silk (L) and silk stainless steel (R) yarns.The kibiso is made from waste silk and the stainless is, well, like silk with a memory wire core. Both very cool.

Habu Kibiso Silk and Silk Stainless Steel

I was going to knit the Amime top by Kirsten Johnson. You hold the two strands together and knit on a large needle to create the open work.

Amime

Anyway, I cast on a bunch of stitches and knitted a few rows for a gauge swatch. It felt like I was knitting with barbed wire. The kibiso is so stiff that all my stitches were uneven. There was no way I was going to get gauge and it was massively unpleasant to knit even just a few rows. I can't imagine wearing it. I lasted three rows and then frogged the swatch.

SO, the next day I went to my LYS to see if I could find a different yarn to pair with the Habu Silk Stainless. A yarn bender ensued.

All for me!!!

I bought that big ball of red Malabrigo Rasta yarn to make into an instant gratification palette cleansing scarf. It knit up incredibly quickly into the Uroboro cowl by Stephen West.  Doesn't this look chic?

Yeah. I thought so too, despite Ravelry reviews to the contrary. It looks kinda cool when not being worn, but...

 Even when I hold it like the model, it is only so-so...

And when I don't...

Yeah. Why did I think I could make this work?

Hubris, my friends. Hubris.

Anyway, if you think that's as much fail as any one person could pack into one weekend, you'd be wrong. My last fail of the weekend was in the kitchen. While all this sewing and knitting was happening, bread dough was rising. I decided it was time to get on board with no-knead breads.

And look at how utterly awesome my bread turned out! Until you cut it open...

It's supposed to have big airy holes through the whole thing, like this. Unfortunately, mine only has holes at the top and is very very dense throughout the rest. I have no idea if this means that the dough was too moist or too dry. I suspect that it was too dry. (Phin thinks too wet.) It tasted ok, but Phin has started flipping through recipes for bread pudding and mumbling about the large supply of breadcrumbs.

I'm seriously the only person who has not made this recipe work on the first try.It's billed as being so easy a six-year-old could bake it.

So, there it is. My epic weekend of fail. Fear not; I am undaunted. I look at this as all my fails in one tidy little blow. And now I can move on to some successes this weekend. Cross your fingers for me.

First Weekend of Summer!

After last summer, which went by in a blur of back pain, I'm finding myself oddly determined to make the most of this year. So, I got right down to it this first weekend of summer. Phin and I picked strawberries, planted tomatoes and herbs, and grilled up a storm with family on Saturday and just for ourselves yesterday. Plus, I ran a personal best 1 mile (I'm promoting myself from snail to tortoise) and managed to fit in a little bit of sewing and knitting. I'm also in the midst of a baking blitz.

Summer always inspires me to get into the kitchen. I've been working on perfecting a few new-to-me recipes, including this one for blondies. 

Ooey-gooey delicious blondies!

After quite a few batches, I feel like I finally have them right. My early batches were very dense in the center (leaden) and overdone (dry and crunchy) around the edges. These ones came out moist throughout and had the right gooey denseness, without being leaden. Also, these are very very nutty, which is a big plus in my book.

Blondies (Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip ones!)
8Tbsp (4 oz, 1 stick) butter
16 oz (2 c) brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsps vanilla 
1 1/2 c (6 1/4oz) flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 c peanut butter and/or chocolate chips
1 1/2 c (6oz) chopped walnuts or other nuts

Mix sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla in bowl of stand mixer. Melt butter and mix into sugar. Let cool to room temperature. Add eggs one at a time, beating well  after each addition. Mix in flour, followed by nuts and chips. Bake in a greased 9x13 pan at 350 for 28 minutes. They should still be gooey, but not runny, in the center. 

Mmmmm... blondies!

This is almost exactly the KAF Bakers Companion recipe, but mixed together and baked according to the KAF Whole Grain Baking book recipe. Really, the key difference is that you beat everything in a mixer and bake for a shorter amount of time. Also, I omitted 1/4 tsp of optional butterscotch flavor since I had none. Oh, and I substituted a mix of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips for the butterscotch chips. I used about 2/3 pb and 1/3 chocolate. So these are nutty and delicious with little punches of chocolate. Perfect!

I bake much more than I can eat, even with Phin's help. But I have a very easy storage solution for baked goods: the freezer. At any point in time, you can usually find some assortment of brownies, cookies, bread, muffins, cake and pie in my freezer. (NB: custard-based pies, like pumpkin, don't freeze/thaw very well.)

Ready to be frozen!

After taste-testing, most of the blondies were put on a wax paper lined baking sheet and frozen. Once they were solid, Phin moved them to a zip lock bag for future devouring and sharing. This way, I always have desert for company and something to bring when I'm the company, and I never have to worry about sweets getting stale or eating them all myself.

Comfort Baking

I know I've been missing in action for the last week and posts have been light for the last several. Too much work is to blame. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and soon I'll be back to sewing and blogging more regularly.

Tuesday night, I arrived home in need of comfort; it's been a rough week on many levels. Something warm from the oven was what I needed. So, I baked myself a very quick chocolate cake. It was mixed and then baked right in the cake pan. The recipe is from King Arthur Flour (click here).

Weeknight dessert!

I iced it with a ganache made of  1 1/2 cups of chocolate bits melted with 1/2 a cup of half and half.

There is something about baking that I find intensely calming and comforting. By the time I was cutting a slice of cake, I was already feeling soothed. Next time I'll add a bit more cocoa to the cake batter. But other than that, it was the perfect weeknight cake and just what the doctor ordered.

What do you when you need to give yourself a little TLC?

Home Sweet Home:Summer Fruit Tart

It was nice to wake up in my own bed this morning after 11 nights away.

After so many days of work, I did  manage to fit in two days of fun in Paris over the weekend before heading home. Saturday was Bastille Day, which is French National Day, a patriotic holiday marked by parades and fireworks. This fruit tart - made for the 4th of July - is my tribute to my mini trip, and liberty and equality for all.

For the last few summers, I've been looking for a simple, reliable fruit tart recipe to deal with my weekly farmers' marked binges. I don't want anything fussy or complicated or that will take hours to make. Summer is for simple food and great produce.

Those of you reading for some time may remember one of my more notable flops: the Zombie Pie. Further attempts were no better than the original. So, I moved on.

But here is this summer's version: the Fruit Cream Tart.  Much prettier than the Zombie Pie, no? King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, you have redeemed yourself!

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I used a basic Pate Sucree tart crust, which is quick and easy to make. But you could also use a pie crust - home made or store bought. The filling is even less challenging with a very interchangeable list of ingredients.

Fruit Cream Pie (or Tart)

1 1/2 c buttermilk, milk (any %) or cream
3 large eggs
3 tbsp flour
1/2 - 1c sugar to taste
1/4 tsp spice of your choice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, allspice...) optional
3 cups whole berries or other fruit cut into small dice

Roll out your pie crust and put in a 9" pie pan. Beat eggs and buttermilk together. Beat in flour, sugar and spice. Arrange fruit in the bottom of pie pan. Top with milk mixture. Bake 425 for 15 min on bottom rack. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for additional 35-50min. until a spot 2 inches from the crust is set. Cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

As usual, I made a number of changes. First, I used a 10 1/2" tart pan instead of a pie pan. I cut the entire recipe back by 1/3 (so used just 2/3 of the recipe as written). I used a mix of blueberries and strawberries. Instead of a spice, I used about 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Since I was making a shallower tart, I cut back the baking time to 12 minutes at 425 and then 25 minutes at 350.

Voila! The tart was lovely and delicious and refreshing!

Much prettier than Zombie Pie! Yay!

Anyway, it's great to be home. Regular posting shall resume shortly!

You Scream, I Scream: Wow, it's Hot

Boy was it steamy in the Northeast on the first full day of summer! 

Thanks to Dr K for sending me this ecard! So true! LOL

One of the truly great and often overlooked things about being an adult, IMHO, is having the autonomy to decide to skip dinner and go right for dessert. I've been known to have ice cream for dinner on really hot days. Last night, I even made my own.

My first batch of ice cream for this summer is Gianduja Gelato from The Perfect Scoop. Those of you who are more recent readers may not yet fully appreciate the epic nature of my love of nutella. And peanut butter, but that's a different post.

If you are not familiar with Gianduja, it hails from Torino, Italy and, flavorwise, is that same nutella-like mix of hazelnuts and chocolate. Yum. Last year I made a peach and a strawberry ice cream from this book (somehow I didn't blog about them), but this is the first time I've made a custard based ice cream (with eggs) rather than a Philadelphia style ice cream. Some people fear making custard, since there is a risk of ending up with nutella-flavored scrambled eggs (ewwwww!!!). But as long as you temper the eggs by slowly adding some of the warm custard while whisking and keep stirring the custard while it thickens, you should be fine. Just don't rush.

Gianduja Gelato

1 1/2 c hazelnuts, toasted and with skins removed
1 c whole milk
2 c heavy cream
3/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 oz milk chocolate, chopped
5 large egg yolks
1/8 tsp vanilla

Chop nuts finely in a food processor. Heat the milk, 1 cup cream, sugar and salt in a saucepan until nearly boiling.  Add nuts and let steep off the heat for 1 hour. Heat the remaining cream and pour over the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Pour the hazelnut mixture through a strainer into a saucepan squeezing the nuts to extract all the liquid. Discard nuts. Rewarm. 

Temper the egg yolks with the hazelnut mixture and then add eggs into saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Pour the mixture through a strainer and into the chocolate. Add the vanilla and cool in an ice bath.  Chill thoroughly and churn according to you ice cream maker directions.

Be patient with your egg yolks!

To up the chocolatey-ness, I also added "stracciatella" or chocolate shreds to the gelato. I generally don't like chocolate chips in my ice cream - they get all hard and cold. But by melting some semisweet chocolate (5oz) while you churn your ice cream, and then pouring it in in a long stream at the very last minute of churning, you get thin shreds of chocolate throughout. Delicious!

mmmmmmm...dinner!

The only thing I plan to do different next time is use fresher nuts (Whole Foods rather than pre-bagged supermarket nuts) so the flavor is even more intense. 

Happy Friday, everyone!