Nutella Ice Cream
Adapted from Food Network (Giada de Laurentis)

The thing about making your own ice cream that I find so magical is that you have control precisely over the ingredients you put in. You could try to experiment between store-bought eggs and eggs from pasture-raise hens.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, crushed, for garnish

Preparation:

Combine the milk, cream and 1/2 cup sugar over medium heat, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook about 5 minutes, until the sugar dissolves.

While your sugar is dissolving, in a medium bowl, that’s impeccably clean, using an electric mixer, whip the egg yolks with the remaining sugar. Whip the yolks until they become thick and very pale yellow – about 4 minutes.

Gradually, add 1/2 cup of the warm milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture, 1/8 cup at a time, mixing well to incorporate. Add this mixture back into the saucepan. and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the egg yolk/dairy mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. This will take anywhere from 7-10 minutes (for me 10 minutes seems to be the norm).

Put a strainer over a medium bowl, and pour the custard through the strainer. Add the vanilla extract and Nutella and stir together until they dissolve and the mixture becomes uniform.

Chill mixture completely before pouring into an ice cream maker at least 2 hours.

Follow manufacturer’s instructions to freeze. Your might want to chill your ice cream after it’s ready to get a harder consistency. Or you can serve it immediately.