Chocolate Fudge with Hazelnut Creme

This week’s flavor is more about exercising and experimenting with techniques, and also a way to make more chocolate ice cream.  As we continually strive to create new combinations, we’re always looking for new ways to incorporate ingredients, change up old techniques and perfect others.  I used this week’s flavor as a means to do several of these things.  The first  was to create a better chocolate syrup/sauce/fudge that would stay somewhat fluid and gooey while frozen (it can be a real challenge). The second was to experiment with making a flavor infused, cream based syrup/sauce that would achieve the same properties. Both made this week to go into a classic chocolate ice cream.

 

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First, the chocolate syrup.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a thick chocolate syrup that does not freeze hard.  It can be tricky and frustrating.  The key is having a sugar concentrate, mixed with the right amount of fat.  We begin by boiling sugar and a bit of water, similar to how you would start a simple syrup.  Cocoa powder is added once the water has boiled off, as well as some cream.  The chocolate sauce is finished with salt.  It’s perfect for a topping or as an add-in.  Or to eat with a spoon 🙂

 

 

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The Hazelnut cream syrup originated from the idea of trying to make a syrup or caramel like sauce that we could flavor with any ingredient we wanted to – from fruits, to herbs, to nuts.  Cream is easy to infuse with all sorts of flavors, so it provides a nice palate.  The first step is infusing the cream.

 

 

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The hazelnuts are toasted and ground into a meal while still hot, and then cooled and strained.  What is left is hazelnut flavored heavy cream.  That is reserved for making the hazelnut cream syrup.

 

 

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hazelnut creme syrup

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of this process is very similar to the chocolate sauce.  Sugar and water brought to a boil, and then combined with cream just before caramelization happens.  What is left is a caramel-like hazelnut infused cream.  Also a great topping or add-in.

 

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For this week’s flavor combination, the ice cream is a straightforward chocolate ice cream with both syrups swirled in.  It’s a fantastic deep chocolate ice cream teetering with swirls of more chocolate and finishing with hazelnut goodness.

 

 

Chocolate Sauce (that won’t freeze hard):

Ingredients:

1C sugar
1/2C water
1/2C Cocoa powder
1C Heavy Cream
1/2tsp salt

Instructions:

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat, watching carefully. DO NOT STIR here or it will become grainy. Once boiling, the sugar/water mixture will begin to let off steam. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the steam begins to disappear, then remove from heat and carefully whisk in 1/2C of cocoa powder until fully incorporated. Then, add gradually add cream and stir until fully incorporated into chocolate sauce. Add salt at finish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

 

 

Hazelnut Creme Syrup:

Ingredients:

1C sugar
1/2C water
1/2C Hazelnuts
1C Heavy Cream

Instructions:

Infuse the cream (Prepare 1-2 hours ahead of time):

Heat the cream in saucepan over medium-low heat to bring to approximately 115 degrees or so.  While cream is heating, toast hazelnuts hazelnuts for 3-4 minutes until skins become loose and come off easily.  Remove from heat and grind in a blender until they are a course meal.  Immediately add warm hazelnut meal to warmed cream and remove from heat.  Bring mixture to cool in refrigerator for an hour or so, then strain all hazelnut meal out of cream with fine mesh strainer.  Set hazelnut cream aside/refrigerate until ready to make syrup.

For the Syrup:

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat, watching carefully. DO NOT STIR or it will become grainy. Once boiling, the sugar/water mixture will begin to let off steam. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the steam begins to disappear, then gradually add the hazelnut cream and stir until fully incorporated.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

 

Chocolate Fudge Hazelnut Creme Ice Cream:

 

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 Cup of Milk (choose your percentage based on how fatty/creamy you’d like your ice cream to be – the higher percentage the creamier the ice cream)
2 large eggs
3/4 Cup sugar
1 Cup of Chocolate Syrup (Recipe above)
1 Cup of Hazelnut Creme Syrup (Recipe above)

 

Instructions:

1. Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully.  Add sugar and whisk more until cream, sugar and eggs are combined.  Add cream, milk, and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

2. Place ice cream base in a pot and heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously. Once mixture reaches approximately 115 degrees, gradually whisk in cocoa.  Continue to heat mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes) and then place in a container, cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3.  Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Place chocolate ice cream into container and swirl alternately with chocolate and hazelnut syrups. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait.  Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 2/20/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

 

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Hazelnut Mocha w/ Whiskey Caramel

Coffee, chocolate and hazelnuts are a familiar pairing in truffles and desserts over the holiday season, and this particular pairing reminded me of the boxes of chocolates my grandparents would give us as kids.  With some luck, there was a nice little map to tell you what each piece was and allowed for bypassing the soon to be discarded selections, but often it was just a guessing game.  There were the duds like petrified angel food, toothpaste mint or weirdberry liqueurs, the tooth pulling caramels,  and then there were the truffles.  The truffles were the true prizes, and the hazelnut was always my favorite.  It was ultimately this memory that solidified my decision for this week’s flavor, so the object here was to create the my ideal holiday chocolate truffle – in this case with Espresso, Chocolate, Hazelnuts and of course, liquor.

hazelnut mocha whiskey caramel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you know us, by now you know we don’t do anything the easy way.   In this particular case it meant a double steep, starting with the hazelnuts.

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The hazelnuts are first roasted to deepen their flavor and mellow out the bitterness (as well as remove a majority of their husks) and then ground into a meal to release the fats and allow the maximum surface area of the cream to steep with the flavor of the nut.

coffee/espressofrench press coffee

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the coffee infusion, we ground our favorite Peace Coffee Espresso blend and used a french press to infuse some of the cream.

 

Dark Chocolate Base

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark, fair trade cocoa was added directly to the base along with the hazelnut meal and coffee during the cooking process, and then steeped longer to draw out as much flavor from the ingredients as possible.

 

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Whiskey Caramel

 

 

 

 

 

 

While that was all happening, a quick caramel sauce rolls on the stove and is finished at the very end with a splash of whiskey from none other than our pals at 2 Gingers.  Sidenote: If you ever run into me, remind me and I’ll tell you the assuredly hilarious story of how camera straps in the kitchen and boiling sugar on the stove are a dangerous combination.

 

Hazelnut Mocha w/ Whiskey Caramel

 

 

Once the base has had time to steep, its strained to clear out the hazelnut meal, and allowed to cool in preparation to be spun.  The whiskey caramel is layered into the ice cream as its packed into the pint.

 

 

 

 

No longer do we need a map to find this flavor.  Hazelnut Mocha with Whiskey Caramel:  an espresso, dark cocoa and roasted hazelnut infused ice cream, decorated with ribbons of rich whiskey caramel.

Want to try it? You can win one of the only two pints in the world, filled with this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. 2 lucky winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 12/13/13 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally and give us feedback. Pints must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

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