Nutella Brownie Ice Cream

This stretch of February could be a real bummer.  Winter’s so not over, and thanks to Punxsutawney Phil’s egregious behavior this week, it very well may never end.  Spring seems like it’s a lifetime away, and dreary skies abound.

BUT! The food powers that be smiled upon us and granted us two magical days in rapid succession to give us hope as we slog through our long wintry nightmare.  This past Saturday was Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, and tomorrow is World Nutella Day.  And you know what that makes today?  The perfect day to combine the power of these two holidays and whip up some nutella brownie ice cream.

Now, I’m no nutritionist, so I cannot in good faith recommend that you make ice cream a regular part of your morning routine.  But I think we can all handle it once a year.  (Twice?  Thrice?)  And there are so many additional hours in the remainder of the day when you can’t be hemmed in by The Man telling you ice cream’s not an appropriate thing to eat!  What a time to be alive!

Ice cream take a little time to make, but it’s almost entirely hands-off time, which is just lovely.  I’m developing a pet theory that all the best recipes are the ones that involve a lot of hands-off time.  Or maybe that’s just because I’ve been making more meat-ish things lately, and “low and slow” is always better in that realm.  But between ice cream and caramelized onions, I’m pretty confident I can’t be too wrong…

Whether it’s an ice cream holiday, a Nutella holiday, or just a ordinary Tuesday, if you’ve got an ice cream maker, I highly recommend breaking out this recipe and going to town on the results.

Nutella Brownie Ice Cream (makes 1.5- 2 pints)

• Brownies, baked according to package directions (I stan hard for Ghiradelli’s double chocolate brownies, but you do you.  Or make your own if you’re feeling fancy.)
• 1 c. Toasted Hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 c. Heavy Cream
• 1 c. Whole Milk
• 1/3 c. Sugar
• 1/8 t. Salt
• 6 Egg Yolks (reserve whites for another use; might I suggest pavlova?)
• 1/2 c. Nutella

Simmer cream, milk, sugar, and salt until sugar dissolves.  In the meantime, whisk egg yolks in a large bowl.  Whisking constantly, sloooooowly pour half of the cream mixture into the eggs.  (Pouring slowly and whisking constantly are key here, as that keeps the hot cream from scrambling your eggs, which is definitely not what we’re going for.)  Whisk yolk mixture back into remaining hot cream, and return pot to stove over medium-low heat; cook until mixture is thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.  Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.  Whisk in Nutella and cool to room temperature (you can use an ice bath to speed up this process if you like).  Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.  When ready to churn, chop 3/4 of brownies into small cubes.  (Save the last 1/4 for making sundaes because duh.)  Churn according to your machine’s directions, adding nuts and brownies at the very end to stir in but not crush to death.

I’d rather not admit what proportion of my grocery budget is devoted to buying ice cream somebody else made, but I tell you what: ice cream is really simple to make yourself, and it somehow just feels better to eat your own.  When it’s this easy, why not unleash your inner Ben and/or Jerry?

Books!

I’m 3/4 of the way through My Brilliant Friend and I’m fiiiiinally actually getting into it.  Not sure I’ll commit to reading the remaining three books in the series right now, though, in no small part because…

I read a few of the stories in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories this morning and I am so utterly in love that I’m very tempted to abandon all other plans and just read this for the rest of my life.  Ken Liu is going to make a lot of money off of me, I suspect.  You know that completely thrilling feeling when you crack a book open and immediately know you’re going to adore it?  That’s this collection.