Hazelnut Macawrongs, And What To Do With Them

I was excited to see that this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop's theme (hosted by Dining With A Stud) is "Nuts About Sweets".

I have been in a bit of a Macaron Madness Mood lately, have been playing with a few different recipes, and I think I've found my perfect-match recipe.  It's by Annie Rigg, and I must thank my Nanna for giving me this book for my birthday, because this is the first mac recipe I have had consistently good results with, every time.

Except this time.

It's okay, Annie Rigg.  It's not you, it's me.  I did the unthinkable - I Overmixed The Batter.

While I was piping them out I could already see it wasn't going to work.  I wasn't going to get pretty macarons this time.  But that's okay, because I totally thought of something else to do with them (and also that container of black coffee/liqueur mixture leftover from making tiramisu on the weekend).  And it's Really Good.  I guess you could do it with proper macarons, too.  If you didn't overmix your batter.

I hereby present to you:

Hazelnut Coffee Icecream with Hazelnut Macawrongs

Macarons
Firstly, you're going to need to make some macarons, but don't use almond meal;  use hazelnut meal instead.  If you want to use the same recipe I did, it's basically this one (she has changed all the quantities a bit, but it's essentially the same recipe as in the book).  Or you could go ahead and buy the book.  You won't be sorry.  Just don't overmix your batter.  I also sprinkled my macarons with some cocoa nibs before baking them, but that's totally optional.

Icecream
Ingredients
1/4 cup coffee flavoured liqueur (optional)
1 cup strong good-quality black coffee
150mL milk
3 egg yolks
80g caster sugar
450mL cream
1/3 cup Nutella (or to taste)

Modus Operandi

Mix the coffee and liqueur together in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer and reduce the liquid to 75mL.  Add the milk, and bring the liquid back up to the boil.  Remove from heat and set aside while you whisk the egg yolks and sugar until they are pale and thick.  Carefully pour the coffee mixture into the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking all the while.  Add the cream, and churn the mixture in an icecream maker.

When icecream is churned, add teaspoonfuls of Nutella to the icecream and gently stir them in (you don't want Nutella-flavoured icecream, you want icecream with a Nutella ribbon).  Next, grab around a dozen of your hazelnut macawrongs (or possibly beautifully-made hazelnut macarons), break them up into little pieces, and fold them through the icecream too.  Then pop the whole lot into the freezer and let it freeze properly before serving (otherwise it will be all melty, like in my photos).

And that's it!  Husband pronounced this icecream "Really Good", and didn't have any constructive criticism to add, so it must be pretty good!   :o)

And now it's time for you to go check out the rest of the deliciousness at the Nuts About Sweets edition of The Sweet Adventures Blog Hop (but make some icecream first.  Then you'll have something to eat while you read).