Almond Ice-cream

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Food processor or large mortar and pestle
• •2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Flexible heatproof spatula
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •1 1/2-quart ice-cream machine
• •Shallow freezer-safe container

Instructions

1. 1

   Skin the almonds

   Cover the sweet almonds with boiling water and leave them for one minute, then drain. Pinch each almond from its loosened skin while it is still warm and pat the nuts dry. Skin the five culinary bitter almonds too if they arrived with skins. Freshly skinned almonds give a cleaner, paler infusion than nuts left wearing their brown coats.

   If a skin clings, return that almond to hot water for thirty seconds. Don't scrape at it and take half the nut along.
2. 2

   Pound the almond paste

   Put the sweet almonds and, if using them, the five bitter almonds into a food processor. Pulse until finely ground, then add the cold water one teaspoon at a time, scraping the bowl often, until the nuts become a fine, damp paste. The old formula assumed a heavy mortar and patient hands; the processor is its honest home equivalent. If the paste climbs the bowl or gathers beneath the blade, stop and scrape it down. Ça se rattrape. Add only enough water to keep the blade working, because you are making almond paste, not almond soup.

3. 3

   Infuse twenty minutes

   Bring the whole milk just to the boil in a heavy saucepan, watching closely so it doesn't climb over the rim. Remove it from the heat, stir in the almond paste, cover, and infuse for exactly twenty minutes. This isn't brigade scaffolding and it cannot be cut: the hot milk must draw out the sweet almonds' body and the bitter almonds' perfume. Leave out that bitter accent and the ice says very little.

4. 4

   Strain and temper

   Pass the infused milk through a fine-mesh sieve into the cleaned saucepan, pressing the almond paste firmly with the back of a spoon until it is nearly dry. In a heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar immediately until smooth, thick, and a shade paler. Reheat the almond milk until very hot, then pour it into the yolks in a thin stream while whisking constantly. Slow pouring protects the yolks; dumping in the milk gives you sweet scrambled eggs.

5. 5

   Cook to nappe

   Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a flexible spatula and sweeping the corners of the pan. The custard is ready at nappe, a coating consistency, when it reaches 79 to 82°C (174 to 180°F), lightly covers the spatula, and a finger drawn through it leaves a clean road. Never let it boil. If the first grains appear, remove the pan at once, strain the custard into a cold bowl, and blend briefly until smooth. Ça se rattrape when caught early; firm curds mean the heat went too far.

6. 6

   Chill the custard

   Set the bowl over an ice bath and stir until the custard is cold. If bitter almonds were unavailable, whisk in half the bitter-almond extract, taste the cold base, then add the remainder if its perfume still feels timid. Extract replaces only the five bitter almonds, not the sweet almond paste or its twenty-minute infusion. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours, until thoroughly cold; a warm base churns slowly and grows coarse ice crystals.

7. 7

   Churn and firm

   Churn the cold custard in a 1 1/2-quart ice-cream machine until it swells slightly and holds soft folds, usually twenty to twenty-five minutes. Transfer it to a shallow covered container and freeze for at least two hours to firm. Without a machine, freeze it in a shallow metal pan and whisk vigorously after forty-five minutes, then every thirty minutes three or four times; the texture will be a little less fine, but the steady agitation preserves the recipe's intent. Let the Glace aux Amandes soften for ten minutes before scooping. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Use only commercially prepared bitter almonds explicitly labeled safe for culinary use. Never substitute raw apricot, peach, or foraged kernels, whose cyanogenic compounds are unpredictable; where proper bitter almonds aren't sold, food-grade natural bitter-almond extract is the honest equivalent.
• •Skin the sweet almonds just before pounding. Pre-ground almond meal has already surrendered much of its perfume, and its dry particles don't become the smooth, damp paste the hot milk needs.
• •Cold dulls aroma, so judge the bitter-almond extract only after the base is chilled. Add half first. You want a clear almond perfume, not the blunt taste of a bottle left uncapped.
• •For clean scoops, let the ice cream stand for ten minutes, then dip the scoop into hot water and wipe it dry between servings. Serve it plain. The almond perfume is the finish, and it needs no decorative commotion.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare the almond custard up to one day ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. A long, cold rest improves churning because the base freezes faster and more evenly.
• •Churn the Glace aux Amandes at least two hours before serving. It is at its most fragrant within three days, though it keeps for one week with parchment pressed against the surface and the container tightly covered.
• •If the ice cream has hardened for several days, move it to the refrigerator for twenty minutes before serving rather than leaving it on a warm counter. It will soften evenly without melting around the edges.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)