Amaretto liqueur with Amaretti cookie ice cream

This ice cream, which is more like a gelato, was made for Grandma Kiwicakes birthday. I adore Amaretti cookies, you can find them at most good delis. However, here in Whangarei we can usually only get them at Christmas time when our supermarket gets them in. I always grab some.

This year I decided I wanted to make something with them. I received an ice cream maker for Christmas so this seemed an obvious choice. I started researching Amaretti ice cream recipes, I didn't find anything that suited my needs, so I decided to create my own.

The recipe looks a little tricky, though no part on its own is hard, you just need the luxury of a little time. For me it was the perfect Sunday afternoon activity.

Ingredients:

4 cups of milk

1tsp vanilla bean paste

1/4c sugar

6 egg yolks

pinch of slat

2 Tbsp Amaretto liqueur

12 Amaretti cookies (this fills 1/2 cup when crushed)

Make sure your ice cream bowl has been in the freezer for at least 24 hours. Then you need to cook your custard base. In a saucepan add your milk and vanilla bean paste, heat on medium-to-low for a few minutes. It should be hot, but not simmering.

In the mean time you can whisk together your sugar and egg yolk. The yolks should become paler in colour. It usually takes about 2 minutes.

Remove your milk mixture from the heat. Take 1/2 cup of milk mixture and add this hot milk to your egg mixture, whisking quickly the whole time until all the hot milk has been added to your eggs.

Return everything to the saucepan and heat again on medium to low until it thickens in to a nice custard. Stir every now and then to ensure it's not catching or burning. Aprx 15 mins.

Once your custard has thickened, remove it from the heat and strain through a sieve. Allow to cool before adding a pinch of salt and Amaretto liqueur. Refrigerate to chill for a couple of hours. (You cannot put hot mixture in your ice cream maker, it will not work).

Add your chilled custard to your icecream maker and follow the instructions according your manufacturer. My ice cream maker is a Cuisinart brand, my ice cream took 20 mins to churn.

When there is 5 minutes left to go on your timer, add the crushed Amaretti cookies.

When it's finished churning, place in a container and freeze overnight. Serve with crushed Amaretti cookies. You need to remove this from the freezer 5-10 minutes before you want to scoop it, it sets rock hard, so cannot be scooped straight from the freezer.