Waffle and Nutella ice cream
Lotus biscuit inside the ice cream and Nutella on top, loosened with a little oil so it does not turn to stone in the freezer. The whole afternoon snack, turned to cream.
That 10 % of oil in the Nutella is not there to dilute the flavour: it is so it stays fluid when cold. Straight from the jar, on ice cream, it sets hard and there is no way to ripple it.
Ingredients
For 1 kgTick each ingredient as you get it ready.
Need to adjust the formula?
Step by step
9 steps · follow the order for the best result
Chef's notes
- ·The waffles, at 40 °C on the way down, and blend thoroughly. The Nutella, as a topping and with 10 % oil.
- ·Do not skip the cold ageing: it hydrates proteins and stabiliser and clearly improves the texture.
- ·The serving temperature depends on your recipe: if you formulate to a softer PAC than your freezer (say -11 °C with the chest at -18 °C), temper it for 5–10 min before serving; if the PAC matches your freezer, it can be eaten straight out.
- ·Why formulate at -11 and not at -18 °C: even though your freezer sits at -18 °C, formulating at -11 makes the ice cream tastes better — at -18 it is so cold that the taste buds barely pick up the flavour and the fat is slow to melt in the mouth. And keeps better: ice cream formulated at -11 and kept at -18 has less free water, suffers less from Ostwald ripening (ice crystals joining and growing) and keeps its creaminess longer.
- ·Keep your own notes: write down the POD and PAC that work best with your machine.
The texture
spot on
Creamy and soft, the fructose keeping it scoopable at serving. The biscuit dissolves and gives crumb, and the Nutella passes over the top with its hazelnut and cocoa note, more indulgent than bitter.
All about this waffles and Nutella ice cream
The Lotus biscuit is caramelised sugar, flour and spice, and it goes in generously. It brings so much sugar that the recipe adds no sucrose at all: only dextrose and fructose, and it still reaches its sweetness.
The base runs short on cream because the biscuit also brings fat; the ice cream sits mid-band on fat and solids, and a little soft at serving.
The biscuit is added at 40 °C, on the way down, and blended thoroughly: it works into the mix and its flavour spreads through. The Nutella is saved for the end, on top, and mixed with 10 % sunflower oil so it does not go hard on contact with the cold.
The ingredients and what each does
Every ingredient has a technical job: cream brings fat and creaminess, milk powder raises the non-fat solids, the sugars set the sweetness and the freezing point, and the stabiliser controls crystal growth during storage.
Technique and controlling the numbers
Adjusting the POD (sweetening power) and the PAC (antifreezing power, given as a target temperature) lets you match sweetness and hardness to your taste and your machine. With the selectors in the side bar the formula recalculates itself and you will see how the amount of each ingredient changes.
Storage and common mistakes
Store at -18 °C in an airtight container and avoid freeze-thaw cycles. The commonest faults are not ageing it enough, too much sugar so it never freezes properly, and over-churning, which whips in too much air and wrecks the texture.
Recommended for this recipe
Equipment and ingredients that make the difference.
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