Gorgonzola Dolce Ice Cream with Walnut Pralines
Author: Nicole
Ingredients
For Pralines:
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
For Ice Cream:
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 3 ounces (~ ¾ cup) Gorgonzola dolce, soften
  • 1-1/4 cups heavy cream
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Instructions
Pralines:
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium glass bowl, microwave butter on medium for 30 to 60 seconds or until melted.
  3. Add walnuts, brown sugar, honey and salt and mix well.
  4. Spread in an even layer on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Stir and bake for another 6 to 8 minutes, stirring twice. The nuts will look bubbly and almost dry when done. Watch carefully so as not to burn them.
  5. Remove from oven and place pan on a cooling rack. Cool completely, stirring every few minutes to break them up. Can be made 2 to 3 days ahead. Transfer nuts to a Ziploc bag.
Prep:
  1. For the ice cream base: Mix with a fork about 2 tablespoons of milk with cornstarch in a small bowl to make smooth slurry. Whisk Gorgonzola dolce in a large bowl until smooth. Don’t worry if it’s a bit lumpy at this point – it will smooth out when the hot mixture is added.
  2. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
Cook:
  1. Combine remaining milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup in a 4 or 5-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. (Watch the pan so mixture doesn’t boil over.)
  2. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in cornstarch slurry.
  3. Bring mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
  4. Remove from heat.
  5. Gradually whisk hot milk mixture into Gorgonzola dolce until smooth (it may be easier to transfer the hot milk mixture to a 4-cup measuring cup if your saucepan is heavy).
Chill:
  1. Pour mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath.
  2. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
  3. Alternately, if you are not finishing the ice cream on the same day you can chill the mixture in refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Freeze:
  1. Pour ice cream mixture into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy.
  2. The ice cream is finished at the exact moment when the machine isn’t freezing the ice cream anymore; ice cream will begin to pull away from the side (about 20-25 minutes).
  3. Pack ice cream into a freezer-safe storage container, layering praline walnuts every inch or so (you may not use all of them). Press a sheet of parchment paper directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid.
  4. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours and up to a few weeks.
  5. Serve with a sprinkling of extra walnut pralines (if you have any left!).
Recipe by Riegl Palate at https://www.rieglpalate.com/gorgonzola-dolce-ice-cream-with-walnut-pralines/