This year, we were lucky enough to spend Christmas and New Year in sunny Kenya. Our flights back home involved a 23hr layover in Addis Ababa (it was a slightly stressy situation but it was the only way we wouldn’t have to deal with extortionate prices that come with travelling at peak times!)

Silver lining – we got to explore the city and eat delicious injera and wat!

We also drank lots and lots of delicious coffee.

As it turns out, Ethiopia is the motherland of coffee! The story goes that a shepherd’s flock started acting strangely after eating from a coffee plant. He took some to the priests at a monastery and asked for their opinions. They discarded them, throwing them into the fire, saying they were devil beans. The aroma wafted out and allowed them to stay up later: praying, meditating and worshipping. And from then on, they consumed it in liquid form. The practice spread through to Yemen, the Middle East and beyond…

So ofc, we had to bring some grounds back with us. ❤

We’ve been getting through them pretty quickly but before they all ran out, I decided to use some in this ice cream:

Coffee. Hazelnut. Tonka bean.

It’s so, so good.

It’s everything you want in a dessert: creamy, nutty, and comes with a serious hit of coffee.

And the tonka bean – it really brings everything together.

<3<3<3

Enjoy,

-Kay

Ingredients

• 300ml double cream
• 300ml whole milk
• 100g roasted hazelnuts – blitzed in the food processor for a couple of seconds
• 120g caster sugar
• 1 tonka bean
• 3 x shot of espresso
• 3 medium egg yolks
• To serve (optional): ice cream cones dipped in melted chocolate and sprinkled with chopped roasted hazelnuts.

Instructions

1. Place the ice cream machine bowl in the freezer the day before.
2. Add the milk. cream, nuts and half of the sugar to a medium saucepan.
3. Heat the mixture over a low heat until it almost boils – look out for small bubbles on the edges of the saucepan and once these start appearing, take off the heat and allow set aside and allow to infuse for 15mins.
4. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the nuts. Return to the saucepan.
5. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the remaining sugar and the egg yolks until thick and pale and falls in ribbons.
6. Slowly pour half of the hot cream and milk mixture into the eggs, whisking the entire time, to slacken the eggs.
7. Add the slackened egg mixture back into the saucepan with the other half of the hot cream, grate in the tonka bean, add the coffee and return to a low heat, stirring the entire time.
8. Heat until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (approx 8 – 10 minutes). Ensure it doesn’t boil!
9. Once done, pour into a heatproof bowl and place into a larger bowl with 1 inch of water and some ice cubes to cool. Stir every few mins to ensure a skin doesn’t form.
10. Once it cools to room temperature, cover the bowl with clingfilm and place in the fridge to properly chill for a few hours, or better yet, overnight.
11. When cold, churn in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer instructions.