Ice cream in a nutshell

Coupelle con gelato
Admittedly, I had to try this recipe three times, before the result was passable, but friends offered to help eat the mishaps and the taste was more than okay. In other words, the effort was not wasted.

The problem with home-made shells of candied nuts is that they tend to disintegrate, when you try to mould them into shape. Therefore it is extremely important to let the cakes cool to just the right temperature, before placing them over the bottom of a glass. And therefore I cheated by adding a little more flour and a little less butter to the recipe, and by using pieces of non-grease oven-paper to keep to act together.

With these small adjustment and a leaf of lemon balm, the dessert was all dressed up and ready to party.

Ingredients for 8 shells

2 dl (160 g) of sugar
1 tbsp butter
100 g finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp double cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Leave the sugar to melt over low heat in a casserole. Add butter and make sure the mixture does not burn.

Remove the casserole from the heat and add cream, nuts and flour to make dough that is too firm to run.

Cut oven paper up in eight pieces of the four to an oven plate size. Place a spoonful of nut-dough on each piece and flatten it to a round wafer. (It will melt and spread further, when heated in the oven).

Bake the first four wafers in the oven for about 5 minutes until golden brown.

Place the wafers on a wire-rack to cool. In my kitchen it took exactly 3 minutes.

While it is still attached to the oven paper, place the wafers upside down over the bottom of a water glass. (It is an advantage to have more than two hands in this situation.) If the wafer has the right temperature and texture, it will slowly take shape after the glass. (If not, butter and nuts will float down and form an unshapely pile of crispy caramel on the table).

Repeat the process with the other four wafers.

Remove the oven paper when the shells have cooled completely.

Fill the baked nutshells with the best Italian, readymade ice cream you can find and serve with fruit and caramel or raspberry sauce.