Nutella Ravioli
This gift will either be the best thing that ever happened to me, or the reason I put on 20 pounds this year. If you know my boyfriend Allen and I, you know our relationship is primarily based upon our mutual love for food and wine. So, it’s no surprise that his Christmas gift to me would be an ice cream maker! Further more, you know that within 24 hours of getting this present we planned a night of way too much food that included a dessert made by yours truly.
This night was like any other, Allen and I planned on keeping dinner healthy and cheap. On this particular Sunday, we were watching a movie or probably talking about food. When the question came up, as it always does. What should we do for dinner?
Allen cooking us up some NY strips!
After debating this question for 30 minutes we came up with an Argentinian extravaganza. Sort of an ode to our trip to Buenos Aires. Needless to say “healthy, and cheap” immediately flew out the window. We headed to whole foods, and soon after we uncorked a bottle of wine, turned on Jack Johnson and the cooking began. Allen made NY strip steak with chimichurri sauce and mashed potatoes. I made Nutella ravioli with strawberry custard ice cream, none of which had anything to do with our trip to Argentina, but whatever.
The dessert was pretty simple to make. When cooking on the weekend I like to do this because lets be honest, no one likes to take work home with them. Not even when work is fun. I bought a jar of Nutella, a box of Puff Pastry, the ingredients to make strawberry custard ice cream, and went to town.
Nutella ravioli:
Just follow the directions on the back of the puff pastry box. I let the dough thaw for about two hours, until it was soft enough to unfold without breaking. I Cut the dough in half and rolled it out to about a 1/8in th
ick rectangle. I then took three tablespoons of Nutella (more if you want) and placed it in the bottom center of the rectangular shaped piece of dough. I egg washed the sides and sealed it like a ravioli. To make it look a little more refined, I used a fork and pressed the prongs on all the edges. Once finished, make sure to chill for about 10 minutes, egg wash, and then bake until golden brown. Super easy!
Strawberry Custard Ice Cream:
Mashed Strawberries
3 egg yolks (beaten)
1/2 pint (250ml) milk
1/2 pint (250ml) double/heavy cream
4 oz (100g) sugar
2 cups of strawberries
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
Take the cream, vanilla, and half the sugar and put it in a large sauce pan. Set aside the rest of the sugar. Place the yolks and eggs in a large bowl. Once the cream comes to a boil whisk the rest of the sugar in with the egg mixture. At this point you will temper the eggs with the boiling cream. (Add a small amount of hot liquid to bring the eggs up to the same temperature as the boiling cream.) Once you have tempered the eggs, put the cream/egg mixture back on the stove with the heat on low. Continue to stir until the mixture has thickened. Make sure to be very careful at this point, you don’t want to cook the eggs to0 much, if you do the liquid with start to curdle. The custard should be think enough to coat a wooden spoon when you drag your finger though, your finger marking should stick without any liquid running down. At this point you want to chill the custard over night. Or if you’re ADD like me, stick that sucker on an ice bath and continue to stir every 15 miniutes until its cold. I even stuck the ice bath in the freezer to speed the process up.
Strawberry Custard Ice Cream
While the custard is chilling you will need to prepare the strawberries. Since strawberries are out of season right now I used frozen ones. I added sugar to them and started mashing. This part is tedious but worth it. I basically made Allen do it half the time. Mash the berries to your liking, I love small chunks! Once the custard is ready, fold the strawberry mixture in and let the ice cream maker to the work!
After two hours of cooking Allen and I sat down to a great dinner!!! Not super cheap and definitely not healthy, oh well! Allen’s NY strip turned out amazing and my first experience with my at home ice cream maker was a great one!! I cannot wait to make so many more flavors! (Thank for my Christmas gift Allen!)
