Nuts for nutella

Can we have a show of hands? How many of you love Italy's answer to peanut butter? Yours truly is not going to take a position on whether she likes Nutella better than peanut butter: let's say that she feels of them like some of our parents felt of us and our siblings: "I love you different."
Admit it. When mom said that, you figured out that you weren't the favorite, didn't ya? But leave that for the therapist's couch (or in my case the therapist's chair.)
But I digress (some things did NOT change while I was away). It is simply by way of assuring all of our red white and blue Americans out there that I am not abandoning peanut butter for nutella. I LOVE peanut butter. I eat too much of it. I put dull knives into the jar, pull out hunks of it, and eat it off the knife (you've done that. I KNOW you did). But I do the same thing for Nutella. And this is odd: for someone who does not like chocolate, I could and probably would, sit there and eat jar after jar of the hazelnut chocolate stuff. In fact, a gift fantasy of mine, is that one day, someone will give me the 4 kilo jar of it that I see in my Italian grocery (affectionately, and politically incorrectly called, "the wop shop.).
So, looking for a new ice cream to make this week, Annalena had an idea: I've made peanut butter ice cream, and I've made dulce de leche ice cream (perhaps the Latino version of peanut butter?). The formulas were similar: how about... you guessed it.
It worked. It's good. It's wonderful. If you have an ice cream maker, make this immediately. Make twice what you think you'll need, and eat some of it out of the machine (I won't say I did or I didn't. ). It's easy. Here we go.

You need six large egg yolks. Save the whites to make the chocolate hazelnut cookies I wrote about early on (you can find it). You also need about 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, a cup of milk and 2 cups of cream. And... a 12 ounce jar of Nutella. Put everything but the Nutella into a sauce pan. Whisk it slowly, to break up the eggs, and then start cooking, over medium low heat, whisking constantly, until you get a thick creamy texture that coats a wooden spoon (REVIEW: what do we have at this point: I'm not telling). Off of the heat, stir in about 3/4 of the jar of the Nutella . Spread the rest on some crackers or bananas or something, or pull it out with a knife, or leave it for the next batch. The stuff keeps.

Stir the Nutella in the ...... (thought I'd give it away, didn't ya?), until it dissolves. You'll have a dark, wonderful looking thing, that will look all the world like chocolate ice cream. BUT...

When it's cooled down (refrigerate it), use your ice cream maker to churn it. I think the best way to describe the color is "cafe au lait." I think the best way to describe the taste is "more please." And you will want more.

If you want to overdo things (who doesn't), make those chocolate hazelnut meringues. Otherwise, serve this with some sliced fruit, like bananas, or perhaps chermoya, or something else "tropical." I think it would be terrific with coconut meringue cookies, or alongside of coconut custard pie.

Coconut custard pie and Nutella ice cream. Gee, the nutrition police are gonna be after me for THAT one...