Praline:

Method:
Make the praline first (as it’s fiddly, potentially life threatening and needs to be ready before you start on the icecream).

Put the hazelnuts in a metal dish in a 220degC oven for a few minutes - keep watching them or else they’ll burn baby burn, like a disco inferno.

Remove from oven and peel the skins off (they’ll be hot and you’ll probably burn your fingers but hey, it’s worth it - alternatively, put into a plastic bag and rustle around to shake them off). Return the peeled nuts to the oven to colour them to a golden brown.

Put the sugar and water together in a saucepan and boil on a medium heat until a pale gold colour (shake the syrup around in the pan a bit as it cooks).

When you have a uniformly light caramel colour, add the whole roasted hazelnuts and simmer over a low heat until the caramel darkens slightly. Turn the mixture out onto a lightly greased tray and leave to cool (or speed it up by putting the tray into the fridge). When ready, roughly pulse half the praline in food processor (into small chunks) then do the other half to a powder - if you don’t have a blender, place the mixture between two sheets of cling film within two teatowels and bash seven shades out of it with a rolling pin.

Separate the eggs, placing the yolks and the sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until pale yellow. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and the pinch of salt into stiff peaks. In a third bowl, whip the cream into soft peaks. Fold the egg whites, whipped cream and praline into the yolk/sugar mixture. Transfer into a container and freeze.

Allow to thaw until semi-soft before serving, and serve with fresh berries (blueberries and strawberries work well - you could also marinate them in Cointreau (an afterthought we came up with today - you’d have thought we’d had enough alcohol, but noooo …)) [from Jamie Oliver’s recipe for semifreddo].

[recipe write-up by the lovely Dave]