Zabaglione Ice Cream with Biscotti

Once you’ve mastered the art of making Zabaglione, you’ve got the perfect base for a brilliant ice cream, and if you fold in some crushed biscotti (hard-baked, brittle biscuits) it all gets very Italian and lovely.

It’s quite nice to serve some whole biscotti to go with it.

The Delia Online Cookery School: You can now watch how to make your own Biscotti in our biscuits video. Just click here to play.

This recipe is from Delia's Complete How to Cook. Serves 4

Method

Begin by whipping the cream to the ‘floppy’ stage and then transfer to the fridge to chill.

Now make the Zabaglione. Put a large saucepan, filled with a couple of inches of water, on a lowish heat to bring it up to a gentle simmer. Then place the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof mixing bowl large enough to sit over the saucepan without touching the water. Start to whisk them (not on the heat yet) with the electric hand whisk until the mixture is pale and creamy – this will probably take about 4 minutes. Now gradually whisk in the Marsala bit by bit, about a dessertspoon at a time. Next, transfer the bowl to the saucepan – keeping the heat very low and making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Continue whisking until the mixture thickens and becomes foamy. This can sometimes be rather slow (it usually takes 10-15 minutes), but don’t be tempted to turn the heat up because, if the mixture becomes too hot, it will curdle. You could do a crossword (one-handed!), listen to the radio or have a natter with someone to pass the time! When it does thicken, the whisk should leave a clear trail when it is lifted out of the mixture.

Next, remove the bowl from the heat, cover and allow the mixture to cool completely, which will take about 30 minutes.When the mixture is absolutely cold, gently stir, and fold in the double cream. Then pour the mixture into the ice-cream maker and freeze-churn for 20-30 minutes until the ice cream is soft-set. If you don't have an ice-cream maker you can easily make ice cream without one (see below for details).

Now transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the biscotti crumbs. Serve straightaway, or freeze in the plastic box for 1-2 hours until firm, transferring to the fridge 30 minutes before serving to allow the ice cream to soften and become easy to scoop.

Note: this recipe contains partially cooked eggs.

Ingredients

For the zabaglione:
For the ice cream:
3 oz (75 g) almond biscotti, crushed to crumbs, plus extra biscuits to serve

Equipment

You will also need an ice-cream maker (pre-frozen according to the manufacturer’s instructions), a lidded plastic box measuring 7 x 5½ x 2½ in (18 x 14 x 6 cm) and an electric whisk.