Recipes Hazelnut, Nutella, and Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches 5.0 (4,305) Add your rating & review Chef Way For his labor-intensive Candy Bars, Alain Ducasse makes hazelnut glaze and caramel pastry cream. Easy Way Home cooks can use store-bought ice cream and Nutella for a simple version of Ducasse's Candy Bars. By Alain Ducasse Alain Ducasse F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars He has 23 restaurants and three hotels, but the Michelin-starred superchef Alain Ducasse still finds time for exciting new projects, including a culinary arts certification program in Paris and an excellent new cooking app called My Culinary Encyclopedia. He has also returned to his early love of chocolate, opening Manufacture de Chocolat Alain Ducasse, a traditional Parisian chocolate workshop, in the city’s Bastille neighborhood. What recipe are you most famous for? I am particularly proud of the Cookpot, a slow-cooked casserole of local, seasonal vegetables. For the dish contents, you need nothing more than a layer of a mushroom duxelles followed by a layer of alternating rows of sliced seasonal, local vegetables. What was the first thing you ever cooked? The first dish I ever made myself was gâteau aux carottes or carrot pudding. It was the first recipe I made from Michel Guérard’s Cuisine Minceur cookbook, in 1975. What do you wish you were better at? I wish I were better at making chocolate. Toward the start of my career, working with Gaston Lenôtre, I discovered the world of chocolate. I was absolutely fascinated by its flavor, but I decided to stick to my first instinct to become a cook. What are the best bang-for-the-buck ingredients? The best bang-for-the-buck ingredients are olive oil and—when it comes to pastry—honey. It is best to avoid very sugary desserts, as the sugar overloads the taste buds and kills the flavor profile. What destination offers the best bang for the buck in food? Peru. Gastón Acurio, based in Lima, is doing an extraordinary job, looking to the South American terroir to bring to life a contemporary Andean cuisine. Do you have any favorite travel gear? Vintage luggage. For instance, I have some Samsonite suitcases from the 1960s, as well as Goyard luggage. Goyard, a 150-year-old leather tanner, crafted a trunk for my shoes, one for my knives and another one for my Michelin Guide collection. What’s your dream restaurant project? I would love to create the first restaurant ever on Mars. A few years ago, I developed meals for the astronauts of the European Space Agency, and if I could invent an imaginary restaurant, it would be in space. If you were bringing Mario Batali somewhere to eat, where would it be? I would love to invite him to picnic out of my 1950s Chevy pickup at La Bastide de Moustiers, my country hotel in Provence. We would pick the vegetables in the kitchen garden and prepare them together before heading out. What ingredient will people be talking about in five years? Grains, particularly rice fonio and quinoa. To start with, they’re so good to eat! And not just that, grains are necessary for a balanced diet. They contain a whole array of vital nutrients. Do you have a favorite new store-bought ingredient? It’s not new, but it is timeless and delicious: Jean Paul Veziano’s pissaladière at his Boulangerie Veziano in Antibes. It’s like a tart made with onions and macerated small fish, and is a brilliant example of the humble Mediterranean cuisine I love so much. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 29, 2018 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Johnny Valiant Active Time: 30 mins Total Time: 6 hrs Yield: 18 ice cream sandwiches Ingredients 1 cup hazelnuts (4 ounces) 1 cup confectioners' sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 4 large egg whites Pinch of salt 1/4 cup granulated sugar 4 ounces white chocolate, chopped 1 cup Nutella 6 sugar ice cream cones, crushed 1 pint caramel ice cream, softened Directions Preheat the oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment. Spread the nuts in a pie plate and roast for 12 minutes, until the skins split. Transfer the nuts to a clean kitchen towel and let cool. Rub them together to remove the skins and transfer to a food processor. Add the confectioners' sugar and flour; process until the nuts are finely ground. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt at high speed until soft peaks form. Beat in the granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the whites are stiff. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the ground nuts. Spread the batter on the parchment in a 9-by-12-inch rectangle. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden. Prop the oven door open and let the dacquoise sit for 1 hour. Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl, melt the white chocolate in the microwave at high power in 1-minute intervals. Stir in the Nutella and crushed ice cream cones. Invert the dacquoise onto a surface and peel off the paper. Spread evenly with the Nutella filling. Cut the dacquoise in half to make two 9-by-6-inch rectangles. Freeze until the filling is set. Spread the ice cream over one half. Close the sandwich and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. Slice and serve. Rate it Print