Chocolate Rochers with Nuts in Vanilla Sauce

° Serves 4

Served with a creamy vanilla sauce and pieces of pound cake, this is a luxurious dessert.

• ½ cup hazelnuts
• ½ pint best-quality chocolate ice cream
• Sauce
• ½ cup crème fraîche
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Half a store-bought pound cake, for serving

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the hazelnuts on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Set the nuts aside until they are cool enough to handle. Rub the nuts in a paper towel to remove most of the skin, then crush them by hand or with a mortar and pestle until coarsely chopped.

Divide the ice cream into 4 equal pieces, place each one on a piece of plastic wrap, and wrap tightly, molding the ice cream into balls. Working quickly so the ice cream doesn’t melt, roll the balls in the chopped nuts and return the balls to the freezer.

Prepare the sauce: Mix together the crème fraîche, milk, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl. Set aside.

Trim the pound cake and cut it into ½-inch-thick slices. Stack the slices and cut them into sticks, or “fingers,” approximately 4 inches long and 1 inch wide.

At serving time, divide the vanilla sauce among four plates and position an ice cream ball in the center of each. Serve with the pound cake fingers.

Cut the ice cream with a sharp knife to divide it equally for shaping into balls.