Can I Substitute The Vin Santo In Vin Santo Ice Cream?

Our answer

Nigella's Vin Santo Ice Cream With Cantuccini (from NIGELLA SUMMER) is inspired by the Tuscan tradition of dipping cantuccini biscuits in a glass of sweet vin santo wine at the end of a meal. Vin santo, or "holy wine", is made with late-harvested grapes that are then dried before the wine is made, giving an intense, resinous, amber-coloured wine.

Almost any sweet dessert wine should be suitable for the ice cream, such as sauternes, Tokaji, Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and other sweet muscats, icewine (eiswein), Marsala and madeira. Marsala and madeira wines range from sweet to dry so make sure you use the sweet versions. For Marsala this is usually labelled as "dolce" and for madeira it may be labelled as malvasia or malmsey. However as we have not tried these substitutes for vin santo, we regret that we are unable to guarantee the results.