what did you do for labor day? we got to spend the long weekend with four super fun, outdoorsy friends at my folks’ teensy cabin in southern ms. the plan had been to go tubing, and swimming, and fishing, but weather reports like this totally put the kabash on them. we ended up slogging around in the mud and doing lots of cooking, drinking, and talking. it was just what i’d needed.
the pieces de resistance were two ice creams from jess’s jeni’s splendid ice creams cookbook. we made a deeee-licious curry chocolate and this velvety, rich bourbon and pecan ice cream. according to garden & gun, it’s national bourbon heritage month, so i thought i’d share this recipe with you, too!
What You Need:
3/4 cups pecan halves
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the Bourbon Ice Cream:
2 cups whole milk, divided
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup Bourbon
for the pecans (embarrassing note, i bought walnuts and took pictures of them before i realized my mistake, but then went and got pecans before we actually made the ice cream) chop the nuts into small-ish pieces, and melt the butter. coat the pecans and sprinkle the salt. you can use the oven at 350 OR do the easy thing and toast them in the microwave on high for about 40 seconds. put them aside once they’re brown and buttery looking.
heat the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan over medium high heat. bring to a rolling boil and allow it to boil for 4-ish minutes. remove from heat and whisk in the cornstarch. bring the mixture back to a boil and allow it to thicken a little bit (for about 1-2 minutes). take the pot from heat and then, little by little, whisk the hot mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. stir in bourbon. Pour the mixture into a big plastic bag or a metal bowl and place in an ice water bath until cool. i swear, i felt like this took for-ev-er, but probably only took about 30 minutes.
Freeze ice cream according to your ice cream makers instructions, (but note that ours really didn’t freeze much in the maker at all. once it finished in the ice cream maker, we added the pecans, put it in a freezer-safe container and slid it in the freezer overnight.) the recipe calls for a 4 hour freeze time, so make sure to plan ahead…otherwise, you end up with ice cream for breakfast, like us. (not that i’m complaining even a little bit. deeeeeee-licious.)
how are you going to enjoy bourbon heritage month?
