Butter Pecan Brandy Ice Cream From Ice Cream Happy Hour

When I first heard about the book Ice Cream Happy Hour, which contains 50 recipes for spiked ice cream, I had two questions:  How do you keep kids from eating it, and how does the ice cream set since alcohol doesn't typically freeze well?  Authors Valerie Lum and Jenise Addison don't answer question one (my answer is to hide the ice cream behind the frozen broccoli), but they do answer question two right in the preface. Mixing the alcohol with gelatin prior to stirring it into the ice cream allows the alcohol to freeze and yields a properly creamy end result (don't worry, the ice cream doesn't have the consistency of jello shots - you won't even notice the gelatin). 

Since butter pecan ice cream has always been a favorite of mine, I immediately knew that I wanted to try the butter pecan brandy ice cream.  The butter pecan brandy ice cream came out just as I had hoped: a cross between a traditional butter pecan ice cream and a strong egg nog.

I'm sharing the butter pecan brandy ice cream recipe below, but there are so many other flavors in Ice Cream Happy Hour that you might want to try - like Irish coffee ice cream, chocolate martini ice cream, and strawberry daiquiri ice cream.  I'll be giving a couple of copies of Ice Cream Happy Hour away later this week, so be sure to check back for the details.


Butter Pecan Brandy Ice Cream Recipe

I loved and hated that each recipe in Ice Cream Happy Hour followed a similar formula explained in detail at the beginning of the book.  As you follow any recipe, you have to keep flipping back to the beginning for the specifics about how to perform each of the steps.  While the flipping can be frustrating the first time you make a recipe from the book, once you learn the ice cream-making process, the book's layout ends up being a positive thing.  You'll be able to quickly see what makes each recipe different without reading the basics over and over again.

Here's the butter pecan brandy recipe from Ice Cream Happy hour.  I've modified the wording slightly and also used buttered pecans instead of the candied pecans called for in the original recipe.

• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• 4 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 1 packet (1 tablespoon) gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold (refrigerated) brandy
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups pecans, roughly chopped
• pinch of salt

Yield: 1 1/2 quarts

Important note: Do steps 1-3 the day before you want to eat your ice cream.

1. Steep the vanilla beans in the milk.
• Combine the milk, heavy cream, seeds from the vanilla bean, and the vanilla bean itself in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
• Bring the mixture to scalding (just before it begins to boil). 
• Once the milk mixture is scalding, remove the pan from the heat and cover it. After about 15 minutes, remove the vanilla bean pod.
2. Prepare the custard.
• Reheat the milk mixture back up to scalding.
• While the milk mixture heats to scalding, whisk together the egg yolks, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a medium bowl until slightly fluffy. 
• Gently stream about one-third of the hot milk mixture into the eggs while whisking continuously.  It’s important to whisk while streaming the hot milk. If you just pour in the hot milk and then whisk, you may get scrambled eggs.
• Pour the egg and milk mixture into the rest of the milk mixture in the sauce pan and stir continuously on low heat. Make sure you scrape the bottom evenly while you continuously stir. The custard is thick enough when you can draw a line on the back of the spoon with your finger and the line retains its shape.
3. Strain and chill.
• Strain the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a heatproof container (I just used a glass bowl).
• Cover with plastic wrap so that the wrap is directly touching the entire surface of the custard.  (So, don't just wrap the bowl.  Actually press the wrap against the custard itself.)  This prevents a skin from developing. 
• Transfer the container to an ice bath (put the bowl of custard inside another bowl filled with ice water) and cool for about 30 minutes to stop the cooking process. 
• Transfer the container to the refrigerator. Chill until the custard is completely cold, at least 8 hours.
4. Spike the custard.
• Once the custard is completely cold, pour the 1/3 cup of water into a small saucepan or microwave-safe container and evenly sprinkle the gelatin on top. Allow to sit until the gelatin appears to have absorbed as much water as it can, about 2 minutes.
• Gently warm over low heat and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved into the liquid, about 3 minutes.
• Pour the gelatin into a medium bowl and whisk in the refrigerated brandy until combined.
• Stream the alcohol and gelatin mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into the chilled custard and whisk until thoroughly blended.
5. Churn.
• Pour the cold custard immediately into the ice cream maker and churn for at least 20 minutes, or as directed. Due to the alcohol content, you may wish to churn it longer to get the desired thickness.
6. Make the buttered pecans.
• Melt the butter in a medium-sized skillet over low heat.
• When the butter just begins to brown, add the pecans and salt.
• Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring regularly (to ensure that all sides of the nuts are coated) until most of the butter is absorbed into the pecans.
• Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
7. Add the buttered pecans to the ice cream.
• Scoop about one-third of the ice cream into a freezer-proof container and sprinkle about one-third of the pecans on top.
• Repeat the layers twice more with the remaining ice cream and pecans, then gently fold it all together. 
• Be sure to work quickly—if the ice cream melts too much, it will just get icy once it’s back in the freezer.

The Wooden Spoons

I met Brooke from Sucre and Spice at a holiday bazaar this weekend.  Not only did I fall in love with her wooden spoons (I HAD to have them!), but I got a bit of a girl crush on her.  I see people making amazing crafts all of the time on Pinterest, but I never actually do them.  She's the kind of person who gets a fun, crafty idea and follows through.  Anyway, Brooke makes the adorable custom wooden spoons that you see in the ice cream photo and I'll be giving some of those away, along with the ice cream book, later this week. 

Cupcakes?

Never fear, cupcakes with butter pecan frosting are coming soon!