Bourbon Butter Pecan Ice Cream

This butter pecan ice cream has light, soft vanilla ice cream with a hint of bourbon flavor and is loaded with buttery, sweet, roasted pecans. This ice cream is for adults only – sorry, kids! Check out my loaded mint chocolate chip ice cream for another boozy ice cream favorite.

If you’ve been around these parts for a while, you’re very familiar with my belief that ice cream is meant to be consumed 24/7/365. It’s that one food of which I will never get sick. NEVER, I SAY.

Hot summer’s day? Gimme all your ice cream. 

Middle of a blizzard? *reaches out with big fluffy mittens* Gingerbread ice cream, please. 

I realized recently that I haven’t shared with you any of the 21+ ice cream recipes I make. Some are still in development, others are just so good I’m not ready to give away my secrets. I know – I’m a terrible, greedy person. Someday I will share, I promise.

Let’s consider today step one in my program to become a more “sharing is caring” kinda person.

Tips for making bourbon butter pecan ice cream

• Make it easier to scoop with a simple trick. If you run into the above scenario and don’t have time to let ice cream sit on the counter to thaw a bit, run your ice cream scoop under hot water for 5-10 seconds and then scoop. This applies to all ice cream, not just this recipe!
• Vanilla bean paste vs. vanilla extract. In the recipe card below, I call out using vanilla bean paste (aff link) and list vanilla extract as a secondary option. Vanilla bean paste is more robust and is something I consider to be essential when making a vanilla ice cream base.
  
  It’s thick like molasses, and it gives the ice cream those vanilla bean specks you see when you’re eating a good quality vanilla bean ice cream. I’m all for saving money and being frugal, but in this instance I highly recommend spending a bit more for the good stuff because it makes a big difference in the final product.

• Use a bourbon you like the flavor of. Another piece of advice (I know what I said before, but let’s pretend I didn’t say that for a minute): Use a good bourbon. The flavor is pretty prominent (in a nice way, not a smack-you-in-the-face way), so make sure it’s one of which you like the flavor. It makes a difference, I swear.
• Liquor is sort of magical in ice cream. Here’s the thing about ice cream with liquor in it: it’s a very delicate balance between boozy perfection and a runny nightmare. When alcohol is added to ice cream, it prevents it from completely freezing, lending itself to a creamier and softer ice cream – which is great, because who wants rock hard ice cream that you have to use crafty tactics to soften and scoop?
• But don’t add too much liquor. However, the other side of that coin is that if you add too much alcohol, the ice cream will never set. And I do mean never. You’ll just have a runny puddle of milky liquor. I guess you could add it to your morning coffee? #silverlinings

No wait, don’t do that. Actually… go ahead and do that, just don’t tell your boss I suggested it. I’m not going to carry the burden of your professional transgressions.

But if we’re talking about your day off where you’re not responsible for doing any work, then go for it!

Okay, I think we’ve established that I should never be in a profession of giving people advice. Anyway, back to the point of this whole thing: bourbon butter pecan ice cream. It’s got just the right amount of bourbon to give it a distinctive flavor and a wonderful creaminess.

Why you should toast the pecans

In addition to the bourbon, another key ingredient here are the pecans. But not just any pecans: buttered pecans. You’ve heard me talk about toasting pecans before because it gives them a new dimension of flavor.

In this case, we’re also going to coat them in butter and brown sugar so that they’re sorta candied before they’re added to the batter. It adds a nice sweet crunch to each bite that’s just…. it’s just wonderful. I can’t come up with another word that’s better and more descriptive. It’s just wonderful.

At the time I shot these pictures, I used granulated sugar in the ice cream base – simply because I had used the last of my brown sugar on the pecans. I recommend using brown sugar instead because the flavors that develop with it are top notch. But granulated sugar works just fine in a pinch.

Are you looking for an ice cream maker (aff link)? Fear not! I swear by this one. Happy churning, my friends!

After you’ve made this recipe, please leave a comment below with a rating – and if you came from Pinterest, add a photo to the Pin of what you make to the pin to share your experience!

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