Bourbon Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Light, soft vanilla ice cream with a hint of bourbon flavor and loaded with buttery, sweet, roasted pecans. This ice cream is for adults only – sorry, kids!

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.

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?

Side note: If you run into that 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.

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.

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.

In the recipe below, I call out use 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.

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.

Are you looking for an ice cream maker (aff link)? Fear not! I swear by that one.

Happy churning, my friends!

Bourbon Butter Pecan Ice Cream

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• Author: Leslie Kiszka
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 7 minutes
• Total Time: 32 minutes
• Yield: 1 quart 1x

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Description

Light, soft vanilla ice cream with a hint of bourbon flavor and loaded with buttery, sweet, roasted pecans. This ice cream is for adults only – sorry, kids!

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Ingredients

• 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon light or dark brown sugar
• Hearty pinch of salt
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup half and half (I use this)
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar or granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste (aff link) or pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons bourbon

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place chopped pecans on baking sheet and toast them for 7 minutes, or until fragrant and golden.
2. Just before the pecans are done toasting, melt butter in a small saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt and whisk until completely combined and bubbly. Remove from heat.
3. Add pecans to sauce pan and stir/toss to coat. Pour pecans in a single layer onto a piece of parchment paper to cool.
4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together heavy cream, half and half, vanilla extract and bourbon.
5. Pour batter into frozen ice cream maker (aff link) and prepare according to manufacturers directions (usually 20-25 minutes of churning). During the last 5 minutes, add in your gingerbread.
6. Store in freezer-safe container and freeze for a couple hours if you want it to be soft-serve texture (or overnight, if you want to eat it after it’s hardened). Enjoy!

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Equipment

ice cream maker

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vanilla bean paste

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Notes

The bourbon helps keep the ice cream soft, but you don’t want to add more for a stronger bourbon flavor – it’ll make the ice cream impossible to full set! Instead, try adding a little bourbon the butter/sugar mixture for coating your pecans.

• Category: Dessert
• Method: Churn and freeze

Keywords: bourbon ice cream, butter pecan ice cream

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