maple pecan ice cream fall

Maple Pecan Ice Cream

I went on an ice cream making kick and it’s been a lot of fun. This was a tough recipe for me to troubleshoot, and it took three times until I figured out my mistake. The answer is no shortcuts can be taken in ice cream making.

maple pecan ice cream top view

I wanted a fun fall ice cream flavor and suggested sweet potato, pumpkin pie, honey fig and my husband said all of those flavors were “weird”. I needed my husband’s buy in because I didn’t want to eat all the ice cream myself (I can, but I shouldn’t). I said, “what about maple pecan?,” and he said that was an “acceptable normal flavor”. 

I was a little afraid of using a whole cup of maple syrup (This turned out to be one whole bottle of Trader Joe’s maple syrup), but you really need it all to get the maple flavor.  So don’t try reduce the “sugar” or worry about the sweetness as a custard – when it freezes it will be the perfect sweetness. 

I put my ice cream maker in the freezer for 6 hours and when I tried to make the ice cream, the custard wouldn’t churn properly, but stayed liquid. So I refroze the ice cream maker for 14 hours. However, the ice cream still wouldn’t get solid while churning. So finally, I froze the ice cream maker for 48 hours, and finally it worked! 

I was a bit worried about the custard melting and freezing three times over, but I didn’t want to throw away the ingredients – it still turned out well thankfully.

maple pecan ice cream fall

Also enjoy these beautiful maple leaves we picked up from one of our PNW walks. Even though they’ve been dried on our table for 2 weeks, the color is still magnificent. Adapted from The Spruce Eats.

Maple Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients
1 cup dark maple syrup
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk (I used skim milk)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Directions
Put the 1 cup maple syrup in a medium saucepan and place it over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and continue boiling for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until it has reduced to approximately 3/4 cup. Add in the heavy cream and milk. Bring the mixture to a boil and remove saucepan from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add about one-third to half of the hot milk syrup mixture to your bowl, mixing to temper. Add the egg mixture back into the saucepan mixture and whisk to blend. Cook the the saucepan on low heat, whisking constantly until the milk is thick enough to coat a spoon. 

Remove from stove to let cool. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the mixture for 3 hours, or until chilled.

While the custard is chilling, preheat oven / toaster oven to 350 F. Line baking tray with foil. Toss the chopped pecans and honey in a bowl. Roast for about 10 min until brown. Set aside when done. 

Freeze the custard in an ice cream machine. With the churner running, add the chopped pecans. Continue churning until the ice cream is frozen. Transfer the ice cream to a container and freeze until solid. Enjoy!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *