Burnt Apple & Bourbon Ice Cream

This ice cream is very much inspired by a recipe from The Bojon Gourmet, a blog I discovered via Pinterest. It caught my eye when I was looking for ideas on new ways to put some of our enormous apple harvest to good use. I replaced the cream base with a rich and very sweet custard base for extra flavour, and having spotted a few savoury recipes featuring blackened apples recently, I roasted my apples until the sugars not only caramelised, but the edges caught and blackened, which added a qute grown up hint of bitterness.

Serendipity struck when making the custard ice cream base: I decided to use up 75 grams of sugar mix leftover from a recent apple pie making session. The leftover sugar had a little cinnamon and plain flour mixed into it (for thickening the pie filling) and I topped it up with an additional 25 grams of plain sugar. I blended and cooked my custard using my Froothie Optimum 9400 power blender, and found that the inclusion of the flour resulted in a beautifully smooth and thick custard.

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Burnt Apple & Bourbon Ice Cream

Ingredients

For the roasted apple:

  • 2 medium apples , peeled, cored and diced
  • 2 tbsp bourbon whiskey
  • 100 g light brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • pinch allspice

For the ice cream base:

  • 250 ml double cream
  • 150 ml full fat milk
  • 100 g sugar
  • pinch salt
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp plain white flour (optional)

For the ice cream:

  • ice cream base (as above)
  • 2 tbsp bourbon whiskey
  • roasted apple (as above)

Instructions

For the roasted apple:

  • Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

  • Toss all the ingredients together to combine and transfer to a small roasting dish. Roast for about 45 minutes, checking on progress once or twice during the cooking time. If the apples are not yet caramelised, with a little charring on some edges, roast for longer until they’re ready.

  • Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. These can be made the day before churning the ice cream and stored in the fridge until needed.

For the ice cream base:

  • I combined all the ingredients and used my power blender to both mix and cook the custard for several minutes. The speed of the powerful blades generates enough heat to cook the custard while continuing to mix it so that nothing catches. No burnt bits, no lumps and very quick.

  • Alternatively, you can make your custard the traditional way by gently heating cream, milk and half the sugar in a pan until it reaches boiling, then removing from the heat. Meanwhile beat the remaining sugar and egg yolks together in a large bowl. Slowly pour the hot cream and milk over the eggs, whisking continuously, and then pour the combined mixture back into the pan and cook until it thickens. Make sure you stir continuously so that the custard doesn’t catch and burn.

  • Once cooked, set aside to cool. The custard can be made the day before churning the ice cream and stored in the fridge until needed.

To make the ice cream:

  • Add two tablespoons of bourbon to the custard base and mix well.

  • Add the roasted apple mixture. Alanna puréed some of hers and adds the rest whole, but I decided to leave all of it whole. I added only three quarters of the mixture as I thought it would be too much but in retrospect I could certainly have all of it.

  • Churn in an ice cream machine until ready.

With the fruit, bourbon and spices this ice cream is very reminiscent of mince pies and Christmas pudding.

The Smart Scoop: Sage by Heston Blumenthal

For the last couple of years I’ve been using a Gaggia ice cream machine. I’ve been happy enough with the results, but have sometimes wished it would churn the ice cream till it was just a little more solid. I have worked around this by transferring the finished ice cream to a freezer container and popping into the freezer to solidify further.

When I heard that the Sage by Heston Blumenthal range of appliances included an ice cream machine, called the Smart Scoop, I was intrigued by some of the extra features it offers over my Gaggia. It’s also a good looking machine with its handsome brushed stainless steel surface.

Instead of just having a timer function that switches off when the time is up, the Smart Scoop offers a range of settings from sorbet through frozen yogurt and gelato to ice cream. Once you’ve chosen the texture you’re aiming for the ice cream maker starts freezing and churning. It automatically senses how hard the mixture is so it can alert you when it’s ready. Alterrnatively, you can use manual mode to freeze and churn for a set time according to your own recipes.

There’s an alarm to alert me when the ice cream is ready. I can adjust the volume (or set it to mute) and I can choose between a regular beeper and an ice cream van-style musical tune.

The Smart Scoop also has a function to keep the finished ice cream (or sorbet) at your chosen consistency for up to three hours so I don’t need to come running the moment the alarm goes off.

With our Gaggia, I always have to stay close, especially as the machine comes to the end of it’s timer run. Sometimes the ice cream isn’t finished and I have to turn the dial again to give it more time. Sometimes the motor starts to strain as the ice cream becomes too solid for the machine to churn any further and the paddle stops rotating; then it’s a case of having to switch the machine off quickly and transfer the ice cream into another container to pop into the freezer. The Smart Scoop solves both of these problems.

Niggles?

I wish the Smart Scoop ice cream bowl was dishwasher safe; this seems to me to be an oversight for the modern kitchen.

And of course, like most ice cream machines with integrated freezing unit, it’s large and very heavy. This, of course, is the same for all the models that I’ve come across.

Overall?

I’m really happy with it and shall be sharing many more sorbet, froyo and ice cream recipes to come.

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Other ideas to make the most of apple season:

And if you’re interested in the history of apples, read my post about a Visit to the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale.

IceCreamChallenge

Kavey Eats received a review machine from Sage by Heston Blumenthal and an Optimum 9400 blender from Froothie. All opinions are my own. Please see the right side bar for a special offer on buying the Froothie Optimum 9400 with an extended warranty via my affiliate link.

Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!
37 Comments to "Burnt Apple & Bourbon Ice Cream"

  1. Kevin Chambers-Paston

    This ice cream sounds wonderful! I love making custard in my Froothie but the ice cream maker I have really is not very good. I’ve looked at the Sage machine before but the biggest con for me is the cost! Looking forward to more ice cream recipes 🙂

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Yes it’s expensive, all the integrated freezer ones are pricy, so you have to think hard on space to store plus cost / benefit and whether you’ll use it enough!

    Reply
  2. Vohn's Vittles

    OMG – this ice cream sounds amazing. I was planning to make a spiced apple chutney today but that has just been ditched in favour of your ice cream! I am drooling at the thought of it and of the looks of delight on my family’s faces tonight at dinner time! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. ♡

    Reply
  3. Kavey

    Thank you! The #bsfic challenge is simply a way to encourage others to make and share more ice cream too, no winner per se.

    Reply
  4. Laura@howtocookgoodfood

    I love the thought of a burnt apple & Bourbon ice cream. That is so perfect for this apple season. I must try out the Froothie for custard and I do have a Gaggia ice cream maker which I love but as you say, they are big machines and mine has to live in the playroom!

    Reply
  5. Sally - My Custard Pie

    As a chilly person I’m not much of an ice cream fan but this flavour really intrigues me. As per earlier comment there is no way I’d eat ice cream on Bonfire night – are they mad? However, a hot sunny day would see me eyeing this up. Interesting review of the Sage machine too.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Ha ha well if you’re wrapped up super warm and there’s a hot fire…?
    Glad you enjoyed the review too.

    Reply
  6. Deena kakaya

    I do very much enjoy ice cream, both eating it and making if and really am tickled by new and unusual conceptions. Yours has me tickled, I can’t wait to try it x

    Reply
  7. kaveyeats

    Yes, I posted it in that charity shop article but I bought the set at Netil Market for cheap cheap.

    Reply
  8. Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours

    What I love most about this post is that the ice cream machine plays an ice cream van jingle when done!

    My ice cream machine lives at Ed’s sisters house and like most other machines with a compressor it does not get the ice cream solid enough. Very interesting that the Sage does.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Yes, the jingle appeals to me so much!
    The Sage gets it that little bit more solid, which is very welcome. I feel it’s solid enough to serve immediately, though certainly popping it into the freezer takes it that step more solid again.

    Reply
  9. June

    This sounds divine! Also, I have ice cream machine envy; I have to keep the bowl of mine in the deep freezer.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    I used to have one like that but then I ran out of space I had to take it out and theni could never find space to get it back in!

    Reply
  10. Jaime Oliver

    wow this sounds utterly delicious and certainly something that I know we would love. I have never yet made icecream but i would to try this. #BestRecipes2014

    Reply
  11. Alanna

    Oh, this version looks exquisite! Thanks so much for the shout out. Also, I’m envious of your beautiful ice cream maker!

    Reply

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