Ice Cream Wednesday: Chloe’s Candied Bacon, Toasted Pecan, Maple Syrup, Southern Comfort & Salt Ice Cream

Fellow chocolate fiend Chloe, The Faerietale Foodie, was unable to make the Gaggia coffee and ice cream event I attended several weeks ago. (A 5pm start for a blogger event does rule out most bloggers, who have full time jobs alongside their food blogs). Initially, she was most disappointed about missing the coffee half of the evening, and the chance to meet and listen to top barista trainer Paul Meikle-Janney. However, when Dom and I shared what a great time we’d had, and were then sent Gaggia ice cream makers to review for the summer, she was visited by the green eyed monster!

Dom and I couldn’t bear to see her cute little pout so we quickly suggested an #icecreamwednesday party for Chloe and a few other friends.

Chloe’s candied bacon, toasted pecans, maple syrup, Southern Comfort and salt ice cream went down a storm and she has kindly agreed to share her recipe on Kavey Eats.

Handing over to Chloe:


I’ve never made ice cream before. I don’t often buy it either. Not that I don’t like the stuff you understand… more that I don’t have much freezer space and dessert wise, I prefer cake, or chocolate.

But the chance to invent new and exciting flavours was an opportunity not to be missed and you can imagine how all sorts of crazy thoughts went through my brain!

My first premise was that it needed to be something you can’t buy in your local supermarket, and the first ingredient that sprang to mind was bacon. Well, it just had to be done didn’t it? I’d been playing around with bacon for my candied bacon butter recipe and I was pretty sure my fellow #icecreamWednesday guests would create more traditional recipes so my decision was easily made.

I decided to cheat by using double cream and ready made fresh custard instead of making fresh custard on the day. The bacon and pecans I prepared the evening before. I added the maple syrup and salt to taste just before churning the ice cream. At that point, I felt it needed a hint of something extra…. my brain cried bourbon, Kavey produced a bottle of Southern Comfort and it worked!

Chloe’s Candied Bacon, Toasted Pecan, Maple Syrup, Southern Comfort and Salt Ice Cream

Ingredients

For the candied bacon:

  • thick cut streaky bacon
  • light muscovado sugar
  • drizzle of maple syrup

For the toasted pecans:

  • pecan halves
  • softened salted butter

For the ice cream:

  • double cream
  • good quality fresh custard
  • candied bacon
  • toasted pecans , roughly chopped
  • maple syrup
  • Southern Comfort
  • salt

Notes

I’m afraid I wasn’t paying too much attention to quantities here as I was caught up the excitement of playing with the shiny new machine, so I added ingredients to look and taste.

Instructions

For the candies bacon:

  • Preheat oven to 200 degrees. 
  • Lay your bacon rashers on a non stick baking tray and heap the sugar on top of each piece, giving a good drizzle of maple syrup for good measure. 
  • Pop into the oven for around 15 minutes, turning the bacon half way and giving a swish around to gather up lots of that syrup.
  • Careful, as this has a tendency to suddenly burn.
  • When it’s beautifully crisp and glossy, let it cool down, then chop into teeny tiny pieces.

For the toasted pecans:

  • Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 
  • Toss your pecans in the softened butter before laying in a single layer on a non stick baking tray. 
  • Place in the oven for around 5 minutes to toast but keep an eye on them as they can scald very quickly.

For the ice cream:

  • Add roughly equal parts cream and custard to a bowl and stir until combined then add plenty of maple syrup; I found I had to add a fair amount to get that maple flavour to come through. 
  • Chuck in a good couple of handfuls of pecans and the same of the bacon, and then the salt and booze to taste.
  • Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker of choice and leave to churn for around 30 minutes.
I might be ever so slightly biased… but I was pretty pleased with the result and was thoroughly impressed with the Gaggia machine. Can I have one too please?

Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!
7 Comments to "Ice Cream Wednesday: Chloe’s Candied Bacon, Toasted Pecan, Maple Syrup, Southern Comfort & Salt Ice Cream"

  1. thelittleloaf

    Wow, this sounds rather incredible. I'm ALWAYS buying ice cream and realised it would be a better investment to buy an ice cream maker in the long run. Just received it from Amazon so will be putting it to work very soon 🙂

    Reply
  2. miss south

    Wow, this sounds amazing. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I've bought ice cream in the six years I've lived alone, but since buying an ice cream maker earlier this year, I've been going crazy with it.

    Making your own flavour combos cannot be over estimated. I'm scared the blog will entirely become ice cream and sorbets at this rate!

    Reply
  3. Chocoralie

    What a brilliant idea! I tried bacon chocolate last year and this works wonderfully. I wonder if you could combine it in an ice-cream too?

    Reply
  4. Kavey

    Little Loaf, definitely worth buying one's own.

    (If anyone else puts through an Amazon order, do go via our shop and click on the link through to Amazon, even though the item may not be listed in our shop, we'll receive a commission fee if you go via our link directly before making an order!)

    Miss South, it's so much fun too plus you know what goes in to it!

    Beth, do let Chloe and I know how you get on!

    Chocoralie, she's a genius, that Chloe!

    Reply
  5. Chele

    Love it, love it, LOVE IT! When I get a bit more brave with my ice cream flavours I'll need to give this combo a whirl ;0)

    Reply
  6. laurasmess

    Hi Kavey, this recipe looks absolutely delicious! I’ve tried bacon ice-cream before; at a local restaurant in my hometown. They served it with hot bourbon caramel sauce and salted popcorn – it was an amazing mind-funk but I found it too salty after a while. This recipe, on the other hand, looks beautifully balanced with the maple syrup and pecans. I definitely want to give it a go!!! Just discovered your blog, by the way. It’s gorgeous – heaps of inspiration on here! I’ll definitely be back 🙂

    Reply

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