Texan Butter Pecan Ice Cream
One of America's most underrated ice cream flavours finally gets its happy ending.
Butter Pecan is one of America’s most well-known ice cream flavours, putting the native Southern pecan front-and-centre. However, butter pecan is consistently voted one of the least popular flavours of many mainstream ice cream brands. Sadly, I have to add to this and plead that butter pecan ice cream rarely celebrates the pecan as much as it should. I this recipe, we toast Texas pecans in butter until both the nuts and the butter are toasted and highly aromatic. A portion of these buttered pecans are reserved and blended to a paste, which is churned into the ice cream base. Instead of the usual plain vanilla ice cream with a speck of pecan, this ice cream is actually flavoured throughout with the flavour of butter-toasted pecans, with additional crunchy buttered-pecan bits to boot. A true celebration of the pecan, at last! And you can make this without an ice cream churner. Let’s go!
INGREDIENTS: (makes 1 pint)
100g pecan halves
1/4 tsp fine salt
50g unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks
90g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
300ml double cream
150ml whole milk
WALKTHROUGH:
First we’ll toast the pecans in butter. To a saucepan, add the 100g pecans, 1/4 tsp salt and 50g butter and place onto medium heat. Once the butter is boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5–8 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant and slightly browned. You’ll know the butter and nuts are properly toasted when the boiling butter turns silent and produces a fine foam. Remove from the heat and swirl the pan to cool down.
Now we’ll make a butter pecan paste. To a blender or food processor, add roughly half of the toasted pecans and pour in as much of the liquid butter as you can. Blend the pecans and butter to a coarse paste and set aside.
Now we’ll chop the remaining pecans. Using a rolling pin or a knife, chop the remaining pecans to pea-sized pieces and set them aside. These will be added when we have finished making the ice cream.
Now we’ll make the ice cream base. Whisk 2 eggs yolks in a mixing bowl with 90g sugar and 1 tsp vanilla until fully blended, pale and thick.
Whisk in the 300ml cream and 150ml milk briefly, followed by the buttered pecan paste blended earlier.
Transfer the ice cream to a churner and churn according to the instructions of your ice cream machine; usually about 40-50 minutes. If you’re not using a churner: freeze the ice cream in a container for 3 hours, and then blend the mixture in a food processor for 1-2 minutes every hour for 3-4 hours to keep the ice cream smooth.
Once the ice cream has been churned, add the remaining chopped pecan pieces and stir until well distributed. Whichever way you churned the ice cream, freeze it for a further 3-4 hours until firm.
Serve the ice cream using a wet scoop. Enjoy!
