Maple Bacon Ice Cream

Bacon is starting to fall off the popularity scale but it is still high enough on our list to make something crazy with it.  We chose to make some maple bacon ice cream for our recent Game Night.  The ice cream recipe called for a bacon brittle, but we had a little trouble with the brittle and decided to omit it altogether and add just the bacon.  If you are afraid of bacon but love a good maple flavor, I recommend making this same ice cream base and adding some crunchy brittle or chocolate chips or something like that.  Heath bars perhaps?


Maple Bacon Ice Cream  adapted from the Food Network

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup maple syrup, preferably grade B
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 slices bacon, cooked crisp and chopped (fry in a skillet 5 min/side on medium high heat)

Directions:

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a bowl until pale yellow. Transfer to a saucepan and whisk in the milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until almost simmering (the mixture should be thick enough to coat a spoon). Stir in the maple syrup. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes or up to overnight.

Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker instructions. At the very end add the chopped bacon and mix in.  Freeze until ready to serve.  (We churned this less than usual and it resulted in an incredibly soft ice cream which is advisable).