People are quirky.  I am a person. Therefore, I am quirky.

I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands while I was on vacation last week. The campground where my family and I stayed had an ice cream parlour which featured a dozen or so flavors of homemade ice cream.  Three of the flavors were Blue Beach (?) Blue Bubblegum (!) and Maple Pecan (!!!)

This may not seem to be too much of a problem, but I have this little quirk: I simply cannot pass up blue ice cream. So having not just one, but two blue options standing in the way of the Maple Pecan caused a bit of dessert anxiety inside me.

I guess the three options were too much for me to deal with. So in a surprising turn of events, I passed on all three … multiple times, friends!

Since the ice cream-shaped vacuum in my soul went unfilled during vacation, upon arriving back home, I had to remedy the situation right away.

Maple Ice Cream with Candied Bacon

Tools

2 quart-ish sauce pan
8 quart-ish pot
1 quart-ish bowl
9″x13″ glass baking dish
Candy thermometer
Wire wisk
Ice cream maker
Strainer and cheese cloth (optional and may not be necessary if you watch the ice cream base carefully)
Parchment paper

Ingredients

3 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
2 cups grade B maple syrup
4 egg yolks
A pinch of sea salt (or more, to taste)
6 strips thick sliced bacon
1 cup light brown sugar

Everything ready? OK, let’s go!

Ice Cream Base

1) Place egg yolks in the 1 quart bowl and set aside.
2) In the 3 quart sauce pan, reduce 2 cups of syrup down to 1 cup over medium low heat. Stir frequently. You may want to use a candy thermometer, because the syrup should really stay below 225° F during reduction. This reduction might take a while. Be patient, the concentrated maple flavor is worth the time spent here.
3) Combine whipping cream, milk and reduced maple syrup in the 8 quart pot and place over medium heat, stirring until the mixture is hot.
4) Wisk 1 cup of the cream mixture into the egg yolks, ¼ cup at a time.
5) Add the yolk mixture to the cream base and reduce heat to low.
6) Stir cream base constantly until it thickens a bit (around 160° F). Watch carefully and do not let the base come near a boil, because the eggs will curdle and you’ll have little egg yolk floaters in the mixture. Yuck! However, if this does happen, all is not lost. Just strain out the little nasties and promise yourself that you’ll do better next time. :-)
7) Remove from heat and let cool for an hour or so, stirring occasionally.
8 ) Cover and refrigerate the ice cream base until very cold; at least 6 hours.

Candied Bacon

1) Preheat oven to 400° F.
2) Lay 6 strips of bacon in a 9″x13″ glass baking dish and place in oven for 5 minutes.
3) Remove bacon from oven and pour off fat.
4) Sprinkle light brown sugar over the strips and return to oven for another 8 minutes.
5) Remove dish from oven, turn over and drag the bacon through the dark syrupy sugar in the pan.
6) Return bacon to oven for 8 more minutes.
7) Cool bacon strips on parchment paper.
8 ) Once the bacon is completely cooled, crumble it into chunks and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

Note: Not all bacon is created equal, so the times listed here may vary depending on the thickness of the bacon and how much water it contains. A good rule of thumb: just keep an eye on the bacon and don’t let it burn. :-)

Making the Ice Cream

1) Follow the manufacturers instructions for your particular machine, adding the bacon chunks about 10 minutes before the ice cream is done.
2) The ice cream will still be quite soft, so you’ll need to place it in the freezer for several hours to allow it to set up nicely. Or you can just eat it while it’s still soft. ;-)

Special thanks to my best friend Nate for another great pic.