Praline Sauce

What could make bacon ice cream a little less stomach-churning?

Nothing, actually. But praline sauce was a good idea so I made it anyways. The brainstorm actually came from breakfast at Elizabeth's in New Orleans (see previous post, or, better yet, just go there). If their specialty is praline bacon, why not just cover bacon ice cream with praline sauce?

So we did. And thanks to the Junior League of New Orleans, whose excellent cookbook Jambalaya provided us with this most awesome praline sauce. Hint: this makes about a quart of sauce, so I recommend freezing it if you don't want to fall into a diabetic coma. It freezes fine, except for a slight crystallization of the sugars when thawed, which might be eliminated by reheating it gently.

Anyhow, back to the recipe:

3/4 cup white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (though I used dark brown and it was still good)
4 tablespoons butter
1 (5 1/3 ounce) can evaporated milk---since we're in Metric Land and the supermarket does not sell evaporate milk in cans that size, just call it 2/3 cup and you're good.
3/4 cups chopped pecans

Combine syrup, sugar, and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and cool. When lukewarm, stir in milk and pecans. Refrigerate. Yields 2 1/2 cups.

One thing not in the recipe, but for those who need to know: what you're basically making is a caramel, so under no circumstances stir the pot while the sugar is melting. Otherwise you might end up with a crystallized mess other than a delicious syrup-like consistency. (I have heard that corn syrup stabilizes things, but why take chances?) Feel free, however, to swirl the pot occasionally.

Good over ice cream and I'm tempted to coat some bacon with it. This may possibly lead to a Bacon Special Experiment.

Bacon Ice Cream

So yeah - Bacon Ice Cream.

While I fully support my crazy friends' efforts in general, I wasn't sure that this would actually be a worth-while contribution to the Bacon Saturdays project.

Proving there really is everything and anything on the internet, X found this recipe from otherwise fantastic ice cream recipe guru David Lebovitz. I own his The Perfect Scoop cookbook, which has delicious recipes and drool-inducing pictures. So, armed with a recipe that had to be as good as one can get, I started the preparations.

Step 1: Make candied bacon
Following the recipe, I laid out 5 slices of bacon on a cookie sheet and put brown sugar on top - trusting that my silicone baking mat (I serious just mistyped that and wrote "bacon mat") would protect my cookie tray. Unfortunately not, the bacon grease plus the brown sugar turned into some kind of crazy carbon space matter that is now permanently fused to my tray. Be warned. Despite this, the bacon actually turned out looking pretty, and certainly "candied".


Step 2: Chop bacon into tiny pieces
Harder than you think with it being so sticky. Being a fool, I used a paring knife which just wasn't cut out for the job (heh heh). Definitely use a chef knife if you are crazy enough to replicate this recipe. Put bitty pieces in container and put in freezer. Shake container to keep pieces separate.


Step 3: Give the poor dog crusty left over bits of bacon for being so good during this torturous process
How can you say no to this face!


Step 4: Make ice cream base (custard)
Again following the recipe, I made the custard for the ice cream. The only change I did was to mix in the dark rum, vanilla and cinnamon into the cup-or-so of half-and-half that was waiting for the hot custard. The custard took 40 freaking minutes to set, but I'm still timid with custard making, perhaps for a more advanced custardtier it would take less time. Anyhow, the ice cream base itself was fantastic. The brown sugar lent an almost smokey quality to the base, and the dark rum with vanilla and cinnamon was out of this world. Keep cold.

Step 5: Drive 1.5 hours to nearest little town and meet crazy friends
(optional)

Step 6: Plug in the ice cream machine and let it churn
I love my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker which, because I ordered it from Williams Sonoma, came with an extra freezing compartment (they take orders by phone and deliver by FedEx - excellent service). Poor only the ice cream base into the machine and let it do its thing for about 30-minutes. The churning was great as always, creating a nice thick and rich texture. It took a little longer than normal because the freezing compartment warmed up on my drive down. When the ice cream looks like its reached soft-serve thickness with a "grainy" appearance it is ready for the next step.


Step 7: Follow through
Add in the candied bacon. My brain did not compute the two aromas mixing together. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be bacon ice cream without the bacon. So go forth and be brave. I always freeze my "mix ins" so they don't affect the ice cream's temperature (and thus consistency) and don't clump together when being mixed in (my brain had much easier times throwing in frozen maraschino cherries into white chocolate ice cream, or frozen Cadbury Creme Egg pieces into dark chocolate ice cream). Let mix for another 5 minutes or so to distribute bacon evenly, stop machine, then scoop out into a sealable container. Let chill in freezer for at least 30 minutes to firm up.


Step 8: Eat?
Well... It smelled good - the dark rum/vanilla/cinnamon/brown sugar combo was fantastic, and technically the smokey, sweet bacon also smelled nice - but the fact that they were together was just odd. The flavour was also good, but bizarre. The chewy bits, which would normally be chocolate, nuts, or, at worse dried fruit, in ice cream were... pieces of meat. Troubling. Despite this, all 4 taste-testers finished their portions (aided, no doubt, by the delicious praline sauce we ladled onto our servings). No one went back for seconds.


Final verdict
Bacon Ice Cream was strange - and not something that will ever take off. It wasn't terrible, and the flavours were okay, but the meat in ice cream was just too mentally uncomfortable to move beyond. I would totally re-do that ice cream base with walnuts or, heck, even rum-soaked raisin in the future. Until then, there are lots of leftovers at X's...

Maple bacon lollipops.

Um... well, I know where part of my next paycheque is going...