Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Our good friend John is a huge fan of ice cream sundaes. I decided this year for his birthday to present him with some homemade ice cream and fixin's. John's wife was a willing co-conspirator and provided us with a challenge. John's two favorite flavors of ice cream are chocolate chip cookie dough and butter pecan. Woo! This should be fun.
The cookie dough was pretty simple - get cookie dough, roll into balls, fold into homemade vanilla ice cream. This produced a pretty tasty cookie dough ice cream, but I think I'll work on this recipe for next time.
After some research, estimation, and crossed fingers, I think I came up with a pretty good recipe for Butter Pecan. It was a hit at the party and John has dubbed it "Super Butter Pecan". I hope you like it too!

Super Pecan Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients

6 T unsalted butter, divided

3/4 cup light brown sugar, divided 

1 1/2 cups whole milk 

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

4 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T dark maple syrup

½ lb pecans, chopped medium

¼ tsp salt

Instructions

1.    Place a strainer over a medium bowl set in a larger bowl containing ice water, set aside. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until slightly browned.  Whisk in ½ cup of the sugar until melted.  Carefully stir the milk, followed by the cream into the butter mixture.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until steam appears and the milk is warm (about 175 degrees), about 5 minutes.

2.    Meanwhile, whisk the yolks, maple syrup, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl until combined and pale yellow.  Whisk about half of the warm milk mixture into the beaten yolks, 1/2 cup at a time, until combined.  Then whisk the milk-yolk mixture back into the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly until steam appears and the mixture is slightly thickened and about 180 to 185 degrees. (Do not let  the mixture boil, or you’ll have scrambled eggs in your ice cream.)

3.    Immediately strain the custard into the bowl set in the ice bath and stir in vanilla.  At this point, you must refrain from eating the custard, regardless of how awesome it smells. Let it cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 3 hours or until the next day.

4.    While the custard is chilling, toast the pecans in a large skillet over medium heat until fragrant and slightly darkened, about 7-8 minutes.  Remove pan from heat and toss nuts with remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and salt until butter is melted.  Let pecans cool completely.  They should soak up all the butter. Refrain from eating all of these as well. You'll need some in the ice cream.

5.    When the custard is chilled, pour it into the ice cream machine canister and churn, following the manufacturer’s instructions, until the mixture resembles soft-serve ice cream.  Transfer the ice cream to a large bowl and fold in pecans until desired proportion is achieved.  Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container, press plastic wrap flush against the surface, cover the container, and freeze the ice cream until firm, at least 3 hours. You could eat it right out of the machine, but I promise it tastes even better after it's matured in the freezer!

Enjoy!