Homemade ice cream is fun to make, especially when you accessorize it with your favorite “add-ins” (or flavors). I’ve made no-churn ice cream before, but making an egg custard ice cream is my top favorite process. Nowadays, ice cream makers are electric– so you don’t have to hand crank it with ice and salt (unless you’re into that). Ice cream is made with milk cream and sugar, while this recipe is made with the addition of cooked egg yolks– and that adds a super creamy and rich flavor. You can leave this recipe as plain vanilla, but adding a caramel swirl and easy homemade pralines tastes just like my favorite ice cream flavor from a local chain ice cream store. It’s so addictive!
I could eat ice cream year-round. (Well, I could eat it most every day, but that wouldn’t be the best idea.) The first time I experienced Frozen Custard Ice Cream was in St. Louis, Missouri. I was smitten by the texture and now ice milk just isn’t the same. Over the years, I’ve been practicing making homemade custard ice cream (and sorbets) and have shared a few of my favorite flavors on my blog.
Peppermint Stick Ice Cream ranks at the top of my list of favorite flavors, and I finally made a recipe that is perfection– and I don’t have to wait until Christmas to buy it. I can make it. Yay! You do have to own an ice cream maker, though. There is no way around it, sorry. Yes, there are no-churn recipes but I’ve never been 100% satisfied with the texture of the ice cream. Plus, I’m not a fan of using sweetened condensed milk for ice cream. In cookies? Yes. I’d rather make an egg-custard based ice cream. Hands down. Sure, it takes a bit more time to make the custard, but I promise that it’s definitely worth it.
At the same time I made the peppermint stick ice cream, I made some easy and fantastic homemade praline pecans. I had to make them a couple of times, because my family kept attacking the jar of them and they were gone in a nano-second. Then, I got an idea. What if I made a batch of praline pecans and omitted the cinnamon? I could add that to a vanilla egg custard ice cream base and then swirl a jar of caramel sauce that was hanging out in my refrigerator.
I didn’t photograph the process of making an egg custard base, but you can see it on this post. Once I froze the vanilla egg custard base, I mixed in some chopped pecan pralines and some caramel sauce– then poured it into a freezer container, and swirled some more caramel sauce on top.
So, now we wait for a few hours for this to freeze.
TASTING NOTES: I’ve been hanging on to this recipe for over six months, because I wasn’t 100% thrilled with my photos. However, this recipe is too good to not be shared! A few months ago, I bought a commercially made container of Pralines and Cream and I realized something really important. There were some “questionable” ingredients on the carton. My homemade version tasted so much better and there were no preservatives or artificial flavors. I have plenty of ideas of ice cream flavors that I want to make, using the vanilla ice cream base. So can you!
SIDE NOTE: To prevent freezer burn, I place a layer of plastic wrap on top of my ice cream. Allow the ice cream to come to temperature 10-15 minutes before scooping out.
Pralines and Cream Custard Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups half-and-half cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup caramel sauce I used salted caramel sauce
- 1 cup praline pecans roughly chopped
Instructions
- Prepare a large bowl with ice and nest a bowl inside. Set a wire mesh strainer (to catch bits of cooked egg).
- In a large saucepan, heat half-and-half cream to 175°; stir in sugar and salt until dissolved.
- Whisk a small amount of the hot mixture into the eggs. Return all to the pan, whisking constantly. Cook over low heat until mixture is just thick enough to coat a metal spoon and a thermometer reads at least 160°, stirring constantly. Do not allow to boil. Remove from heat immediately.
- Quickly transfer the custard into the mesh strainer and into the bowl; place bowl in the large bowl of ice water. Stir gently and occasionally for 2 minutes.
- Stir in cream, and vanilla extract. Press plastic wrap onto surface of custard. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
- Fill cylinder of ice cream freezer; freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.
- Once the ice cream is finished churning, transfer half of the ice cream to an freezer container (allowing extra room for expansion) and pour in half of the caramel and half the pralines. Repeat. Gently swirl with knife to distribute the caramel and pralines.
- Transfer ice cream to freezer containers, . Freeze 2-4 hours or until firm.
Notes
Nutrition
When I make a cream pie, I add the eggs to the cold liquids and cook for the stated time. No scrambled eggs ever. Anyway, this sounds really, really tasty. Pralines and cream is my favorite. Thanks for sharing.
Well, there’s a different approach! Makes sense to me.
Not a comment regarding ice cream, but do you have a favorite German-preferably Bavarian coleslaw? My husband ‘s mother-now passed-is from the Nuremberg area. He remembers her coleslaw with mayo and caraway seed. I find German slaw recipes with caraway seed but without mayo. Perhaps her life in the American South prompted that adjustment in a traditional recipe. Thanks
Gosh, I don’t recall my Mutti making something like that, so I don’t have a recipe like that on hand. I have no doubt that if you search on the internet, you will find it. Good luck!
The photos look awfully darn tempting to me. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks, Linda!