Maple-Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream (a.k.a. Breakfast Ice Cream!)

La la la la la la! I. Love. Maple. And of course I love ice cream. And in case you haven't noticed, I have a bit of a thing for blueberries. Delicious! I made this recipe twice to get it right, and I'm not really a R&D kind of girl, but this was important. Basically the first time through, the directions were crap and I ended up with a sweet scrambled egg soup. Disgusting. Luckily the blueberry compote part was good. So. I went back to my Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, which was sooo amazing, and put those directions with these ingredients. And the results were super delicious.

And just a hint of pancakey. So go ahead, have some for breakfast. Or, oh my gosh, I just thought of this! - break up bits of waffle cone and stir them in at step 9 - totally Breakfast Ice Cream!

And, just in case you didn't know (as if!), today is National Ice Cream Day. My sister's family celebrates by having ice cream sundaes for dinner. For dinner. Today we are celebrating by having a little make-your-own-ice-cream-sandwich dessert party. Watch for a follow-up post on the ice cream sandwiches - with five kinds of homemade cookies, and five kinds of mostly-homemade ice creams, it promises to dazzle and thrill. And hey, now you can celebrate Ice Cream Day by making yourself some ice cream for breakfast!

Maple-Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream (print recipe)
Maple Ice Cream:
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 1/4 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
6 large egg yolks
1 cup maple syrup

Blueberry Compote:
Juice of 1 orange
1 tsp cornstarch
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 T extra-fine sugar

1. Place the 2 1/4 cups heavy cream in the freezer so it is thoroughly chilled by the time you need it later.

2. Put the milk and vanilla bean in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat until steaming, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Remove the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds, adding them to the milk.

3. While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl. You can use the electric mixer but in this case I prefer hand-whisking; it is easier to control the delicate mixing. Add the maple syrup while whisking and stir to combine well.

4. Pour some of the milk in a 1- or 2-cup pouring measuring cup. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm mixture, but not cooked by it. Eventually whisk in all the milk. Scrape the warm mixture back into the saucepan. If necessary, skim foam off with a slotted spoon so you can see your custard.

5. Return the saucepan to the stove, stirring the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 5 to 10 minutes. If it cooks much longer than that, the eggs will cook into solid bits, which you don't want.6. Take the cold cream out of the freezer and quickly pour it into a large bowl (at least 8 cups); place a fine mesh strainer over it. Pour the hot custard through the strainer and stir into the cold cream to stop the cooking. (Have a little taste - it is delicious!) Chill thoroughly, several hours or overnight.

7. To make the blueberry compote, combine orange juice and cornstarch in a small bowl. Place this mixture, the blueberries, and the sugar in a small saucepan over low heat, cooking and occasionally stirring until the blueberries macerate and their juices run. Cook 30 seconds to 1 minute longer and remove from heat. Cool in refrigerator.

8. Once chilled, churn the custard in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

9. To assemble, spoon the ice cream and compote into a freezer container in alternate layers. Using a blunt knife, cut through the layers and carefully swirl the compote through the ice cream. Cover the surface directly with waxed paper or foil and freeze.
Recipe from Ice Cream! Delicious Ice Creams for All Occasions by Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Wilson

1 year ago: Denny's Saucepan Chocolate Cake
2 years ago: Coconut-Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes (mhm)