BUTTERSCOTCH AND BROWNIES ICE CREAM
When we first made this ice cream, we worried that the combination of butterscotch ice cream and brownies might be too sweet for our palates. But we had nothing to be worried about—rich butterscotch is perfectly offset by the bittersweet chocolate brownies.
For brownies, we went to our favorite recipe, inspired by the queen of all things chocolate—Alice Medrich.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
3½ tablespoons (about 50 grams) unsalted butter
1 cup (227 grams) dark brown sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1½ cups whole milk
½ plump vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt
8 large egg yolks
½ to ⅔ cup diced Cocoa Brownies
1. In a medium skillet or a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until well moistened. Bring to a very gentle boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of the cream and stir until the butterscotch becomes uniform; remove from the heat and set aside.
2. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream and the milk into a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water). Add the butterscotch, vanilla bean seeds and pod, and salt, and stir until combined. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top. Remove from the heat and remove the vanilla bean (see for ideas on what to do with it).
3. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl and set another bowl over it. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, with a kitchen towel underneath it to prevent slipping, whisk together the egg yolks. While whisking, add a splash of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks. Continue to add the dairy mixture, whisking it in bit by bit, until you’ve added about half. Add the yolk mixture to the remaining dairy mixture in the double boiler. Set the heat under the double boiler to medium and cook the custard, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and reducing the heat to medium-low as necessary, until steam begins to rise from the surface and the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Hold the spoon horizontally and run your finger through the custard. If the trail left by your finger stays separated, the custard is ready to be cooled.
5. Strain the custard into the bowl sitting over the prepared ice bath and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the custard has cooled. Transfer the custard to a quart-size container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
6. Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place the container in which you refrigerated the custard in the freezer so you can use it to store the finished ice cream. Churn the ice cream until the texture resembles “soft serve.” Fold in the brownie pieces, transfer to the chilled storage container, and freeze until hardened to your desired consistency. Alternatively, you can serve it immediately—it will be the consistency of gelato. The ice cream will keep, frozen, for up to 7 days.
