Bourbon Butterscotch Ice Cream

Makes between 1 and 1½ quarts ice cream

The name butterscotch doesn’t actually refer to the smoky Scotch whiskey, as I thought for years. Shuna Fish Lydon is a pastry chef and butterscotch historian, and from her I learned the word scotch, when used as a suffix, meant to cut or to score in Old English. Originally, butterscotch was a hard candy made from butter and unrefined molasses–rich sugar, which was cut, or “scotched,” into pieces. This buttery, brown sugary flavor lives on in this ice cream, with a boost of flavor from bourbon, a nod toward to my delicious misunderstanding.

Brown sugar is rich in molasses, like the unrefined sugars of yore, but it is acidic and will curdle the milk if the two are cooked together. To combat this, cook the brown sugar, bourbon, and cream into a sauce that is added to the custard when both are cool. Cooking the bourbon with the sauce helps cook out the alcohol in the bourbon, too, which prevents the alcohol from depressing the freezing point of the ice cream and ultimately making it too soft to scoop. And if you’d like to leave out the bourbon entirely, I think you’ll find this flavor is quite delicious even without it.

Butter (1%)
10g | 2 teaspoons

Cream (29%)
290g | 1½ cups

Dark brown sugar (15%)
150g | ¾ cup tightly packed

Bourbon (2%)
20g | 2 tablespoons

Kosher or sea salt
3g | ½ teaspoon

Milk (38%)
380g | 2 cups

Glucose syrup (5%)
50g | ¼ cup

Egg yolks (10%)
100g | about 5 large yolks

Texture agent of your choice (see below)

Prepare the bourbon butterscotch. Place the butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the butter melts, sizzles, and begins to take on a brown, nutty color. When it’s richly browned but not burnt, add the cream, brown sugar, bourbon, and salt. Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar, over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and put it in the refrigerator to cool below 100°F, or body temperature.

Prepare an ice bath. Fill a large bowl two-thirds of the way with very icy ice water and place it in the refrigerator.

Boil the milk and glucose. Put the milk and glucose in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, and place it over medium-high heat. Cook, whisking occasionally to discourage the milk from scorching, until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil , then remove the pot from heat.

Temper the yolks and cook the custard. In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks. Add ½ cup of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks while whisking so the hot milk doesn’t scramble the yolks. Pour the tempered yolks back into the pot of hot milk while whisking. Place the pot over medium-low heat and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot constantly with a rubber spatula to avoid curdling.

Chill. When you notice the custard thickening, or the temperature reaches 180°F on a kitchen thermometer, immediately pour the custard into a shallow metal or glass bowl . Nest the hot bowl into the ice bath, stirring occasionally until it cools down.

Mix the butterscotch into the custard and strain. When the custard is cool to the touch (50°F or below) , remove the bowl from the ice bath and add the chilled butterscotch sauce, whisking until evenly combined. Strain it through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any bits of egg yolk. (Straining is optional, but will help ensure the smoothest ice cream possible.)

Cure. Transfer the cooled base to the refrigerator to cure for 4 hours, or preferably overnight. (This step is also optional, but the texture will be much improved with it.)

Churn. Place the custard base into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The ice cream is ready when it thickens into the texture of soft-serve ice cream and holds its shape, typically 20 to 30 minutes.

Harden. To freeze your custard ice cream in the American hard-pack style, immediately transfer it to a container with an airtight lid. Press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming, cover, and store it in your freezer until it hardens completely, between 4 and 12 hours. Or, feel free to enjoy your ice cream immediately; the texture will be similar to soft-serve.

TEXTURE AGENTS

Best texture Commercial stabilizer 3g | 1 teaspoon mixed with 15g | 1 tablespoon of sugar and added to the milk, and remove 15g | 1 tablespoon brown sugar from the recipe.

Least icy Guar or xanthan gum 1g | ¼ teaspoon whirled in a blender with the custard base after it is chilled in the ice bath.

Easiest to use Tapioca starch 5g | 2 teaspoons mixed with 20g | 2 tablespoons of cold milk, whisked into the custard base after it is finished cooking.

Most accessible Cornstarch 10g | 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon, mixed with 20g | 2 tablespoons of cold milk, whisked into the milk and glucose after they come to a boil, then cooked for 1 minute.