This is just too much fun.
I've been making ice cream with just whatever we have around; a liquor of sorts is usually involved. We went to the cabin this weekend and there were two perfect pears begging to be made into ice cream, and a bottle of dark rum asking to come along.
This is my favorite recipe so far.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- vanilla (to taste)
- cinnamon (to taste)
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 or 2 medium pears, pealed and cut into small bits
- dark rum, chilled (1/4 cup or to taste)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a mixing bowl in the freezer to chill. Put your rum in the freezer too if you haven't already.
In a small bowl, melt butter - not too hot. Combine butter with cinnamon, pears, and 1-2 splashes of dark rum. Spread mixture evenly into small pan or baking dish. Make sure there's enough liquid at first so the pears are soaking in rum, sugar, and butter. If you need more liquid, add another small splash of rum.
:)
Bake for 20 minutes or until tasty and soft. Drain liquid and reserve; place in fridge to chill. Stir pears so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan, sprinkle brown sugar over them again, then place in the oven again for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven when done and chill.
Once your tasty pear bits are cold, you can begin mixing everything else.
In your chilled mixing bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and sugar with a whisk or hand mixer. Mix for 1-2 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. (I use baker's sugar so this goes by quickly.) Add cream, stir. Add the chilled liquid from your pear mixture.
With the baking process and rum involved, it's important to keep everything as chilled as possible.
Slowly pour mixture into ice cream maker and let churn 20 minutes. Add the pear bits and slowly add another few splashes of your very-chilled rum. Mix for another 5 minutes, then freeze for a few hours to set.
Enjoy!