Bacon Caramel Maple Ice Cream

I wasn't planning on doing another post on bacon and caramel after posting about bacon fat caramels and bacon caramel corn. But then I met the girl behind 3am Confections, Erika, and she started telling me about the bacon caramels that she makes, and I just knew I had to have some. These actually aren't on her website, but she made me a batch anyways and even hand-delivered them to me! Like the caramels I made, they're topped with Maldon salt and diced bacon. Unlike mine, they're butter based instead of made with bacon fat, which means they're not as soft at room temperature. Another huge difference is that she fries the bacon with a secret ingredient that gives the bacon a subtle kick.

After eating four of these in a row (because I couldn't stop myself), I decided to assert some self control because I wanted to immortalize these in an ice cream. At first I was thinking of just dicing them up and adding them to a sweet cream base so as to really highlight the caramels themselves. But then I came up with the idea of adding them to a maple ice cream since I do so love dipping my bacon slices in maple syrup. I based the maple ice cream on the maple walnut ice cream recipe from Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book.

Bacon Caramel Maple Ice Cream

makes about 1 pint

1 large egg
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons maple syrup, grade B
1/2 cup 3am Confections bacon caramels, diced (about 8 caramels)

Whisk egg until light and frothy. Add sugar, a little at a time and whisk to dissolve. Add heavy cream, milk, and maple syrup. Cover and chill.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker until almost firm, then fold in caramels. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

I found the maple flavoring to be really subtle; if I had some, I probably would add some maple extract to the ice cream base to bring out the maple flavor even more. The recipe in the Ben & Jerry's book suggests using a grade C maple syrup which would probably help as well.

The caramels get pretty hard, but not to the point where it will crack your teeth or anything. If it's something you're wary of, though, I'd suggest dicing the caramels finely so that you don't get a big hard gob in your mouth.