SUNDAE SUNDAY: Brown sugar bourbon ice cream with grilled peaches and candied pecans
This recipe marks my inaugural post in what will hopefully be an ongoing thing at Hayes in the Fog: #sundaesunday. Taking a page from Amanda Frederickson’s #fridgeforaging series, I’m asking my followers on Instagram to choose which of two ice cream sundaes I’ll make (ice cream and all!), based on what ingredients I already have at home.
This week, the “competition” was between two themes: strawberry shortcake and brown butter bourbon with peaches. The latter won in a 2-to-1 landslide, though admittedly whenever a recipe has booze it in, I feel it immediately has the upper hand.
As a heads up, since this is an impromptu creation, it hasn’t been tested thoroughly like my typical recipes; however, that’s the beauty of it: while the pastry world can be precise, there’s plenty of room for spontaneity, especially with something as flexible as a sundae.
The recipe below is exactly what I made, but here are small changes I'd do if I were to remake it:
The candied nuts and ice cream went together beautifully; I’d consider keeping it just the nuts + ice cream to make this a year-round option
I’d experiment with the addition of a salted caramel or fudge swirl
I’d make sure I had better, properly ripened peaches (one was too ripe, the other not quite ripe enough), and I might skip grilling them all together
Brown sugar bourbon ice cream with grilled peaches and candied pecans
By: Kathleen Hayes
Makes 1 quart ice cream and 1 cup candied nuts
MISE IT
Ice cream base, adapted from the humphry slocombe ice cream book
465g heavy cream (~2 cups)
245g whole milk (~1 cup)
210g brown sugar
50g egg yolks
3 pinches of kosher salt
2 tablespoons bourbon (I used Bulleit)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Candied pecans, adapted from Fifteen Spatulas
1 cup chopped pecans
75g brown sugar
25g sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Grilled peaches
1 - 2 ripe yellow peaches
Special equipment
Thermometer (I like my Thermapen)
Large bowl for an ice bath
MAKE IT
Ice cream
In a medium saucepan, combine cream, milk, and salt. Heat until it’s just at a soft boil, then remove from heat.
While your cream base is infusing, whisk together your sugar and egg yolks until combined. This will form a thick paste.
Create an ice bath for your final mixture to cool down in a large mixing bowl.
Temper your egg mixture by ladling (or carefully pouring straight from the pan) ¼ - ⅓ cup of your hot cream mixture into the bowl with your eggs+sugar, whisking constantly to start melding the two mixtures together. Repeat with a few more ladles worth of the cream mixture, and then transfer the tempered mixture back into your saucepan.
Over medium-high heat, heat your base and use a spatula to draw figure-8s shapes repeatedly through the mixture to keep everything moving so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Do this until it thickens slightly and reaches a temperature of 168 - 172 F, then remove from heat.
Pour your creme anglaise mixture through a chinoise or fine-meshed strainer into a container over an ice bath. Add your vanilla extract and bourbon to the strained base.
Stir periodically and let mixture cool down to room temperature. Then let mixture chill for at least an hour and up to 1-2 days in the refrigerator.
Before you spin your ice cream: place a baking dish in the freezer (I use the smaller of these two dishes) so your finished ice cream will go into a chilled container and not melt.
Follow the instructions for your ice cream machine and spin your ice cream. If your machine’s bowl isn’t your final storage container, transfer your finished ice cream from the machine to the chilled baking dish and let it set for a few hours.
Candied nuts
In a large skillet, heat sugar and salt until it’s bubbling.
Add in pecans and cook in sugar for 3 minutes
Dismount onto a piece of parchment paper, break into distinct, separate pieces as soon as you can handle the nuts, then let cool.
Grilled peaches
Cut your peaches into halves, then wedges (4-6 wedges/peach half).
On a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat, grill your peaches for 2-3 minutes per side.
Let cool slightly.
TWEAK IT
Add a salted caramel swirl to the ice cream
Swap out peaches and throw in a mix of stone fruit and blackberries
Incorporate maple syrup into the ice cream for the trifecta of bourbon + brown sugar + maple
Serve this ice cream on top of waffles for a decadent brunch or breakfast for dinner
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