Baklava Crunch Ice Cream
This Baklava Crunch ice cream has a creamy, vanilla ice cream base and is filled with honeycomb, walnuts, pistachios, and cinnamon!
Equipment
- Ice cream maker
Ingredients
For the ice cream base:
- 2.5 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 6 large egg yolks whisked
- 2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
For the honeycomb:
- 1/2 tbsp baking soda sifted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Additional mix-ins:
- 1/2 cup finely diced walnuts
- 1/2 cup finely diced roasted pistachios
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
For the ice cream base:
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer the heavy cream, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Cook, stirring frequently until the sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat. While whisking constantly, slowly pour 1/3 of the mixture into your whisked egg yolks. You will do this to "temper your eggs" to make sure that they don't scramble over the heat. Whisk quickly until fully combined.
- Then add the yolk and cream mixture back to the pot with the cream, whisking constantly.
- Return the pot to medium-low heat and gently cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. (If you are using a thermometer, it will be about 170F)
- Strain the ice cream base through a fine-mesh sieve into an air tight container, with the lid off. Allow to cool to room temperature, and then cover and let it chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.
For the honeycomb:
- While the ice cream base is chilling, you can make the honeycomb. It comes together very quickly, so make sure you have all of your ingredients already measured out and ready to go!
- Prepare a large baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper. Put this right next to where you are making the honeycomb because you want to move very quickly.
- In a large nonstick or enameled pot, combine the sugar and honey. Using a candy thermometer, cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until it is amber in color and reaches 295F (hard crack stage).
- Turn the heat off and immediately add the vanilla extract and baking soda. It will get very foamy (that's what makes the honeycomb structure), so whisk quickly to dissolve the baking soda and then immediately pour the honeycomb onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Allow the honeycomb to set up and fully cool, about 10 minutes. Then you can break the honeycomb into bite size pieces.
- Move the honeycomb to an airtight bag with all of the air removed, you don't wnat it to absorb too much moisture from the air and become soft before you have a chance to add it to your ice cream!
Assembling the ice cream:
- In a small bowl, combine your pistachios, walnuts and cinnamon. This way its easier to distribute the cinnamon throughout the ice cream!
- Remove your chilled ice cream base from the refrigerator and churn the ice cream according to your machine's package instructions. Once it reaches soft serve consistency, remove from the ice cream machine and transfer to a large bowl.
- Add your honeycomb, walnuts, pistachios, and cinnamon to the ice cream and stir to evenly distribute the mix-ins. Transfer the ice cream to air tight containers and freeze for 4 hours or overnight. Enjoy!