I've been hearing about bacon ice cream for the past few years and when I first heard it I, and others, thought it was a pretty ridiculous idea. Nowadays it seems somewhat commonly accepted as a good idea, not just because it represents the American way of life in all of its gluttony and excess, but because salty bits of bacon hidden in a rich and velvety mound of ice cream is a logical pairing. Salty and sweet are natural partners. I recounted a recent visit to the Bleeding Deacon, a pub and grill here in St. Louis, a few months ago. They allegedly serve up a dessert consisting of Bacon Ice Cream and a Bacon Brownie that they call "The Disgrace." Well, it lived up to its name, because it was a disgrace. I tasted no bacon anywhere in the dish, and considering the amount of time we waited for it to come out, I was highly disappointed. I've since bought a Kitchen-aid mixer and the ice cream attachments to go with it and I have had it in the front of my mind to make bacon ice cream.I started with Alton Brown's basic vanilla ice cream recipe which calls for 9 oz. sugar, 8 egg yolks, 3 cups half and half, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 cup heavy cream. This is the 9-8-3-2-1 ratio. Another one I've learned is the 13-3-3-6 ratio for making bread. These are great to remember so that you can impress people by cooking on the fly with no recipes in front of you. First, the dairy was brought slowly to a simmer. Meanwhile, the yolks were beaten and then the sugar was slowly added while mixing to obtain a texture that produced ribbons. Once the dairy had been scalded, it was removed from heat and used to temper the egg mixture. A few ladles of the hot dairy were added to the egg and sugar mixture to avoid cooking the eggs. Once the eggs were tempered with about half of the dairy, everything was mixed together and returned to heat. The heat was slowly raised to 170 degrees to eliminate any salmonella that may have been in the eggs. There is quite a bit of science that is not understood about ice cream making but these heating processes seem to be important for the final product. After reaching the target temperature I added the vanilla and moved the mixture to the fridge for at least 4 hours until the temperature was about 40 degrees. This simply leaves an easier job for the ice cream maker. What makes this ice cream extra special is of course the bacon. I considered many options as a means of delivery of the bacon to the mix. I decided to simply cook the bacon until crisp, chop it and then attempted to make a sort-of-praline with maple syrup and brown sugar. I added the chopped crisp bacon with some brown sugar and maple to a pan and let it thicken a while before pouring it onto parchment and cooling it in the freezer. I hoped for a hard candy like product. Seeing as I have little experience with candy making this didn't happen, even with the help of the freezer. Obviously I have no idea how to make a praline and didn't bother to find out before trying. Instead I had a sticky thick caramel like substance which was a bother to handle. As my ice cream churned I dropped bits of bacon caramel into the mix. After the churning I moved the ice cream to another container and let it harden in the freezer overnight. The next evening, I had my first bowl (see picture) and it was everything I hoped it would be. My only mistake was not planning the "candied bacon" a little more. Next time I'll attempt to make a proper praline or a brittle with the bacon. Everything tasted great and the caramel hardened in the freezer but dealing with it was a mess. The ice cream is very rich and a perfect creamy consistency. The maple added a nice touch and of course finding bits of salty bacon is an adventure. This is one dish I'm not willing to share. Okay, enough typing. I'm off to fulfill my American duty to eat bacon.... for dessert!
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