Brown Butter Candied Bacon Ice Cream

Link to recipe at bottom of post.

I fell in love as soon as I saw this over on Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures.

Brown butter? Just plain awesome.

Candied bacon? Bacon cooked in brown sugar. Need I say more?

I love both of these ingredients. Brown butter is a simple way to add amazing flavor to pretty much anything, and candied bacon is something I use quite a bit in most recipes that call for plain bacon. It's sweet and salty goodness just can't be denied! I've never heard of using either of these to flavor ice cream, but I knew this one would be a sure winner.

Remember when I said my peach cobbler ice cream was my new favorite?

Well, I spoke way too soon!

I think this ice cream is so good that if I had to choose the proper word to describe how I feel about Brown Butter Candied Bacon Ice Cream, it would have to be.... Orgasmic.

Naughty, I know. But this ice cream really won me over!

First you're met with the nutty flavor of the creamy brown butter ice cream, which I LOVE. Nothing beats the flavor of brown butter! Then you find yourself stumbling upon crispy pieces of sweet and salty bacon, throwing your tastebuds through one hell of a ride.

This is absolutely a match made in heaven!

I'm going to send you all over to Susi's blog for the recipe.

Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures is one of my very favorite food blogs. I enjoy reading every post, getting the chance to learn more about her and her family bit by bit. Not to mention Susi cooks and bakes some wonderful food, posting delicious photos. Her husband and kids are very lucky. I wish I lived close enough to invite myself over for dinner, her food always makes me drool! My favorite part of her blog is a section she does every Friday called Ice Cream Fridays in which she shares really interesting and delicious ice cream recipes. Actually, she was the first to introduce me to David Lebovitz, which I'm really happy about :).

Susi,

   I was very close to giving up on my blog because I thought no one was looking my way, or even cared what I had to say. You came along and left so many nice comments, more than I've ever gotten from one person. Your kindness gave me the drive to continue writing my blog. Thank you!
You've done a fantastic job with your own blog, and I look forward to watching it grow more and seeing what else you have in store! :)
-Jessica


Here's the recipe for Brown Butter Candied Bacon Ice Cream.

Here are some more of my favorite recipes from Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures:

Tequila Refried Beans - Oh.. My...
Snickerdoodle Cupcakes - Why haven't I made these yet? One of my favorite cookies turned into a cupcake, what could be better?
Bacon-Spinach Mashed Potatoes - Love this. Great way to enjoy my favorite food.
Gingered Carrot Cookies - I'm a big carrot cake lover. These are fantastic!

Enjoy! :)

To ALL of my readers-
  Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my blog. I love reading all the comments from you guys, every one I get makes me love doing this that much more. Thanks for being there to support me!

Dive of the Month: Bruges Waffles & Frites {Guinness Float Recipe}

*Guinness Float Recipe at bottom of post*

Bruges Waffles and Frites- a cute, tiny shop - barely big enough to fit the Man, the owner, an employee and myself inside- located in downtown Salt Lake across the street from Pioneer Park. This popular spot is run by Pierre Vandamme, a German native, specializing in Belgian waffles and frites (fries). They have a small fridge that contains mounds of yeast raised dough waiting for the waffle grill. What makes these waffles, called Liege Waffles, so unique is that the dough contains pieces of pearl sugar which melts into caramel when cooked. This makes for one deliciously sweet waffle. The outside is crisp with a dense, soft center that's bursting with caramel chunks. It's so good that you really don't need any toppings on it.

pearl sugar in the batter turns into caramel when cooked

Nonetheless, the Man and I did order two waffles with different toppings. The first was topped with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream and fresh raspberries. It was really good, I loved the combination of the ice cream and waffle. The second waffle was topped with strawberries and a delicious Crème fraiche. This waffle was to die for! The crème fraiche is amazing, and is absolute heavin in your mouth when combined with the strawberries and waffle.

Belgian waffle with strawberries and creme fraiche

Their frites are also delicious with a crispy crust, very soft inside. We enjoyed our frites on a huge sandwich known as The Machine Gun. The Machine Gun is a sausage sandwich topped with frites and a really tasty sauce (not sure what it was) served on a baguette roll. The Man wolfed this beast down in a matter of minutes! His only complaint was that the sausage was really tiny. Oh well, it was still really good.

Our expierence at Bruges was really good. The staff was super friendly, our cashier was very informative in telling us all there was to know about the food, and Pierre was really friendly coming out to us as we were finishing our meal to ask how it was. The waffles and sandwich were a little pricey, but well worth it. We will definitely be visiting again and again :)

*****
Bruges Waffles and Frites
336 West Broadway
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

(801)363.4444
Hours: Mon-Thurs. 9-7  Fri-Sat  9-9  Closed Sunday
Price: $ entrees under $10 (keep in mind that the Machine Gun is almost $9, and the waffles run from $3 and up depending on what toppings you get, toppings are between $1 and $3 each)






And now for the Guinness Float. For Adults only, please!

My last recipe for National Ice Cream Month. This is a great dessert for you beer lovers out there. It takes the classic Root Beer Float and replaces root beer with good old Guinness. This drink is really creamy, and the vanilla ice cream gives the dark beer a nice flavor that's actually pretty tasty.

This would be a great dessert to enjoy on St. Patrick's Day. Cheers!

-Jess

Raspberry Semifreddo

Continuing my celebration of National Ice Cream Month with another frozen treat that does not require an ice cream maker!

Semifreddo, Italian for 'half cold', refers to any semi-frozen dessert. I've never tried a semifreddo... Okay, I've never even heard of it. That is until a very pretty Raspberry Semifreddo popped up over on Chocolate Shavings. The beautiful red swirls in this dessert are what first caught my eye, and when I found out it was actually an ice cream, Chocolate Shavings had my full attention!

Semifreddo is a yet another great alternative to ice cream for those who don't own an ice cream maker; all you really need is a hand mixer (and a freezer, of course!). This yummy dessert involves folding whipped cream into a thick egg mixture, giving it a creamy mousse-like texture.

I'm guilty of licking the remains left in the bowl, and on my rubber spatula. What can I say? It's very good, and perfectly sweetened! This stuff would be great on its own, but the raspberries are a great addition. We don't have fresh raspberries around, so I used frozen which worked perfectly fine. If you don't like raspberries you could absolutely substitute them with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries... I think cherries would be awesome! :)


-Jess

Chocolate Ice Milk Sundae

Ice milk is basically a frozen mixture of sugar and milk. It's a great alternative to ice cream because it uses less ingredients, no need to cook, and you don't need an ice cream maker.

This chocolate ice milk is delicious! I thought it was going to be full of ice chunks, and hard as a rock. It's actually really creamy! It almost has a 'soft' texture. I gave it some extra beatings with the mixer during freezing to break up the ice crystals so it would turn out smoother. I used coffee in the chocolate sauce gave this otherwise-plain chocolate ice milk a fantastic flavor boost, turning it into a decadent chocolate sundae.

Ice milk is so yummy and simple to make that it will now be my go-to dessert on those hot and lazy summer days.. Plus, you could probably get the same result just using chocolate milk as you would using the recipe I've provided, which would make a one-ingredient dessert! :)

-Jess

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream {No Machine}

Here is an ice cream recipe that is sure to please pumpkin lovers, plus instructions for making ice cream without a machine!


Okay, making ice cream without a machine was not part of the plan. I had forgotten to give my ice cream maker enough time to freeze thoroughly. Oops.
But, after tasting the pumpkin pie flavored cream I had just cooked up, there was no way I was just going to give up on turning it into ice cream. It tasted way too good to go to waste!


This created the perfect opportunity to learn a new ice cream making technique, and I found the perfect one from my most trusted ice cream source - David Lebovitz.

To make my ice cream I just poured my (cooked) cream mixture into a metal mixing bowl and stuck it in the freezer. Every 30-40 minutes I gave it a good mixing with my electric mixer, and stuck it back in the freezer. I continued this process until the ice cream was completely frozen. It took a few hours, but it was well worth the wait.

To my delight the ice cream ended up very creamy and rich - David does recommend using a custard-based ice cream for the 'smoothest texture possible'. And the flavor is fantastic! It has a strong pumpkin flavor that is sweetened up perfectly with brown sugar. I used typical pumpkin pie spices to top it all off. 

This Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream was delicious served on top of a warm pumpkin cookie. :)


-Jess

Peppermint Ice Cream

Continuing my celebration of National Ice Cream Month!

Every year, around Christmas, I beg the Man to allow me to buy some Peppermint Ice Cream. I'm always so eager to get some because it only comes around once a year.

But, who says I have to wait for winter to enjoy peppermint-anything? Thanks to my handy-dandy ice cream maker, I don't have to wait for snow to fall to scoop up a bowl of one of my favorite ice cream flavors.

Yummy Peach Cobbler Ice Cream

First things first.
You can now Like Sugar High on Facebook! Just look to my sidebar for the Facebook widget, or click!, to Like Sugar High. Lots of updates, and TONS of delicious pictures!


Now, lets get back to celebrating National Ice Cream Month!!

Peach Cobbler... ICE CREAM

This just may be my new favorite ice cream flavor.

It doesn't just taste like peaches... It really tastes like Peach Cobbler! You can taste the peaches, the cobbler syrup, the crust... everything!

It starts out with a great, super easy, no-cook peach ice cream recipe from Lion House (those folks really know what they're doin'!). I made this already great recipe even better by using the peaches straight out of my Rum Spiked Peach Cobbler. Using the cobbler peaches instead of plain peaches really gave the ice cream a fantastic flavor. I also added about 6 pureed peach skins (saved from the peaches in the cobbler) to give it an extra boost of peachy-ness. I loved the orange and red speckles that this gave the ice cream.

It doesn't stop there!!

To top off the cobbler part of this ice cream I added big chunks of cobbler crust, also taken straight from my cobbler recipe. The chunks are my favorite part of this ice cream. And, the great part is, they don't freeze! Adding baked goods to ice cream does not alter the texture very much at all. You're biting into delightfully soft pieces of crust! DELICIOUS!! :)

I Scream, You Scream... {Vanilla Ice Cream}

We all scream for Ice Cream!!

Yay!

It's [finally!] that time of year.

July.

National Ice Cream Month!!

And I'm celebrating! Through the whole month of July I'll be posting a lot of ice cream recipes. Some I've created myself, and others are from books or blogs that I've been dying to try.

I'm very excited about this because I love ice cream! I eat a lot of ice cream, much, much more than I should. Hey, I can't help it, that stuff is good!

I think ice cream is one of the funnest things to make because the flavor possibilites are endless. I love cooking something that allows my creativity to flow.

Today, I just wanted a basic vanilla ice cream with my favorite mix ins- brownies, caramel, and hot fudge. I used the dark chocolate brownies and caramel that I made. Sadly, I was out of fudge topping, but those brownies and caramel are good enough that I can do without the fudge. The ice cream was yummy, I love the texture of the chewy brownies, and the caramel gives a great contrast.

Most ice creams I make are custard-based. This takes a little longer to do than cream-based as you have to cook it for some time. I don't mind, though. Custard ice cream is so rich and creamy. I especially like to eat it soft serve. I will be sharing cream-based recipes also, for those of you who prefer eggless ice cream.

-Jess

Cone O' Joe {Coffee & Twix Ice Cream}

I adore coffee.

Adore.

I don't drink it as much during the summer, though. It's very hot outside, and coffee is.. well, hot! I don't need a double dose of heat right now. No sir.

Since it's ice cream season I thought why drink hot coffee when I can cool down with a nice cone o' joe?

I'm not really fond of eating just plain ol' ice cream. I like to have some texture. Like, candy.

I came across this new flavor of Twix. Twix... JAVA. It has a chocolate cookie with coffee flavored caramel. Oh my goodness. I was literally jumping up and down with excitement when I saw it! My favorite candy bar with a flavor I can't get enough of. These things are seriously GOOD! This was the candy I wanted to complement my coffee ice cream.

This ice cream turned out soooo good. It has a great coffee flavor and isn't overly sweet. YUM YUM

The Twix Java is very yummy in it, if you can get over the fact that the frozen caramel sticks to your teeth. My favorite way to eat ice cream? Soft serve - right out of the machine!

I'm wondering if I can permanently give up coffee in the morning, and just wake up to a bowl of ice cream instead...? :)

-Jess