It’s the easiest thing ever, requiring only four basic ingredients (none of which are sugar or milk) and no specialized ice-cream-making gadget. But an electric beater does help.
A winning entry from BBC’s “MasterChef” series in 1995, I assume it was created by that year’s winner, Marion Macfarlane. I can’t be sure as I found it on Food.com with just a few helpful comments.
There are a couple of tricks to the way it’s presented on that site, though. First, you gotta convert from metric if you live in the States. Easy enough. The other issue is that double cream is different from (read: superior to) heavy whipping cream, but you can only get double cream in the U.K. Brits who have compared the two find our heavy whipping cream “tastes horrible” in comparison, but really, the difference is only 10-12% more butterfat. So no need to worry about a substitute.
You ready? Get yourself a medium-large mixing bowl, small heating pan, a small bowl, and the following ingredients.
Honey Whiskey Ice Cream (with your common American household ingredients)
1.3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey (it’s going to be strong. Use 1/4 cup if you don’t want it on your breath later.)
1/3 cup honey
4 large egg yolks
I find it’s easier to separate egg yolks if they’ve been sitting out of the fridge for a few hours. Actually, my hubs finds it easier to separate them because I can’t do it. (He’s the real chef of the house – I just fix desserts.)
In the small pan, heat the honey on a really low setting. My first time around I made this part more complicated than it had to be by boiling water, then putting the honey in a jar to sit in the water after turning the heat down. I thought that getting it too hot too fast would lose flavor. After making this recipe a few times, I’ve realized that this is a non-issue. Cute photo, though.
While that’s doing its thing, whip the cream in the bigger bowl until it thickens up, adding the whiskey gradually. Beat the egg yolks in their little bowl after that.
When the honey can drip cleanly off your spoon, add it to the eggs and beat until this mixture gets a bit lighter in color. Another reason for not wanting the honey too hot was because I was worried it would cook the eggs, but this is also not an issue.
Into the cream with that as you keep them whiskers rolling on the beater, as I am depicted not doing here.
Keep whipping it all together one last time before pouring it into a plastic container and popping it into the fridge for an hour. Then it can go in the freezer. This is the kind of concession you have to make if you don’t have an ice-cream maker. Cooling it off first helps it freeze better, or so I read on some blog during my research. If you want to be a real over-achiever, digest this informative article on How to Make Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Machine and apply what you learn here.
If you’re lazy like me, don’t worry about too much ice in the mix if left overnight: It’s going to be a soft, fluffy ice cream by virtue of the whiskey. Häagen-Dazs famously uses five ingredients in their ice cream, and the one that’s missing from this recipe is skim milk. I imagine that’s what it would take to make this more dense and I’ll experiment with it after I get an ice cream-maker. (Just FYI, Häagen-Dazs’ Bourbon Butter Pecan tastes just like this ice cream, except not as good because you didn’t make it.)
Speaking of which, I highly recommend crushed pralines as a topping rather than adding it in while the ice cream cures in the freezer. For one, it’ll all settle at the bottom if you add it too early. The whiskey also strips the candied bit off the pralines.
I’ve made an amaretto version of this that turned out quite lovely with vanilla wafers added before the mix goes in the freezer. At some point, I’m even going to make a coffee version with a Bailey’s or Kahlua swirl. If anyone has tips on how to make a decent swirl without a machine, I’m all eyes.
Oh, oh! One last thing: If you didn’t add any crunchies or swirlies, this stuff is really damn good in a float. If you plan to use it solely for this purpose, then go for the full third cup of whiskey in the recipe. I put a few scoops of such a batch in my 7-11 Gulp cup, which was about a third full of Dr. Pepper and ice, stirred it until it looked like a milkshake and drank it while looking totally innocent on the Light Rail.
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