27 May Drunken Millionaire Ice Cream

Hello there, strangers! I hope you had a fantastic long weekend. I sure did!

For me, this year’s was far more tame than Memorial Days of the past. Much less booze and much more house hunting – for a friend, not me – a surefire sign that yes, I will, someday soon, have to call myself an adult. All the talk of mortgages & engagements, coupled with the fact that ‘girl’s night on the town’ became ‘girl’s night on the couch’ solely because we couldn’t get a cab, pretty much seals the deal. Not to mention that fact that I got a WHOLE ten minutes of A League of Their Own in before I dozed off on the couch (blaming that one on the Mexican food).

Now, let’s take a moment to thank the universe it’s summertime because I love me some ice cream. Not that ice cream is exclusive to summer – I’m a firm believer there’s a flavor for all seasons – but the heat has motivated to me turn off my oven and pull down the ice cream maker from it’s dusty perch throne atop the refrigerator. (Which seems funny to say because as I write this, I’m sitting beside a preheating oven. What can I say? I’m a fiend.)

This Drunken Millionaire Ice Cream is the love child of classic Millionaire’s Shortbread Bars + Bourbon + Ice Cream. A menage-a-trois sugar-baby of sorts. We’ve got lightly boozy bourbon-vanilla ice cream, swirled with homemade caramel and fudge sauces and shortbread cookie chunks mixed throughout.

Let’s just say, if this ice cream were a real drunken millionaire, I might let him cop a feel. It’s that good. (Ear muffs, Mom!)

When I finally landed on this recipe (lots of noodling on this one), I decided to make my own caramel sauce because while intimidating, it’s something that I need to practice. I’ve made it before but not in over a year, and since I have a dark-bottomed pan and a novice eye, it took me three tries to get it right.

Biggest lessons learned were that:

1. If you have a stainless steel (or silver colored) saucepan, use it. My black, non-stick saucepan made it very hard to tell when my caramel had reached the proper amber color. Also, I need to invest in nicer cookware.

2. Making caramel isn’t all that hard – it’s all about mastering that fine line between perfectly nutty caramel and burnt. If you’re unsure, take it off the heat – better a little undercooked than over. And if you end up burning it  you’ve only spent about 5 minutes of your life and a cup of sugar on a recipe flop so try again!

And since it just didn’t seem right to combine homemade caramel with store-bought fudge so I made that from scratch too – a MUCH easier recipe that comes together in 5 minutes or less – no threat of sugar burns or fire alarms.

Of course, if you don’t have the time (or desire) to make your own sauces, you can buy the jarred varieties from the grocery and it will work just as well. BUT I encourage you to try homemade caramel – you’ll feel very accomplished once you get it down. And in reality, you most likely won’t burn yourself or set anything on fire, you’ll just become a little familiar with the taste of burnt sugar.

Lastly, this is my fourth recipe featuring oh-so-delicious Walkers Shortbread. Since it’s the real deal – we’re talking lots of real butter – the Shortbread cookie chunks freeze into soft little pillows, adding a perfect texture to this otherwise intensely smooth custard-style ice cream (thank you, egg yolks).  

To make it a little bit easier to get your hands on your own, my friends at Walkers Shortbread are offering a 20% off your entire purchase at www.us.walkersshortbread.com with coupon code BLDESSERT14! Promo ends May 30th (that’s Friday).

A few notes about this recipe:

By adding the bourbon to the ice cream base we are increasing the freezing temperature. The bourbon will help the ice cream to stay soft and scoopable but be careful, if you add to much, you’re ice cream won’t freeze! The general rule is max 1.5 tbsp of booze per quart of ice cream base. (We’re maxed out for this recipe.)

I like to transfer my ice cream from the ice cream maker into a chilled loaf pan. Place your preferred dish into the freezer for 15 minutes prior to filling it so your ice cream doesn’t melt while you’re adding in the toppings.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check out these photo tutorials before making caramel here and here. In fact, don’t even pay attention to my recipe below, these guys are the experts.

The fudge recipe can be made in the microwave. You’re welcome.

I halved the fudge sauce recipe from the original but still had some leftovers. I didn’t mess with the caramel proportions because I didn’t want to interfere with the cooking process – you’ll have about a cup of caramel total. You can try reducing the fudge further but I would recommend making the extra and using both for ice cream sundaes (lots of sprinkles!) and/or as dips for fresh fruit!

Cheers! XO, Katie

Ice Cream Base from Bon Appetit
Hot Fudge from Curtis Stone

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