Comments on: Maker’s Mark Ice Cream with a Maple Caramel Swirl and Candied Bacon Bits

By: mooflyfoof

mooflyfoof — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:41:32 +0000

Hi Katie,
Thanks for the tip, but if you read my whole post, you can see that I tried that initially and it did not work at all. The bacon did not crisp up, no matter how long I left it in and how much sugar I added. I think the moisture/fat content of the bacon I used was too high to bake it and get good results.
- Heather

By: Katie Vonderhaar

Katie Vonderhaar — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:24:02 +0000

You need to cook the bacon in the oven. This will work much better:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/ingredients-meat/try-this-candied-salted-bacon-096893

By: n

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:17:47 +0000

cook the cut up bacon, drain on paper towels. put some sugar on a sheet of waxed paper. Cook the syrup and add the bacon bits to coat. with a slotted spoon (to drain the syrup) scoop the bacon out and immediately toss in the sugar to coat. the sugar dries on the syrup and makes it easier to keep bits separate. the longer it dries out, the better. it’s like making candied rind.

By: mooflyfoof

mooflyfoof — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:51:55 +0000

That sounds delicious! Please let me know how it goes. :)

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:02:31 +0000

I have some bourbon cherries from a friend that I think would make a great ice cream, but have been putting it off because I haven’t had time to experiment. Thanks for the base recipe here–bacon sounds delicious but I’m trying it with cherries first!

By: mooflyfood » Blog Archive » Quick & “Dirty” Rice

mooflyfood » Blog Archive » Quick & “Dirty” Rice — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:49:38 +0000

[...] pork, celery, green bell peppers, chicken livers, and chives. What we did have was a whole lot of bacon grease, the aforementioned Andouille sausages (surprisingly not very spicy), celery seed, and red [...]

By: mooflyfoof

mooflyfoof — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:35:49 +0000

Awesome, Shoon! Thanks for all the feedback. I’d never heard of the boiled sweet potatoes with caramel thing — that sounds amazing! Definitely let me know how that goes.

By: Shoon

Shoon — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:58:40 +0000

I tried the recipe and it turned out pretty well! Although due to a slight mishap(which even the 5 second rule couldn’t help) in the kitchen, i didn’t get in quite as much bacon as i hoped.

I have an idea though for candying the bacon. Chinese restaurants here serve boiled sweet potatoes with piping hot caramel over them which you then dunk into an ice water bath to immediately solidify the caramel and begin eating.

I’ll probably try this recipe again sometime but i will dip the bacon in small batches into the caramel and dunk them in the bath, that way they won’t stick together. I tried laying my bacon bits out on a plate and then pouring the sugar over them, which failed horribly. The bits are too small, so they don’t catch much sugar, most of it going to the cool glass plate and solidifying.

I had the same problem as you with my caramel too. It became grainy after i added in the cream. I really think it’s because the milk curdles, my caramel didn’t ever really thicken as much as i hoped. For some reason, maple syrup doesn’t seem to caramelise as much as sugar does. I might try making dark caramel from the sugar first then add in the maple syrup.

Great recipe all in all though! Very very tasty!

By: mooflyfoof

mooflyfoof — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:06:12 +0000

Let me know how it goes with simplifying the custard! It was the first time I’d made ice cream using eggs and heat, so I’m sure it’ll still be good even if you just use cream/milk and don’t go through the process of making a custard.

The thing to be careful with with the bourbon is that you don’t want to add too much or it won’t freeze very well due to the alcohol content. I chose bourbon because it’s sweeter than something like scotch (which generally has a very smokey/peaty flavor) — I thought it would be better suited to the sweetness of the ice cream.

The reason I layered my caramel swirl is because if you just mix it in using the ice cream maker, it gets totally mixed, i.e. there’s no discrete swirl. *Maybe* if you add it at the very end it’ll work, but I believe I tried that with a chocolate swirl and it really didn’t work. Layers has worked best so far.

This recipe filled my 1.5 qt ice cream maker, meaning it’ll make about 1.4 liters of ice cream. Servings all depends on how much you like to eat at a time. :)

By: Shoon

Shoon — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:59:03 +0000

Finally plucked up enough courage to undertake this. This doesn’t look like an easy recipe and i might change the ice cream custard a bit to something a bit easier XD. Seems the important thing is to keep the whisky(or bourbon/scotch, i don’t know the difference…) flavour.

Anyway, i wanted to ask about the caramel swirl. You didn’t actually mix yours in, instead layering it in between layers of ice cream. Would it be possible to actually mix the caramel in when using the ice cream maker to get nice swirls?

Lastly, do you know how many litres or servings this makes? (I live in a world that goes by metrics)