Author Notes
Growing up in the Inland Empire, summers were hot and looking for ways to cool down in my grandmother's very old Spanish style house in the heritage part of town, was all my cousins and I were occupied with. We made a version of this ice cream as children with left over carrot cake, fresh dairy cream from our grandfather's ranch and nuts from Hadley farms. No one every wrote it down to my dismay but I came across this similar recipe from David Lebovitz recently and much to my delight, its very similar to what I remembered was an ambrosia treat as a child. —marcella_missirian
Ingredients
- Spiced Pecans, Candied Carrots, Soaked Currants
-
1 cup
Pecan Halves
-
1 tablespoon
Butter, melted
-
1 teaspoon
cinnamon
-
1/4 teaspoon
Ground Cloves
-
2 tablespoons
Dark Brown Sugar
-
1/8 teaspoon
salt
-
1/4 cup
Dried Currants
-
2 tablespoons
Maker's Mark Bourbon or Bourbon of your choice
-
2 cups
Finely Diced Carrots
-
2/3 cup
Sugar
-
2 tablespoons
Light Corn Syrup
-
2 cups
Water
- Ice Cream Base
-
8 ounces
Cream Cheese
-
1 1/2 cups
Low Fat Sour Cream (or full fat)
-
2/3 cup
Sugar
-
1 tablespoon
Chopped Lemon Zest (micro plane works)
Directions
-
Spiced Pecans, first 6 ingredients of part 1 ingredients -
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Toss the pecans with the butter. In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar and salt. Pour the mixture over the pecans and toss to coat completely.
Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and cook for 12 minutes, gently stirring halfway during baking to
candy the nuts.
Remove the tray to a rack and cool the nuts completely. Once cool, coarsely chop the pecans. Set aside.
-
Maker's-Soaked Currants, ingredients 7 and 8 of part 1 ingredients -
In a small saucepan, heat the currants and bourbon until boiling. Simmer until the currants have absorbed almost all of the liquid. Remove from heat and cover the pan. Set aside to cool completely.
-
Candied Carrots, last 4 ingredients of part 1 ingredients -
In a medium saucepan, combine the carrots, sugar, corn syrup and water. Bring to a low boil and cook until
the syrup is reduced to about 2 tablespoons and the carrots are translucent and candied, 20 to 30 minutes.
Keep an eye on the carrots during the last few minutes so they do not burn. Drain the carrots and set aside to
cool.
-
Ice Cream Base -
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, blend together the cream cheese, sour
cream, sugar and lemon zest until smooth. Chill thoroughly.
Freeze the base in an ice cream maker - use ice cream maker's directions (I use Cuisinart).
After churning, gently fold in the spiced pecans, soaked currants and candied carrot cubes. Freeze until firm.
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