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If you don’t already own an ice cream maker…I think it is worth it to go out and buy one (could be a good father’s day gift!). The difference between store-bought and homemade ice cream is unbelievable.
And with the machines for sale these days there is no ice, rock salt, or cranking necessary. You can spend between $30 and $40, push one button, and within 15 – 20 minutes enjoy the best ice cream you will ever have. Not to mention that when you make it yourself you can also control the ingredients. I recently bought the pictured Cuisinart Automatic Ice Cream Maker for a little more than $40 on Amazon.
The first batch I made (before our 100-day pledge) included only half as much sugar as they called for and it still tasted fabulous. While on our 100-day pledge I make this recipe below (which uses maple syrup instead of sugar) and we do not feel like we are missing a thing. Actually we are probably better off than those still eating ice cream out of a box – please trust me when I tell you this is SOOO good!
Homemade Maple Pecan Ice Cream
Ingredients
Ice Cream:
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Using a frying pan, melt the butter on medium-low heat and then add the chopped pecans. Add the honey and cook until the nuts are very slightly browned, 3 – 5 minutes. Be very careful not to overcook the nuts because they can go from perfect to burnt in less than a minute.
(Note: these nuts are also a delicious replacement for the plain pecans used in this chocolate Powerball recipe…just add two teaspoons of water instead of using the peanut butter.) - While the nuts are cooking stir together all three ingredients for the ice cream. Turn on your ice cream maker and then pour the milk mixture into the machine.
- When the ice cream is almost all the way thickened add the nuts…serve immediately and enjoy!
Would like to try this, but it says “serve Immediately” I have an Old-fashion style ice cream maker and will be making early afternoon and plan to leave it in the ice until an after dinner dessert probly four hours later, will the nuts get soggy? Or why “Serve Immediately?” We usually make ice cream ahead of time like this, but haven’t tried nuts in it yet.
Thankful for any input on this!!
Hi Christina, sorry we can’t always respond in real-time to our blog comments. Did you end up making it and how did it turn out? – Nicole
Great egg free recipe! Thanks for posting! Here’s something I learned after years of cooking with honey:! When honey is cooked, it becomes a negative for our health, acid-forming, way harmful! Switching the maple syrup and the honey would solve the problem!
Just made this tonight… it was delicious and everyone gave it a thumbs up! Thank you.
I want to make a plain vanilla or chocolate ice cream using your ingredients. Can you tell me how I can tweak this recipe and not use the nuts? My son has a nut allergy anyway so we don’t want to do this recipe but I want to make vanilla ice cream. I haven’t been able to find any other recipes online I like except yours!! :)
Thank you,
You could always use a seed like pumpkin or sunflower.
I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Here is what I do for vanilla ice cream: 1 c heavy cream, 2 c half & half, 1 c milk, 1 T vanilla extract, 1/4 c agave, 1/2 t stevia extract. For chocolate, only use 1 t vanilla and 1/4 c cocoa (I think – can’t find where I wrote it down!). Good luck & enjoy!
Made this subbing honey for maple syrup- turned out great! Would love to know if doubling this recipe would alter the outcome?
Hi Anne. We’ve only made this is small batches so I’m not sure what the outcome would be.
Do you ever make ice cream in this machine with almond milk? we are not big dairy drinkers. thanks!
We’ve not tried making ice cream with almond milk.
I also used milk that was non homogenized.
Hoping someone can help. I made this recipe but only had 2% milk and heavy whipping cream. I figured I could add 2.25 Tablespoons of heavy whipping cream to get it to same fat amount as whole milk (2% is of course, 2% fat and whole milk has 4%). So I had my bowl frozen, turned on the poured the mixture in. After 30 minutes, very soupy. What did I do wrong?! The mixture taste great. I just put in freezer in hopes to save all the local dairy milk and cream. Thank you!
Hi there. It sounds like your bowl wasn’t cold enough? If it didn’t firm up, you can always use it as a smoothy base.
Thank you for this recipe. It sounds good and I have a similar ice cream maker. Looking forward to trying.
I gave my husband a nice cream maker for Christmas. I’ve made three kinds so far, with this one being the only healthy-ish option. I’m delighted to tell you it is the best one so far! Thanks for a great recipe! I wasn’t paying attention and used honey instead of maple syrup in the ice cream part, and I think the maple syrup would have been an even better flavor. The butter pecan mixture was fantastic!