Butter Pecan Ice Cream

It's officially Summer! We are in the thick of it now! The 4th of July has come and gone, my car is full of sand from the beach, and I've made my first batch of homemade ice cream. Have you ever made your own ice cream? If not, you don't know what you are missing.

When I was little my mother would make us ice cream every summer. She had one of those old fashion ice cream makers that used salt & ice and it wasn't electric so you had to hand crank it. It literally took forever to make, but the results were SO good! I'll never forget what it tasted like. Summer Magic! I looked forward to Mom's ice cream every summer vacation. Along with staying up late, watching The Price is Right everyday, and jumping through the sprinkler. Now that's a vacation! I was a very low maintenance child.

Luckily for me I don't have to crank a machine anymore to achieve Summer Magic. We've come a long way since then and Cuisinart has made it very easy to make ice cream. Yay!

Last year I chose strawberry ice cream (read about it here) to kick off the season. This year I was a bit more adventurous. I saw this butter pecan recipe on the Food Network, courtesy of Paul Deen, and I knew I had to try it. If you love butter pecan, you need to try it too!

Ok, go....

1 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 (13oz) can evaporated milk
1 (3/34 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups whole milk

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Cook the pecans over low heat until they are lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Place on a paper towel to drain and cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the mixture into the freezer container of an ice cream maker and put in the freezer.

After 10 minutes remove from freezer and mix in the pecans.

Freeze overnight!

This ice cream didn't last long, let me tell you! I kept going to the freezer with a spoon, but what goes on behind MY freezer door is My business! : )

In case you are wondering I own a Cuisinart (this one) ice cream maker and I highly recommend it. It was a gift from my Mom who, incidentally, owns the same one now.

It's super easy to use and everything I've ever made in it comes out perfectly! I love making ice cream because A. we eat loads of it! B. it's fun to experiment with flavors and C. I'm hoping my son will always remember Mom's homemade ice cream every summer!