Smoked Ice cream, with candy bacon

Smoked Ice cream with crispy bacon
Yes you read that correctly! Smoked, ice cream and bacon in one sentence. This is an absolutely superb dessert to serve at a barbecue party, or even if you’re craving something sweet. Heavy Cream absorbs smoke fairly quickly, so if you are not very fond of smoky flavor, then you need to shorten the smoking time a good amount. I made this ice cream with tagatesse (sweetener) instead of sugar, but you can make it with sugar too, just remember to double the amount compared to the tagatesse. Here is the procedure.

You need this:

Smoke the cream
Pour the cream into an aluminum tray or other container that can withstand getting a little smoke. Use a fairly big tray so the cream is in a fairly thin layer. Put the tray into a slightly larger tray with ice cubes. The ice cubes are not really necessary when using a pellet pipe like I did, but this works well even if you do not have the option of “cold smoking”

Don`t smoke the cream too long
The cream takes up the smoke flavor very quickly, so it is plenty to leave it in the smoke for 5-10 minutes. I smoked the cream for about 8 minutes and it became a quite prominent smoke flavor on the cream, so smoke as long as you want considering the intensity of the smoke flavor. When finnished smoking, put the cream in the refrigerator and prep the rest.

Bacon in ice cream is like brittle on steroids
Fry the bacon dices until they are cooked and crispy. For the last 3-4 minutes of cooking, sprinkle some tagatesse / sugar over the bacon and allow it to simmer until the bacon becomes even more crispy and sweeter. Let the bacon cool completely before putting it in the ice cream mixture, otherwise it will separate!

Make eggnog
Whisk egg yolks and tagatesse well together for eggnog. This takes a little longer with the tagatesse as opposed to sugar, but just give it some time. When you have a thick airy eggnog pour it into another bowl, no worries if there is some eggnog left in the bowl

Whisk the cream
Whisk the cream together with vanilla seeds. (You can also use vanilla essence, powder etc ..) But vanilla seeds definitely taste the best! Do not whip the cream until it becomes whipped cream, but just enough for it to thicken.

Mix the eggnogwith the cream
Mix the eggnog with the cream. Don’t mix it all up, but leave it a bit “marbled”. Then mix in the bacon, remember the bacon must be cooled! Now the mixture is ready to go in the ice cream maker, or right in the freezer if you do not have an ice cream maker. (Remember to put the ice in one thin layer and stir occasionally so that it does not crystallize)

Wait!
The worst part with making ice cream? The wait! Let the ice cream finish, with my ice cream machine it will take about 20-30 minutes before the ice cream has the right consistency. If you have used the freezer, then remove the ice for 20 minutes before serving so that it is not hard when serving. So there you have it, a smooth dessert fit for a barbecue king or even a pit master!