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Bacon Ice Cream

Who doesn’t like bacon and eggs?

Ok, maybe vegans. And folks who are kosher. And people who don’t eat eggs. Or those who don’t like bacon. But I’m not sure that’s possible. (I have a great bacon joke, but it’s not ‘pc’, so I’d better keep it to myself.)

I’m a big fan of both bacon and the beautiful, bright-orange yolked eggs we get in France, so why confine them to breakfast? I was pretty sure Candied Bacon Ice Cream would work. I mean, it’s got salt. It’s got smoke. So why not candy it? Inspired by Michael Ruhlman, l wanted to see what would happened when they all got together.

Candied Bacon

Candying the bacon was a hoot. Being in an experimental mood, I tried everything from agave nectar to maple syrup to dark raw cassonade sugar.


I lined up five strips and baked them off.

prebaked bacon

Surprisingly, the best results I had was using regular light brown sugar. The agave nectar I painted on, as well as the maple syrup—which I had impossibly-hopeful hopes for—just slid right off. I suppose I could’ve reduced maple syrup to a thick glaze before brushing it on, but I’m down to the last quarter of the bottle I brought back from the Greenmarket in New York.

And as much as I love you all, I don’t love you more than maple syrup.

postbaked bacon

Still, for flavor and crisp-itude, the light brown sugar won hands-down and baked to a firm, shiny-sweet glaze. Of course, individual ovens vary and although I asked my charcutier to cut my bacon on the moderately-thick side (around ¼-inch or ½ centimeter)—if yours is thinner or thicker, keep an eye on it in the oven. American bacon tends to throw off lots of fat, so you might want to bake it on a rack.

(Someone came over to write a story about my kitchen last week and was a bit surprised I didn’t have a microwave. Unfortunately it came down to a space-issue an the monster espresso machine won out. So I candied my bacon the old-fashioned way.)

As I was scooping the ice cream out of the machine and tossing in the bits of candied bacon, getting ready to lick the spatula (hey, pipe down…no one was looking…) I had a last-minute thought that dusting of ground cinnamon would be nice, so I added it. I tend to be pretty restrained when using cinnamon around here since if I offer a taste of something with more than a very light dusting of it to French friends, they have a hard time getting past the cinnamon and I can’t get an accurate evaluation from them.

They do like cinnamon, just not in the vast quantities we American like to shovel in. So I wanted it to be subtle and not off-putting, but present. Aren’t I good at pleasing everyone? Très ‘pc’.

My final test was when I brought a small container of this to my butcher to see what he thought. I didn’t tell him what it was and he took a bite. I waited. He tasted. The priceless look on his face!

Then I breathed a sigh of relief when he polished it off and gave it the thumbs up.

But then again, he’s a little biased.

bacon ice cream2

Bacon Ice Cream

Like my butcher, I loved the salty taste of bacon with brown sugar, but I’m also going to be folding bits of candy bacon into Coffee Ice Cream in the future. Or maybe get really crazy and try little bits in a batch of Avocado Ice Cream. If you don’t have half-and-half, simply mix together heavy cream and whole milk in equal proportions. I’m not sure about dairy alternatives, but since this doesn’t fall into the vegan category, I think this time I’m off the hook. ; )

For the candied bacon

  • 5 strips bacon
  • about 2 teaspoons light brown sugar

For the ice cream custard

  • 3 tablespoons (45g) salted butter
  • 3/4 cup (140g) packed brown sugar, light or dark (you can use either)
  • 2 3/4 cups (675ml) half-and-half
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 2 teaspoons dark rum or whiskey
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • optional: 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • To candy the bacon, preheat the oven to 400F (200C).
  • Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or aluminum foil, shiny side down.
  • Sprinkle 1½-2 teaspoons of brown sugar evenly over each strip of bacon, depending on length.
  • Bake for 12-16 minutes. Midway during baking, flip the bacon strips over and drag them through the dark, syrupy liquid that’s collected on the baking sheet. Continue to bake until as dark as mahogany. Remove from oven and cool the strips on a wire rack.
  • Once crisp and cool, chop into little pieces, about the size of grains of rice. (Bacon bits can be stored in an airtight container and chilled for a day or so, or stored in the freezer a few weeks ahead.)
  • To make the ice cream custard, melt the butter in a heavy, medium-size saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and half of the half-and-half. Pour the remaining half-and-half into a bowl set in an ice bath and set a mesh strainer over the top.
  • In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm brown sugar mixture to them, whisking the yolks constantly as you pour. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
  • Cook over low to moderate heat, constantly stirring and scraping the bottom with a heatproof spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.
  • Strain the custard into the half-and-half, stirring over the ice bath, until cool. Add liquor, vanilla and cinnamon, if using.
  • Refrigerate the mixture. Once thoroughly chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add the bacon bits during the last moment of churning, or stir them in when you remove the ice cream from the machine.
perfectscoop.jpg

Related Posts:

Meet Your Maker

Making Ice Cream Without A Machine

More Bacon Bits:

Put your money where your bacon is

Homemade bacon vodka

Your daily bacon

Bacon for boo-boos

Pig candy

Bacon baklava

Bacon toffee

Does everything taste better with bacon?

Maple Bacon cupcakes

Bacon unwrapped

Makin’ bacon

Even vegetarians like bacon

Spray-on bacon

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162 comments

    • Kalyn

    Oh my. How could this possibly not taste good?

    It did bring back some memories because my mother used sprinkle brown sugar on bacon and cook it in the oven.

    • Brad

    Having just made bacon bits for one of the recipes in “The French Laundry Cookbook” this week, I wonder if one way to ‘candy’ in maple syrup is to dice frozen bacon, then cook it in a skillet with a bunch of maple syrup. Might get too carmelized… Hmmm, maybe an experiment….

    • xsquared

    Good gravy! This is my kind of ice cream! Thank you for the recipe :)

    • Mia

    Well, that settles it – no need to go searching for the perfect birthday present for my boyfriend. This is one serious ice cream recipe!

    • Kharina

    I remember with fondness how my brother grossed me out one evening pouring a bit of mum’s madeira sauce for the venison she roasted on his vanilla ice cream. I’m gonna make this for him and watch his face break into a cheshire cat-like grin. :D

    • Fatemeh

    Maple-bacon ice cream is the leading man in Elizabeth Falkner’s “Pigwich” dessert at Orson. Apparently, it’s quickly becoming the signature dessert there.

    • Mrs.W

    I’m really loving bacon right now. I just tried bacon-wrapped dates last week and oh, my… so good. So I know your ice cream would be a hit in my kitchen.

    This ice cream is a must try. I’ll have to stick with the agave nectar, though, because I have to be as low glycemic-index as possible. It is wierdly thin, isn’t it?

    • Mercedes

    That is just so cool.

    • liz

    Ooo, pig candy!

    I have a thing about bacon. Any bacon I have is a serving. If I have four slices of bacon, it’s a serving. Unfortunately, if I have a pound of bacon, I feel that is also a serving. I am no longer allowed to make bacon unattended ;>

    (Looking forward to your Dallas visit. I had to miss last year because it was on my birthday and my husband had the gall to take me out to dinner.)

    • Diva

    you must have been reading my mind!
    I was trying to explain the bacon brittle I made to my cheese vendor in Florence and went off on a tangent on baking bacon with brown sugar!

    Go DAVE!!!

    I would think we can now move on to a BLT dessert!
    I had a sweet bruschetta in Alberobello, down in Puglia, candied tomato, basil sorbet!!!
    we are half way there.

    • Jill

    My husband’s Xmas office party is catered and always has candied bacon slices. All the dieting women have “just one” a few times each. In ice cream? Just decadent. I’m drooling on the keyboard.

    • shauna

    Oh lord, David. You have made this pregnant woman’s heart just do a leaping dance. I have a feeling that I’m going to be asking my husband to make this for me soon.

    Did you see the write-up I did on the bacon party we had two weeks ago? My god, the bacon variety was fantastic. But the candied bacon was such a big hit that we never did capture it on film. Thank goodness you did.

    And I wonder why the French don’t like cinnamon? My friend Francoise shuddered yesterday when I asked if she was putting cinnamon in her apple pie. Hm.

    • Anticiplate

    I am making penne alla carbonara tonight. I just had no idea I could use the same ingredients for ICE CREAM! I bet I would like it!

    • TACE

    Sorry, I don’t think I *get* this. I mean I get the salty/sweet combo, I think I even get the smoky/salty/sweet but I’m not sure about the bacon. But if it blows your bubbles well then I’m happy you were so pleased with the results.

    • theitaliandish

    Oh, David. At first when I saw your new post I gasped out loud in disbelief. Bacon ice cream? Come on! But then, as I read more and thought about it, I thought…gee, he’s right. This could be good! I’ll be trying it this week. Thanks for your boldness.

    • Bron

    Mmmmm sweet bacon and eggs! I’m sold

    • Deborah Dowd

    This sounds great- I love ice cream and am a bacon fanatic! I tried avocado ice cream last summer and mine just didn’t turn out the way I had hoped, but coffee ice cream with bits of candied bacon sounds heavenly (coffee and bacon go together at breakfast don’t they!?)

    • Susan at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

    Much as I love you, David, I don’t this one is for me. I like bacon and I love ice cream, but uh uh….not together. I would at least try it, though. We have the “one bite rule” at my house. ;)

    • mb

    Ooh, now I just made homemade pancakes for the first time in years (and years) and this would be very intresting served alongside! :D

    • Robert

    You open by saying about bacon & eggs, “why confine them to breakfast.” I think what you really mean is that now there’s no excuse not to have ice cream first thing in the morning! It sounds absolutely wonderful.

    • Sarah

    I love this recipe and I love Mos Bacon Chocolate Bar by Vosges Chocolates in New Yorks Soho on Spring Street

    • Jess

    Very Intriguing! I have heard of bacon chocolate (from Vosges chocolate) but ice cream?!?!

    This I will HAVE to try!

    • izzy’s mama

    Should this be the recipe to inaugurate my new Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachment? What a marvel!

    • Hellga

    I love you. I adore you. I do have one lily-gilding suggestion: I really like chocolate-dipped bacon, preferably a very dark chocolate and a very smokey bacon, and I think that might work very well in an ice cream. Did I mention how much I love you yet? *grin*

    • Muse in the Kitchen

    I don’t know if there’d ever be enough candied bacon left over around here for us to make the ice cream – the candied bacon looks seriously good. I would have thought the maple syrup would be ideal, too.

    Belle

    • sugarpond

    very interesting, i’m curious to see how it tastes!

    • Connie

    okay we are all going over to the dark side ,
    Bacon Candy !!!!!!!! I want some and I am a vegetarian

    • Bacon Heather

    I’m very familiar with and very much in love with candied bacon, but I had never thought of putting it in ice cream. This is a brilliant idea!

    • Garrett

    Thanks for the link! Cannot wait to try the bacon ice cream!

    • elarael

    You’ve gotta try maple sugar. It will go really well with the avocado ice cream version! I must say that if it was *also* chocolate dipped, well…, wow.

    • dan

    Am I alone in thinking Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck? Bacon and egg ice cream is one of his signature dishes and was described to me by a friend as ‘the best thing I have ever put in my mouth’.

    His bacon and egg ice cream here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6CLoRuvGcY

    • David

    dan: That’s pretty brilliant, overcooking the custard, for that ‘eggy’ taste. They may use a Pacojet to freeze it, too.

    elarael: I love maple sugar, but it’s extraordinarily expensive here. I’d have to put it on the same list as my pistachio gelato with the Bronte pistachio paste!

    Hellga: Hmm, the chocolate-dip does sound good.

    Shauna: It’s the quantity we use they have trouble with. For some reason, the new thing around here is ‘cumin’, and it’s showing up in the oddest places—like in chocolate.

    For the record, I’m not a fan~

    • Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy

    While I’m not that excited at the thought of bacon in ice cream…I love being proven wrong! I’d try it :)

    • Simon

    Having a Heston moment eh?

    He is one of my heroes – if only for his single-mindedness in chasing what he wanted to do in life.

    • Alejandra

    Oh my!! I’m completely in love with this recipe. Seriously… I recently came across a bacon chocolate bar (by vosges, who incidentally also do a gross cumin/chocolate thing that i’m not so into)and have been nuts about the savory sweet combo ever since. Can’t wait to spring this on my unsuspecting friends (I think they’re all terrified of my ice creams since i snuck my (black)pepper(corn) mint ice cream on them)

    • Sophiagurl

    Wow, I love this! I love bacon and i love ice cream, I guess only you could come up with something like this.

    Great idea! =)

    • Carrie

    Oh there you go again, I think I am developing a blog crush! I have been trying to convince my boss for months to let me do this for the dessert menu, but I wanted to add maple syrup to my ice cream, play up the breakfast part a bit more. You are a magician, I swear!

    • Mari

    Oh how I adore you, you masterful ice cream wizard! It’s so right, it’s wrong! I think my boyfriend needs to experience this flavor explosion, but I’m using him as an excuse to satisfy my own wanton craving for salty-sweet-smoky-creamy goodness! Sweet mother of you know how, I’m salivating on my keyboard!

    p.s. I made your crème fraîche ice cream recipe from The Perfect Scoop this past weekend, and it’s my new favorite flavor! Thank you for writing that book.

    • Linda

    My French husband and his son gag if I offer to make something with cinnamon. I just can’t make an apple pie without it and they won’t touch it. Sigh. He doesn’t like pineapple or bananas either.

    • Emily

    You mention dairy alternatives, and though I’m not sure how it’ll taste exactly, for anyone with a dairy allergy who still wants to try this (like me!), there’s always Soyatoo. They make a really thick soy-based “whipping cream” that should work in this recipe.

    Yum.

    • Mary

    I agree on cumin; it seems to be in everything these days and it has gotten to the point at which I gag at the smell of it.

    I have been a big fan of bacon candy since reading about it in “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner” by Jill Conner Browne. If you even had the thought of bacon ice cream you need to read this book.

    • Claire

    I wonder how this compares to Heston Blumenthal’s original bacon & egg ice cream…. anyway this looks delish!

    (If I have miscredited here, and someone got to it before Mr Blumenthal, don’t hesitate to correct me.)

    • radish

    Yum.. Bacon AND ice cream – this SHOULD have been the new Haagen Daaz flavor, but something makes me think it might not have caught on. Sigh.

    Would you be willing to email the non-pc bacon joke? I’m so intrigued now. ;)

    I do love cumin. Love. The first time I used it was for a “Roman Feast” we did for Latin class in Middle School. But it’s not for everyone, nor can it go in too many things.

    • latenac

    I’ll have to try this recipe. I did something similar before Christmas inspired by Ruhlman but used your maple ice cream and just added nice crispy pieces of bacon at the end. Then we ate it over waffles. I was really surprised at how well the bacon held up and didn’t get too frozen. And overall it was like having bacon and eggs with waffles and maple syrup. I have to admit right before we tasted it my husband and I both said, “Oh dear this is going to be something that’s better in theory than practice.” But it wasn’t it was better in practice than theory if that’s even possible.

    Maybe now that maple sugaring is upon us I’ll I have to try it with candied bacon.

    • giz

    For this recipe I’ll use the treif dishes :)

    • Janet

    This sounds so delicious. I see in you picture that you store your ice cream in a plastic-type container. What sort of container do you use to store the ice cream? I’ve tried the “reusable” plasticware (i.e. by Ziploc) and it keeps cracking.

    • michelle @ TNS

    i want this on a great big warm waffle…yum.

    surely, even vegans must love the *taste* of bacon. bacon is one of the building blocks of a well-running society.

    i really love bacon.

    • Nicole

    I had bacon ice cream at Citizen Cake and it really is fantastic. But I have to tell you that my daughter Zoe made your avocado ice cream the other day and it is truly an AMAZING thing!!! Creamy, smooth, mellow, sweet. Did I say creamy? And the color! We freaked out over it. Especially Zoe because she had double jaw surgery (both upper and lower jaw basically removed from skull and repositioned; sorry for the detail there) in January and is still on a pureed food diet, so the avocado ice cream was a gift from the gods. She will flip over the bacon ice cream.

    Thank you David for sharing so much of your wonderful self and so many recipes with us all.

    xoxo

    • Susquehanna

    I’m envisioning a haystack of hot pommes frites on a chilled plate with a few scoops of this bacon ice cream. If the ice cream melted and crept over toward the frites, all the better. They’d compliment each other.

    • Siiri

    OMG. (as any good 20 something American would say) This reminds me of the a fight I had with Avocado Gelato last summer. My boyfriend and I insisted we just added too much avocado, but my sister looked a little green in the face (and she didn’t have any of the gelato smeared on her face…..) anyway, I think this shall be our next big ice cream experiment!

    I’m a little reluctant to bring out the ice cream maker in March, here in Seattle, that’s just a little eager beaver, but I don’t know how long I can wait to try this one….

    • Meg

    Okay, I have to admit it. David, I think you are a genius. You have just given me another reason NEVER to become vegetarian. (Not that I needed one, mind you…)

    ; )

    • yasmara

    I made a version of this ice cream last year, inspired by Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie TV show (U.S.A.) but I found there was a waxy aftertaste/texture of solidified bacon fat that wasn’t very pleasant (to me, at least). Is there any way around this? The flavors were otherwise excellent and the candied bacon was divine.

    • EB

    You are a god to me.

    • David

    Yasmara: Perhaps the bacon you were using was too fatty. (If you live in the US, that’s possible.) Maybe try a bacon that’s made by a small-scale producer.

    Nicole and Siiri: Make sure to try that Avocado Ice Cream with an espresso poured over it. It’s surprisingly awesome!

    Janet: I buy re-usable plastic containers at the restaurant supply store. But you need to make sure they are freezer-safe—most often they’ll have a snowflake or something on the bottom to indicate that.

    EB: I’m not worthy!

    But if elected, I will serve.
    (Ice cream, that is…)

    • lectric lady

    I suspect even vegan’s saliva begins to flow when they smell the bacon cooking… they will just never ‘fess up to it.

    I suggest the best bacon in the world for this:

    http://www.nueskes.com

    • Soup of The Day

    What a GREAT idea! I’m not a big ice cream person, but the candied bacon – oh baby! I’m all over that!

    My style would be a little more along the lines of, oh, say…. a candied bacon and goat cheese tart :)

    • brilynn

    I love everything about this. I think it just made my day.

    • Danielle

    Would love to hear more about your avocado ice cream and bacon experiment. There is a local deli in Seattle that makes an avocado bubble tea shake with fresh avocado…you can eat it with a spoon! Creamy, rich…yum. Maybe they have the secret.

    • Joanna

    Hey, I made something quite close to this last summmer, using YOUR maple walnut ice cream recipe (sans walnuts) and a candied bacon brittle recipe from Everything Tastes Better With Bacon, by Sara Perry. Taking the breakfast-as-dessert rif one step further, I served it along with buckwheat crepes. Not to brag, but goddamn, it was f-ing genius!

    By the way, soooo much better than the Vosges bacon bar is a bacon chocolate as well as bacon caramel (both dark) made by a chocolate maker/chef here in Portland, Xocolatl de David:

    http://www.xocolatldedavid.com/lab.html

    look under “confections” for the caramel.
    (I’m not vested in this business, fyi. Just adore his work, non-bacon items, as well. Seriously awesome.

    • chanelle

    i think i love you.

    • Alexandra

    I have a friend who pours honey on his bacon just as he’s finished frying it…it tastes a bit like a chinese char siew..which is a sweet roasted pork…usually used in buns and stuff…very yummy!!

    Bacon ice cream sounds delish!I would love to serve that at a dinner party and watch everyone’s expression once they’ve taken the first bite and I tell them what it is…hee hee

    • Pille

    And I thought your chocolate sauerkraut cake sounded weird!?! This bacon ice cream sounds crazy, but I’m pretty sure the man in the house would be keen to try it :)

    • Rita

    i am sure this is yummy, but it reminds me of an episode in top chef season 2, where marcel made bacon & avocado ice cream…sorrryyyy…

    i personally always love the sweet vs savory mix :)

    • erik

    So I just spun out your Aztec Hot Chocolate and Cinnamon ice creams (both obscenely good, btw). But obviously I’m going to have to make this asap (yesterday, perhaps), right after I go buy a bigger freezer.

    I was also wondering if there is any rhyme or reason as to when and in what proportions you use whole milk vs half-and-half vs cream in your recipes? If you address this in “Perfect Scoop”, apologies I must have missed it.

    • David

    hi erik: That’s a good question.

    I try to go for the lowest fat possible while still maintaining a rich texture. If I want to highlight a flavor, I’ll sometimes use less cream in a recipe, too, since that might interfere with the flavor.

    Since the quantity of brown sugar here helps keep the ice cream soft–which fat normally does–I used all half-and-half. Also for simplicity of shopping : )

    This ice cream is on the soft side so one could swap out perhaps up to 50% of the half-and-half with milk. But if I listed every variation on a recipe, I’d quickly run out of bandwidth!

    • dubuc

    This looks awesome!!! I’d love to test this!!! Bacon, cinnamon, ice-cream!!! Yummy!!!
    This rocks!

    • Kirsten

    Now I don’t feel so bad about my pregnancy-induced grilled peanut butter/jelly/bacon sandwich.
    (Which really wasn’t as tasty as I thought it would be)

    • Joy

    Wow. Makes me wish I can marry this ice cream.

    • David

    Joy: Maybe you can elope?

    • Phyllis

    David, you make my mouth water. No, sorry, actually it’s the sugared bacon. (Although I’m sure you are yummy to alot of people!) Do ya thunk the French don’t like cinnamon? I made oatmeal and fresh O.J. muffins, with a good portion of cinnamon toady and my daughter passed them out to her friends and teachers. Now I have to translate the recipe in French for one of her teachers – yikes, failing grade in French comin’ up. They also liked my persimmon bundt cake with lots of canelle. (I learned the hard way in translating persimon cake; it’s NOT “gateaux des kaka”. Hmmmm.

    Anyway, I love cumin. I was having Mexican food withdrawals earlier tonight so I simmered it in my seasoned red chile sauce to mix with beef. Oh by the way, I took your advice and used duck fat instead of lard in making my frijoles. Divine. Also, when I made my flour tortillas I used a little duck fat instead of butter/lard. My French husband enjoys it.

    Now I just have to try the bacon ice cream!!! P.S. Where’s a gym around here? Mahalo, Phyllis

    • Pieds Des Anges (Kyla)

    OMG bubbie would roll over in her grave.

    • Alicat

    Good job Dave. You are my hero. :)

    • Lisa

    We made bacon caramels not long ago. They were met about 50/50 with ecstasy or revulsion and not much in between. I loved ’em and can’t wait to give this a try! Maybe I’ll serve it in these:
    http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2008/02/27/bacon-cups/

    • chef barbie

    oh dear god! i must have some… NOW! my sister recently coverted to judaism so now i get her share of the pork products too!!!

    pass me a spoon, quick.

    • Hillary

    Oh David, where’s the Jew? Haha kidding…even if I did eat bacon, I’m not sure I could stomach that.

    • shuna fish lydon

    Davide!
    Merci!
    I think you have just given me my birthday gift.
    I think I’ll make mine with brown butter and pecans too…

    gros bisous!

    • johanna

    still not convinced about the bacon ice cream, but candied bacon? anytime! i always use maple syrup, after Gordon Ramsay (he uses it for his Caesar salad) and brush it on after baking… baking/grilling bacon was another revelation to me, why did i ever fry it? what a time saver!

    and yes, everything DOES taste better with bacon. i could never, ever be a vegetarian again!

    • Riana

    WHen I was pregnant only Bacon in large amounts would cure my morning sickness, now this would take the cake, umm i mean the ice cream and be the pregnant womans perfect food staple for 9 months. I just cured some bacon myself, so I’ll be making this for sure!

    • claudia

    hey david

    if i want to make this richer – do i use more yolks or heavy cream? or is it just pointless to even bother.

    i know a lot of chefs go all out adding crazy amounts of yolks – i’ve heard keller uses 12? — but i thought i’d ask you.

    • David

    claudia: Because of the brown sugar, this ice cram is fairly soft when frozen. So you could use more cream in place of some of the half-and-half, or add a few egg yolks, but it’s really not necessary.

    (Unless you have a hankering to see your cardiologist!)

    • Jenny

    Yesss! Yesss! Yesss! Yesssssss!

    • Kevin Donnelly

    I don’t know you, but I love you!

    Seriously, I’ve joked about bacon ice cream for years and now I learn my dreams have come true.

    I’m calling the Pope to have you beatified. :)

    Cheers,

    Kevin

    • Jonnier

    My friends had an Iron Chef Bacon cookoff a few years ago and one contender “went there.” It was an amazing feat though not very palatable. Maybe having finished about 6 courses of bacon laden dishes beforehand might have being a factor there too.

    This sounds interesting. I love dragging bacon through the maple syrup from my pancakes, so I would say maybe maple ice cream would be nice?? Though this American thinks candied bacon in cinnamon ice cream sounds good. (Ciao Bella makes a fantastic cinnamon gelato)

    • Bacon Pecan Pie

    Oh, wow, I MUST try this!

    • josh

    Tried making your candied bacon yesterday but did not put it ice cream. I added the bacon to oatmeal, chocolate cookies. Delicious.

    • E

    Hey David, I saw bacon chocolate at Vosges (Here) chocolate bar here in SoHo, have you tried and reviewed that yet?

    DL: Yes, I did. A while back, but thanks for passing it on…

    • SaloReittee

    omg.. good work, dude

    • Tom Tigue

    In a hurry? Just let a high-quality Butter Pecan Ice cream get soft and blend in your bacon, refreeze and serve.

    • Debirah Holland

    I think I’m gonna puke…. when I stop laughing!

    I’m probably a rare mortal – I can’t stand bacon, tolerate eggs and ice cream upsets my stomach… but the novelty of the whole thing cracks me up!

    • xsquared

    I made this ice cream for my birthday this weekend, and it was AMAZING right out of the machine. Unfortunately, by the next day the taste was still amazing, but the bacon bits had ceased to be crispy, and were now unpleasantly chewy in the ice cream. Any idea how I can prevent that?

    I think that’s bound to happen. My bacon was cooked ’til extra-crisp, and was fine for a few days afterwards; it didn’t last much longer. -dl

    • foodie101

    I stumbled across your blog while googling Paris and can’t get enough of it! What a treasure! The candied bacon ice cream recipe sounds neat, my dorm mate in college made chocolate brownies with bacon bits in them as a gag gift for my b’day since chocolate and bacon are my fav foods and you know what? they were awesome…i can’t wait to make this ice cream!!

    btw, have you ever tried making kulfi? it’s indian ice cream, with cardamom, saffron and rose water. not as ‘out there’ as bacon ice cream but still mighty tasty.

    thanks and keep up the great work!!

    • Kristen

    Brunch just got even better. This would be tasty on the side of bacon cake.
    Mmmm what a delicious delight! Baconators round up!

    PS You are my hero!

    • Jaime

    David, your creations are truly amazing. I have been beyond pleased with every recipe I have made. I think what I love the most is your ability to combine sweet, salty and savory flavors into harmonious desserts. The candied bacon ice cream is one of the best ice creams I have ever tasted in my life. Thank you for sharing your talent!

    • Andrea

    I just recently had a baconfestival, and decided to give your recipe a try. I’ve never made ice cream before but this came out fantastic! It was so rich and creamy, and the bacon taste just fit in perfectly!

    I’m now slowly rationing out the remainder of the icecream so that I don’t run out (I’m not allowed to cook any more bacon for at least a few weeks, our house smells delicious!)

    • David

    Andrea: Glad you like the ice cream, but don’t keep it too long: the little bits of bacon will lose their crispness the longer you keep it.

    • skampy

    i just now realized how similar my photos of the process of making this ice cream are to your photos…right down to the reddish bowl with the 2 scoops and the utensil! i’m not usually a copycat, so i guess this recipe just inspires great minds to think alike? i’ll be sure to let you know how the cornbread waffles turn out! :)

    • YumPorchetta

    David, I have been dreaming about this for months, and finally made this on Sunday. It exceeded my expectations — the ice cream is unbelievably delicious even without the bacon, and adding the bacon takes it over the top. I made it as a surprise for my boyfriend, set the bowl down and sprinkled the candied bacon on without explanation. He took a bite, and as the flavors mingled, the expressions that flashed across his face were both gratifying and hilarious as he shouted ” It’s BACON!!!! IT’S BACON ICE CREAM!!!!”. He asked for seconds, but before I mixed in the bacon, he stopped me, tasted the ice cream alone, and said that it was the best ice cream he has ever had in his entire life, even without the bacon. (Previously he had lavished that praise on your recipe for vanilla ice cream from your book, as he prefers vanilla to almost every other flavor.) Since I learned to make, after much experimentation, a cantaloupe gelato this summer that finally tastes like what we’ve eaten at San Crispino in Rome, and have now presented him with this, he joked “Who needs San Crispino anymore…?” ;-)

    • R. Moose

    Bacon Jelly Belly’s are Kosher but I am not sure if they are available outside the US.

    =P

    • chimp

    Does Heston Blumenthal not get any credit for this at all??

    The genius invented the bacon and eggs ice cream back in at least 2002!

    • David

    chimp: I don’t know who invented bacon ice cream for a fact, but I did point out where the inspiration was from for this particular recipe. I did see Mr. Blumenthal’s (or his pastry chef’s) technique online afterward, and the recipe and technique are vastly different than mine–although very interesting, as he makes almost a scrambled crème anglaise, then somehow churns it up in an unseen machine, which may be a Pacojet. (I’ve already commented on that in an earlier comment, above.) I didn’t see where he made a brown sugar-butter custard and candied any bacon, though.

    Many dishes go through permutations, such as the warm individual chocolate cakes, and I know at least 4 different people who claim to have invented it. Similar to those chocolate cakes, flavors of ice cream eventually become part of our culinary vocabulary, like chocolate chip cookies, which were invented by Ruth Wakefield, but since her discovery, people have taken them off in many delicious directions.

    If I’d used or even adapted his recipe here, I certainly would have happily credited him (or his pastry chef, who may be the real source for it, in which case, shouldn’t he get credit?) and included a link, as I do in any recipe presented on the site that isn’t mine.

    Folks can watch the video of his pastry chef making the recipe here.

    • Gabriell

    I’m a pastry chef, residing in California, and everyone looks like me like I’ve got three heads when I say I’m not a fan of cinnamon. At least not in the amounts used in American pastries! Thank you for confirming that I’m not completely insane and also that we use too much cinnamon in everything.

    On that note, this ice cream looks so awesome.

    • Kim

    I made this ice cream and brought it to a brunch. We put it on waffles. It’s really one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to make it again.

    • Aliksx

    heylo!

    my boyfriend loves strange bacon things and i would really love to make him a batch of this bacon icecream!
    This could sound like a stupid question, but what is half-and-half?
    it says “2¾ (675ml) cup half-and-half” ??

    If anyone could email me and let me know that would be awsome…

    Thank you indeed.

    Al

    • Brain

    I’m down for 10 gallons.

    • Russ Stewart

    Mr. Lebovitz:

    YOU ARE A GOD. I WORSHIP AT YOUR FEET.

    • miukat

    I LOVE YOU! Bacon/brown sugar/ not lovin’ cinnamon as an addition to EVERY DESSERT! If I wasn’t married already, I’d be stalking you in the city of lights!

    • Mrs Redboots

    Just found this particular post; think I might just pass, thank you – us Brits tend to prefer slightly different savoury/sweet combinations to you Americans. But the reason why I clicked through to comment was I’ve just seen this featured on this page of this site.

    • David

    Hi Mrs. Redboots: Actually, Heston Blumenthal of England’s Fat Duck restaurant is famous for his version of Bacon Ice Cream. (There’s a link to the video of his pastry chef making it, up above.)

    So am not sure it’s just an American thing : )

    • Stu

    Why not try the ice-cream with BaconSalt? It’s a spice blend by Justin & Dave’s foods in Seattle that “makes everything taste like Bacon”. Justin’s Father-In-Law came up with the idea of adding it to ice-cream and I’ve tried it -very nice if the BaconSalt is added SUBTLY!

    And have you heard about “Mo’s Bacon Bar”, from Vosges Chocolate in USA? Selfridges in London hit the national press when they imported some and sold out in 2 days! But it’s expensive – especially over here in UK. at around five pounds for a 4 oz-bar. Amanda came up with a simple recipe to make it with BaconSalt and milk chocolate bars from ASDA (supermarket) – just melt the chocolate and add BaconSalt.

    “Bacon without the cooking mess”!

    • Harold

    Oh my goodness. I didn’t think it sounded that good until I started reading! This sounds great. I’d love to give it a shot.

    Thanks.

    • Emily

    The ice cream attachment for my kitchenaid just arrive and I think this will be its first batch. I’d also love to hear the not pc bacon joke!

    • Heather

    STROKE OF BRILLIANCE!

    Thank you for this recipe. I used it as a base for my own bacon ice cream:

    http://tr.im/baconicecream

    • Charles Price

    Have you ever seen maple sugar in granules? Used that on some yummy creme brulee.

    • Jeannette

    I made this the other night for a bacon-themed game night. It was a hit! Thanks for this great recipe.

    • tom

    Sounds good, but I was thinking about the addition of bacon grease to flavor the ice cream instead of the cin. THoughts?

    • richardson_mcphillips

    if the bacon can’t be candied with the maple sirop could you use uncandied bacon and add maple sirop to the ice cream when you add the bacon? or just coat the cooked bacon with the sirop and dry in a slow oven?

    • Zaphia

    I live in a house of vegetarians – painful. But am relocating shortly! Yay!
    This recipe is giving me cravings for candied bacon :P

    • James

    Just made this.

    Amazing. Just Amazing. I over candied the bacon (read: burnt) but the pieces I was able to save just are amazing in the ice cream. Loved the mix as well, even without the bacon.

    Thanks!!!

    Amazing!

    • Kerry

    Thank you for this recipe! I’ve made it several times now and it makes for a great party trick — “Bacon ice cream????” they all ask. There are generally a few “ewwwws.” And then, for the most part, it gets devoured.

    • aarti

    hi david! it is i, aarti, your good bite buddy! i made this candied bacon ice-cream this weekend, but added some chocolate too. i don’t think it came out as well as yours did, probably because your bacon is much better than mine. :(

    but if you’re interested in seeing how it turned out, i blogged it here!

    http://aartilla.blogspot.com/2009/07/chocolate-bacon-ice-cream.html

    • jamie anderson

    oh…i love bacon too…i created this…my first rodeo…already thinking of ways to improve it…it took a long long time to create…it was delicious, though

    • mike c

    BRAVO! Another food enthusiast I work with sent me this. I thought it was a joke, but you have proven me wrong.

    • matt

    Absolutely amazing recipe. I made this with my brand new ice cream maker as my first ever batch, and my whole household loves it. I love the look you get when you tell people its bacon ice cream, even as they are devouring it. The base is very sweet, creamy, and delicious by itself, the bacon is more of a hint and aftertaste as you finish the bite. Subtle, yet brilliant. I added a bit of nutmeg for my own twist.

    • migat

    Absolutely amazing recipe. I made this with my brand new ice cream maker as my first ever batch, and my whole household loves it. I love the look you get when you tell people its bacon ice cream, even as they are devouring it. The base is very sweet, creamy, and delicious by itself, the bacon is more of a hint and aftertaste as you finish the bite. Subtle, yet brilliant. I added a bit of nutmeg for my own twist.

    • JERI COTA

    I had wanted to make this for a year but put it off. I have made it twice now, WOW!!! Even the haters loved it. It’s better the next day or so after it has had time to sit, the candied bacon it incredibly good in it. This will be a recipe I will make for many years to come.
    Jeri

    • Chris

    This ice cream is just to die for good. To everyone who read this recipe and said “ew!”, I’m telling you, it doesn’t taste like you think it does. The bacon does just what is promised. It turns crisp and sweet and adds a salty/smoky touch and it’s not at all like eating a slab of bacon. I did increase the cinnamon content of my ice cream (I’m an American philistine. What do you want from me?) and the total combination is just superlative.

    David – you have my complete trust when it comes to my taste buds. Every recipe of yours that I’ve tried has been delightful.

    • adam

    I know I’m a bit late, but I just wanted to let you know that your ice cream inspired me to make my own variant of bacon ice cream. I had read your post months ago, but finally went out and got myself an ice cream machine.

    I used a maple smoked bacon and candied as you did, but instead of cinnamon flavored ice cream, I made a maple flavored ice cream to compliment the maple bacon. After a few batches and some tweaking (cutting back a little on the maple, because it was beginning to over-power the bacon), I ended up with some delicious ice cream.

    I’m toying with the idea of adding in some pieces of home-made waffle to create the ultimate breakfast ice cream. I’ll post back if it turns out as good as I hope it will.

    Thanks for the inspiration,

    Adam

    • Kath

    I have made this recipe several times since I first discovered it here, and I haven’t yet commented, but it’s absolutely wonderful. I would like to second the using of maple-flavoring instead of vanilla (or in addition to vanilla, half-n-half). It completes the feel of breakfast in a way, and I think adds to the experience.

    • Svein

    this thing sounds at bit odd, but it was absolutely sensational. i skipped the cinnamon though. maybe that makes me a little bit french?
    but exactly what is half-and-half? I used one part cream and one part milk. and then added some spanish brandy for the sake of it.

    • Shawna

    I made it last night for a dinner party. My husband is in a pork phase, and I finally bought the Cuisinart machine, so it was the perfect recipe for us last night. The electric oven I use made the custard heating a thirty-minute process (I was too afraid to jack the heat up too much and curdle it), but the result didn’t even need to be strained, so I was pretty happy with it.

    Perhaps the strangest moment was taking the bacon out of the oven because of the scandalous amount of fat in it. We use a great regional brand known for high quality (and price), but it was still so fatty that my Silpat was practically swimming! I was horrified (oh, the mess!), and yet, that amazing mat cleaned up easily. I probably should have saved all that fat, but I was worried about how I would use sugary bacon fat…although now I’m thinking I could’ve put it in pie crust or a savory tart crust.

    We ate about a third of the candied bacon straight out of the oven, but luckily I had already increased the recipe to account for that possibility! It’s a revelation. And the ice cream that resulted was lovely; the brown sugar is so genius. I’m going straight to Amazon for The Perfect Scoop .

    • Free Recipes

    mmMMmmMM candied bacon ice cream. i don’t know about coffee flavor ice cream and candied bacon ice cream. have you tried regular vanilla ice cream?

    • Pat Hunter

    There is a little ice cream shop in Seattle which makes bacon/blue cheese ice cream. I am personally going to make a maple/bacon ice cream next week. I have been talking about it for months. I may as well dig in and do it.

    • PD

    I made your bacon ice cream last night, and it was incredible. Thanks for the recipe – I’m directing all of my friends to your site.

    • PD

    After getting rave reviews from all my friends about the bacon ice cream, I immediately bought your book. It arrived yesterday, and a batch of peanut butter ice cream is churning as I type. I’ve already snuck a taste, and it’s incredible. I wasn’t expecting something so good from such a simple recipe. I don’t know if you actually read all of these comments, but I’m officially a huge fan of your recipes and am excited to try them all.

    • cg

    I made the bacon ice cream yesterday and took it to a Super Bowl party. What a conversation piece! It was delicious. The ice cream came out so smooth and the hits of salty meat, cut the very sweet ice cream perfectly. Thanks for such a great recipe.

    • Alana

    My friend once made this, but used half milk and half of the bacon grease.
    C’est tres bonne!!!!

    He also used brown sugar and it was the best ice cream I’d even had… until I discovered it was bacon ice cream XD

    I wish i lived in France :P
    my dream is to go to France!!!!

    • Betsy

    David, this is genius. I am a newbie to ice cream making, what a way to start! Pure bliss.

    • Chloe

    I want to try it. i love bacon so much!!!!!
    From Chloe

    • Jonathan

    The base for this ice cream is incredible! I used Prather Ranch bacon and the ice cream would have been perfect on its own.
    I believe I used too much bacon (i actually cut the amount to 4 slices) and the bits did not maintain a crunchy texture. Instead they are gummy, which I believe is due to the higher fat content.
    Regardless, David, your recipes continue to inspire and excite me and I always enjoy, no matter what the results, the ice cream, your recipes produce!

    • Noah Fleming

    I just made this. It’s marvelous.

    • larry

    At what point do you add the whiskey/rum? I don’t see it in the recipe

    • David

    You add it in step #9, where it says to add the liquor, along with the vanilla extract. Happy churning!

    • rouquinricain

    i’d love to try this recipe, but where do you find bacon in paris? the only place i’ve ever seen bacon is an outrageously expensive container of already-cooked bacon at the daily monop. the french are not known for their bacon-eating (maybe the only pork product which they don’t eat). merci d’avance!

    • David

    Most charcuteries sell poitrine fumé, or smoked belly bacon, which they hand-cut. You can get thin, American-style bacon at Franprix.

    • Rob

    This just sounds freaking great and i definitely will try it but, is there something i can substitute for the rum/whiskey? I know its not very much but i quit drinking and if i bought even a small bottle just for the ice cream it would be too much temptation to drink the rest.

    • David

    You could leave it out, and just dial up the vanilla a little to compensate for the taste of the liquor.

    • Erica

    I made this as a birthday gift for a coworker. OMG. I had no idea it would be so unbelievably good. Love isn’t’ a strong enough word for how I feel about it… and I only had one tiny miniscule bite!

    The reason I only had the one spoonful is that I’m attempting to loose weight. I’ve made “ice creams” for myself with non-fat milk (no creams or half-and-half) and no egg yolks, but the results are sad in comparison. Splenda usually works well as a sweetener for the recipes requiring sugar, but I doubt if it will candy the bacon as well as light brown sugar… oh well, I’ll still try. However, my question: do you know of any low calorie creams or other substitutes that I could use to make my ice cream friendlier to my waistline yet still creamy?

    It really wasn’t a high priority before, but after tasting this recipe I need to figure out how I can continue to making this magnificent taste sensation for me!

A

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