Caramel Bourbon Heath Ice Cream

Difficulty: Easy
Time Consuming: not actively, but it needs a chill overnight in the freezer

As soon as I got back from vacation, I was itching to get back into the kitchen.  I really wanted to make ice cream and I found an awesome recipe from Pinterest.  I adapted it to use in the popular 2 Ingredient Ice Cream recipe that's amazing because it doesn't require an ice cream machine, turns out super soft, and is amazingly adaptable with flavors.

This ice cream is so good, I might have kept sneaking back into the freezer for little bites.  And it's definitely a flavor the husband approves of.  The bourbon still has a little bite but it's quickly sweetened by the caramel.  The bits of heath provide a crunchy texture and the flavorscompliments the caramel and bourbon perfectly.

If you don't have any sweetened condensed milk on hand, you can make your own following this simple recipe from Paula Deen:

Dissolve 3/4 cup white sugar with 1/3 cup water (microwave until boiling).  Mix the sugar water with 4 tablespoons butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 cup dry powdered milk in a food processor and blend until smooth (or smooth-ish, the milk powder might not be completely dissolved, but that's ok).  If using immediately, set aside to use, or store in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge.  This makes an equivalent to a 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk.

So, it's confession time....all the ice cream might have been eaten before I took a picture of it.  I know, I'm aweful, but it was so creamy and sweet and awesome, and before long, it was gone.  So the picture below comes from the source of the original recipe, and I've included a link to that below.  I'll definately be making another batch of this again soon, and will update with original pictures later.

Image from How Sweet It Is

Caramel Bourbon Heath Ice Cream Recipe
Yields around 4 cups (1 quart) of ice cream

Ingredients

2 cups (1 pint) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup bourbon (more or less to taste)
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (or one batch of the recipe above)
2/3 cup prepared caramel sauce (more or less, to taste)
3/4 cup toffee bits or chopped up Heath Bar (more or less, to taste)

Directions

1.   In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the cream to stiff peaks (be careful not to overmix, or it will separate and start to turn into butter).  Reduce the mixer speed to low, and slowly add bourbon to the whipped cream.

2.  Using a spatula, fold in the sweetened condensed milk and caramel sauce.  Fold in toffee bits.

3.  Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

The great thing about this recipe is that as long as you stick to using 1 pint of whipping cream to 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk, you can really play around with the other ingredients.  You can replace the Heath with Snickers, the caramel for fudge, and the bourbon with Bailey's....just as an idea.  Play around and really make it what you want it to be. 

Adapted from How Sweet It Is