Author Notes
Walking through the grocery store it is not uncommon to see carts with coffee, bacon and ice cream. These three items are regular additions to our grocery list too. We start every day with a freshly brewed cup of java while ice cream is an indulgence at the end of a busy day. With two teenage boys, bacon is a frequently used ingredient at our house any time of day! The combination of these three ingredients may sound quirky, but results in a decadent and delicious dessert. - Romeocucina —WeLike2Cook
Test Kitchen Notes
One glance at romeocucina's photo of her ice cream with that thick, crisp slice of bacon sticking into it, and I was a goner. I purposely tasted it right out of the ice cream machine in sort of a reverse fondue; warm bacon dipped into chilled, soft ice cream. First confession: It's what I had for dinner. I could not stop eating it. The coffee, the crisp lacquered (billion dollar word!) bacon morsels, the creamy-crunchy ground coffee combination, soft ice cream—I didn't even sit down! A truly heavenly combination. Second confession: I used decaf brewed espresso and grounds, as I was pretty sure in advance that the first confession would be the result of my making this recipe and I need all the beauty sleep I can get. And, my friends, I went to bed very happy! - boulangere —boulangere
Ingredients
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4
slices of bacon
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1 cup
light brown sugar
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1/2 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
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1 1/2 cups
heavy cream
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1 1/2 cups
whole milk
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2
whole eggs
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3
egg yolks
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1/2 cup
espresso or very strong coffee, room temperature
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1/2 teaspoon
espresso or finely ground coffee grounds
Directions
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Preheat oven to 425° F. Put 1/4 cup brown sugar onto a plate or wide dish. Coat both sides of bacon by pressing each strip firmly into the sugar. Sprinkle with bacon with up to 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Lay bacon out on a sheet pans covered with parchment paper (to aid in clean-up). Cook bacon in a preheated oven, turning once, about 15 minutes until browned and lacquered. Allow to cool.
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Combine eggs, yolks, coffee, coffee grounds and 3/4 cup brown sugar in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk or electric beater. Heat milk and cream in a medium saucepan, but do not let them boil, just “scald” it until it is near the boiling point - a thin skin may form on the surface. Remove from heat and very slowly pour in 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture and beat rapidly with a whisk.
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Then pour the egg-milk mixture into the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture while beating. Return the mixture to medium low heat, stirring constantly for a few more minutes to thicken the mixture. When it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, turn off the heat.
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Pour ice cream mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface of the liquid and refrigerate until completely cool. Then, pour mixture into ice cream maker (we use a Krups "La Glaciere") and follow your machine’s directions for how long it should churn.
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Crumble the slices of Billionaire’s bacon and add to the ice cream machine during the last minutes of churning. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for 2 hours before serving. Garnish dish with another piece of Billionaire’s bacon and a pinch of black pepper or espresso powder.
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