Honey brown butter popcorn ice cream

Hi!

I know I am not the first person to make popcorn ice cream, not even close. But my kids have been begging me for a popcorn ice cream for movie night for a while now (as well as various candy ice creams!) and, well, I want to stay a “cool mom!” for as long as I possibly can pretend to be one.

Some day I will remind them that they used to think I wasn’t that embarrassing and that we used to snuggle on the couch with popcorn ice cream and cartoons.

I did few different kinds of popcorn ice cream trying to find a favourite. Admittedly, theirs was the classic “salted popcorn” flavour, but just like my bucket I wanted to add a little pizazz to it.

Hence, the honey brown butter popcorn ice cream. Hasn’t really got a nice ring to it, but thankfully it delivers in flavour if not the naming department!

Honey brown butter popcorn ice cream

Makes 1l base for about 1,5l ice cream

30g popcorn kernels
20g butter

500g whole milk
250g heavy cream
50g honey (or maple syrup for maple brown butter popcorn!)
50g skimmed milk powder (optional, but improves texture by adding protein and absorbing excess water)
120g sugar
5 egg yolks, about 85g
5g salt

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until the milk solids at the bottom have turned a deep golden brown and the butter smells like roasted hazelnuts.

Remove from heat, pass through a mesh strainer or cheese cloth - save the milk solids - and return the liquid butter to a medium saucepan over medium-high with the popcorn kernels.

Swirl the pot to coat the kernels in the hot butter and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to medium and shake the pot until the kernels are popped (2-ish seconds between pops).

Add the whole milk, heavy cream, honey, skimmed milk powder and remaining brown butter milk solids and heat to steaming hot.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until well combined, pour 1/4 of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly to temper the yolks. Continue with another 1/4 of the milk before adding the remaining milk.

Return the whole mixture to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 85C on a thermometer.

Remove from heat, season with salt and pour into a clean, heatproof container. Cover with plastic wrap and or a lid and chill at least 4-6 hours, preferably overnight.

Blend the ice cream mixture with a hand blender until very smooth, then strain the custard through a fine meshed sieve pressing the popcorn to extract as much flavour as possible.

Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.