Um, My Bad.

Dear Marie,

I really, truly intended to save this in the freezer for your visit. Really. Every time I opened the freezer I would see it and think, 'Marie is going to LOVE this ice cream. I am such a nice daughter in law to make it especially for her!*' And then one day. . . dum, da dum, duuuuuuuum, I thought, 'Ooops, I forgot to cover Marie's ice cream with wax paper. I better try a little of it to make sure it isn't getting any freezer burn.' So I pulled out my miniature scoop and took one tiny little scoop out of the container, put it a dish, and got out a spoon. I took a bite and thought, 'dang! I am so glad I toasted those walnuts!' And. . . . . . . . I don't remember what happened after that.

Hopefully, it won't be so long in between visits next time and I promise to make you a batch next time you're here, but until then here is the recipe. . . .

Maple Nut Ice Cream

2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cream
1/4 cup sugar
7 egg yolks
1 cup real, genuine maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

In a saucepan, scald the milk over medium high heat.
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together.
Slowly pour about a cup of the scaled milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
Whisk the egg mixture back into saucepan.
Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the custard coats the back of a spoon.
Strain into a medium bowl and stir in the cream.
Add the syrup, vanilla and salt and mix well.
Cover and chill for about 4 hours.
Churn in an ice cream machine according to machine's directions.
Toss in the chopped walnuts when the ice cream is just about done.
It should be soft-serve ready now, or you can park it in the freezer until hard.

Love,

*just kidding. Sorta. :)