A couple months ago I got a request on instagram to make some pumpkin ice cream after I’d posted a picture of Trader Joe’s seasonal frozen pumpkin delight (one of the many pumpkin-flavored seasonal items they carry in the fall, I always look forward to looking at their wall o’ pumpkin that comes around each October. Pumpkin chai latte mix? I’M SO THERE.) I kept the pumpkin ice cream pretty basic with equal parts cream, milk, and pumpkin, some brown sugar and honey for sweeteners, eggs yolks, and some tasty seasonal spices. But I decided to incorporate a little swirl of boozy holiday flavor to compliment the pumpkin.
For this I turned to a gingersnap-flavored liquor, one that tastes just as good in sweets as it does in cocktails (Jeremy likes mixing it with a bit of whiskey for a tasty seasonal beverage), called Snap. I reduced it with honey and a bit of sugar until it was fairly syrupy, then refrigerated it until it was time to churn the swirl into the ice cream, by which time the syrup had thickened considerably from its stint in the refrigerator and resembled molasses in its consistancy. I churned it in when the ice cream was almost done churning, just long enough to get the swirl mixed in but not so long that the syrup actually blended into the ice cream.
The result was a creamy, rich, and comforting frozen dessert that tastes just like pumpkin pie, but with gingersnap cookies instead of a crust. And if you really want to go all the way with the gingersnap flavor, you could do the gingersnap swirl and break up some gingersnap cookies and incorporate them in the last churn as well. Now, I know most of the country is freezing right now (literally), but trust me when I say that pumping up the heater and making a bowl of this little guy is totally worth the brief spike in your electric bill.
And on a personal note, Jeremy and I just got our very first dog. She’s a beagle/chihuahua mix and her name is Sequoia. I’m a first-time dog owner, so any advice would be much appreciated since we got her from the shelter and we’re going to have to do a lot of training with her. Also, any tips on maintaining a joint dog & cat household would be amazingly helpful, too, since we have Gabel our big orange tabby. Thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer!
Pumpkin Ice Cream with a Gingersnap Honey Swirl
Ingredients
Pumpkin Ice Cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 4 egg yolks whisked
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Gingersnap Honey Swirl
- 1/4 cup Snap liqueur
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
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First, prepare the ice cream. Heat the milk, cream, cream cheese, sugar, and honey in a small, thick-bottomed pot over low heat, stirring constantly. Once the mixture is hot, but not boiling, remove it pot from heat and slowly whisk half the cream mixture into the egg yolks in a large bowl until smooth, adding the cream in a small, steady stream. Then add the egg yolk mixture back into the cream mixture in the pot and whisk until combined.
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Place the pot back over the stovetop over the low heat. Whisk in the pumpkin puree and the spices and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature before covering and placing in the refrigerator to cool overnight, or for at least 5 hours.
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Now you can prepare the swirl. Mix together all ingredients in a small pot over medium heat. Bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until it becomes a very thick syrup.
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Once the ice cream mixture has chilled long enough, prepare the ice cream according to the manufacturer's directions on your ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until it appears thick and taffy-like (I have the cuisinart ice cream machine and it usually takes about 20 minutes of churning to get to this point).
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Add the thick syrup, trying to add it in streams rather than thick blobs, if possible. Give it about 10-20 seconds to churn the ribbons of thick syrup in and then shut the machine off. Scoop the mixture into an air-tight and freezer-safe container and immediately seal it and place it in the freezer. Allow to freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.
Yum! This sounds delicious! The perfect Christmassy, winter ice cream. Great pics too……………….
Thank you so much Kate!!
This sounds amazing Eva. I really need that gelato/ice cream maker I have my eyes on.
You definitely should! I love mine, I only use it about 4x a year but when I do I am very happy I have it 🙂
Wow this sounds fantastic! Such a perfect flavor 🙂
Thank you so much my dear! 🙂
Oh baby, it is cold outside. But never to cold for this! And have fun with Sequoia. I find that just like kids-animals usually seem to work it out.
Awww thanks! Yeah so far they're getting along pretty good, definitely not play yet haha, but no fights so that's good 🙂
so yummy! also – not only does your food look delicious but your photography is stunning. i had to think for a moment whether to pin this to my "eat" board or my "photography" board on pinterest!
Thank you Yelle, that is so nice of you to say! I am so glad you're enjoying my photography 🙂
Oooh! This ice cream sounds amazing! I could totally get behind using that gingersnap honey mixture in a bunch of other things, too–I bet it would make some truly spectacular hot toddies.
Ohhh yes! I haven't made hot toddies yet this season and I reallllllly need to get on that. I'm actually going over to a friend's tonight, perhaps I'll bring the fixins' over to her place 🙂
As always, I am so in love with your work. Are you kidding me with the gingersnap honey swirl? It sounds incredible!!
Thanks so much lady!! I am so glad you're enjoying it 😀
Such a gorgeous ice cream! This looks SO yummy. 🙂
Awww thanks Sara! 🙂
great
Thank you!
Oh Yuuum! Probably a good thing I don't own a ice cream maker.
Haha yeah, the good thing is you have to freeze the bowl overnight beforehand, so you can't really do any "spur of the moment" crazy unhealthy ice cream mixes…although I have been wanting to make a homemade snickers ice cream for some time now…
Congrats on getting a dog, I keep wanting to get one again, but lots of traveling & dog doesn't really work together. If your's is partially beagle, you will want to train her seriously, but it will be lots of fun 🙂
Thanks for the tips, Gintare! Yeah she is already complete;y following her nose, as soon as she picks up a scent she's off like a bolt of lightening, even if that means the middle of the street. Thank goodness we keep her on the leash when we're walking her! 🙂
i meed a bowl of this please. congrats on the dog. I have a 8 months old shih tzu and as a first time pet owner, I will tell you that it was difficult for me but with time I have come to love her more than ever. http://www.foodpleasureandhealth.com/2013/11/life-lessons-with-bailey.html this is my recent post on Bailey. Feel free to email me if you want to chat, dont know how much I can help though 🙂
OMG, your dog is ADORABLE!! Jeremy's parents have a shih tzu mix named Buddy and he's the funniest dog, so full of personality and spunk, he loves to play. Yeah I felt that way too the first week, kind of pissy and irritated since she kept having accidents in the house and cried when we weren't petting her. But her separation anxiety has gotten so much better and so has her potty training, she learned pretty fast since she is an adult. But I feel you having a hard time with the first couple months, one of my best friends got a puppy this year and they said it was like raising an infant. Very demanding and tricky, since you have to teach them everything and puppies, like babies, love putting everything in their mouths. I am so happy things are going great with you two now, she really looks like a little love bug, so sweet and with such big brown eyes! My heart is melting just looking at them 🙂
This sounds so good! I'm pretty stoked that gingersnap liqueur is a thing 🙂 And how exciting that you have a dog! That's on my someday list, for sure. Since I'm not home during the week, a new puppy would put a big burden on the guy, you know? Also, our cat hates all other animals. So there's that. Good luck getting her trained! I'm sure it won't be easy, but it will be so worth it!
Haha, yeah our cat isn't loving her, but he's definitely tolerating her, so at least there's that. I'm hoping we can get past the "I'm just going to sit here and watch you suspiciously" stage and he'll actually start the feel comfortable around the dog, maybe even enough to play (although that may be a pipe dream). She's an adult doggie but looks like a puppy because of the chihuahua mixed in, we're doing okay with her now but I don't think we'd be faring so well if we got a puppy haha. As first-time dog owners we wanted to ease ourselves into it, I can only imagine how many "presents" a puppy would be leaving in our house 🙁 Luckily since she's an adult she's learned the potty training thing pretty quickly. And I'm obsessed with her beagle-jowles. So much fun to smoosh around her face! 😀
Looks Yummy and beautiful Eva!
Thank you so much Avital!!
Do you think I can use skim milk without it sacrificing flavor or texture? Also, I really can't have sugar, so what do you think would happen if I were to use maple sugar instead of brown sugar? I can't really have that either, but I don't react to it like I do simple sugars. Thanks Eva! kimberlee
Hi Kimberlee! I think it would still have a nice creamy as long as you still have the cream in there and use 2% milk. Maple sugar would taste *amazing* in here and would work fine as long as you incorporated it the same way as the brown sugar. Let me know how it comes out for you, I am really intrigued by the maple sugar idea and will try it that way next time if you like the way it comes out 🙂
I've been toying around with getting an ice cream maker for years. This sounds so stinking good!! love all the flavors going on here.
I definitely recommend it! They're so fun to have in the summer too when you can make sorbets, too. Pineapple is my favorite when it gets realllly hot 🙂
the texture looks amazing, eva! the spices and swirl are absolutely perfect.
Thank you so much Grace!! I really loved this one, so spiced and creamy 🙂
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Man, this is making me wonder why I never make ice cream once the weather turns cold. I am totally missing out on all those warming winter flavors. That boozy snap swirl…oh my goodness. (Have you been able to find the Art in the Age Sage liqueur? That's the one I really, really want to try, but I've had no luck finding it around here. I am overdue for a trip to the liquor store, though, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised the next time I pop in!)
And hurray for your new doggie! I was so curious how Gabel was taking to her (it can be kind of tough putting together two different animals, especially when they're both older). My good friend/co-worker Ryan rescued a pretty damaged terrier from a shelter several years ago, and has done an awesome job of rehabilitating him. And he had an adult female cat in the same house for the first year or so, and was able to make it work with the two of them. So if you ever have any specific questions, just let me know. I'd be happy to ask him. 🙂
Oh awesome, thanks Carey! I might just be reaching out to you about that. So far they're getting along okay, Gabel hisses when the dog gets too close so there hasn't been any fighting, I'm just hoping Gabel starts to feel comfortable around the dog, so far the dog respect's Gabel's space but now that she's getting to know Gabel better she's trying to get friendlier (i.e. go up and sniff him) and he's not having it. I know it will just take time, but a few tips about integrating cats and dogs in a household would definitely be helpful.
And I was just reading about that liquor on their site! So intriguing!!! I need to see if I can find it around here, there's SO many things that would taste good in. And the label design is so cool!!
Sounds and looks absolutely delicious!
Thank you Adam!!
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