The subject line of an email to my husband read, “Make this for me.” The body of the email was blank, except for a link to an online recipe. Possessing a sweet tooth and being the thoughtful man that he is, my husband came home from work with a shopping bag filled with necessary ingredients. In our family, not only does he bring home the bacon, he makes the ice cream, too!
Almond Butter Crunch Ice Cream
The Noble Pig
INGREDIENTS
1 cup almond butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or regular vanilla
1 cup vanilla almond crunch granola (large almonds removed) or your favorite granola
DIRECTIONS
1. Add almond butter, sugar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Blend on medium speed for at least 5 minutes.
2. Add cream, milk and vanilla and mix another 2 minutes until fully incorporated.
3. Add cream mixture to the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Right before removing, add your favorite granola and let mix in. (If your granola has large chunks, just stir it in rather than pour into the ice cream maker while it’s running.)
4. Place into a container when it’s done and freeze for 3 hours in the freezer.
Makes 1¼ quarts
LINNELL’S NOTES
1. To me this had the saltiness of salted-caramel. Next time, I’ll ask my husband to cut back on the salt and we’ll see which version we like better.
2. I chopped up some toasted almonds that I had on hand and added it to the leftover granola. The additional nuts and granola made a great topping for this ice cream.
3. For those of you wondering if the granola remained crunchy, I can positively say it did–down to the very last spoonful!
Enjoy!
