Caramel Butter Pecan Ice Cream (Recipe)

Caramel Butter Pecan ice cream is the leading favorite of both The Dearliest and Squeaky, and up until a year or so ago the Tillamook brand was the sole supplier of it. Then said the Dearliest in a deep and irritated voice, “In a move consistent with the decline of society and the advancing of evil everywhere, they discontinued it.”

Enter multiple attempts to recreate the flavor and perfect the ratio of the elements. Most recently I made it for Squeaky’s 12th birthday, and we all agreed “This is it!”

Or at the very least, close enough to write it down and stop tweaking.

Caramel Butter Pecan Ice Cream

1 (1.5 quart) carton quality vanilla ice cream
1 cup pecan halves
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
Caramel Flavored Topping of choice (we use Smucker's)

1) Pre-heat oven to 300 °F. Toss pecans with melted butter, then spread in an single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, or until lightly roasted. Cool and roughly chop or break apart by hand.

2) Soften ice cream enough to be workable, then transfer to a bowl. Stir in pecan pieces.

3) Return ice cream to container, drizzling a tablespoon or two of caramel sauce over a layer of ice cream as you go. Press down to compact as needed. Store any extra ice cream in an air-tight container, or eat!

For best results, freeze at least two hours before eating.

Notes: 
* If you stir the caramel sauce into the ice cream with the pecans like I did the first time, it will blend in and not present the lovely caramel ribbons. 

* How much caramel sauce you use is a matter of personal taste--I'm going to guess we used 6-8 Tablespoons total.

* You can use pecan pieces instead of halves, but stir them once during roasting and start checking for doneness after about 7 minutes. Mine ended up singed around the edges the first time!