100 Mile Dessert: Candied Walnut Maple Ice Cream

This is it, our first 100% local ice cream.� Sweetened with maple syrup and honey, it features local cream, milk, butter, and eggs (quite a few eggs it turns out).� The walnuts are farm-direct (back in May we visited�Grimo Nuts) from less than 100 miles away in the Niagara On The Lake area.� It is delicious too, which is important when eating ice cream!� This was also my first attempt at creating my own ice cream recipe and we were all pleased with the results.� Enjoy�

Candied Walnut Maple Ice Cream

• 2 � cups milk
• 2 � cups cream
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• � cup walnuts, chopped
• 3 Tbs. honey
• 1 Tbs. butter
• Dash of salt

Begin by heating the cream, milk and half the syrup to nearly a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low.� Whisk together the rest of the maple syrup with the eggs and yolks in a bowl.� Add a ladle of the hot mixture to the bowl and stir.� Add this mixture to the milk and cream on the stove and stir constantly while it slowly heats to 170* and it coats the back of a spoon.� At this point most custard recipes (which this is) tell you to strain the mixture but I almost never do this, unless I think there are some big chunks in the mixture. Transfer the custard to a bowl and cool in an ice bath.� Cover with plastic wrap that touches the custard and chill overnight (or until it has become cold).

To make the candied walnuts heat the butter in a pan with the honey, walnuts, and dash of salt.� Stir once a minute until the walnuts are coated and beginning to darken.� There is a fine line between crispy and burnt so it�s better safe than sorry�remove from heat when the liquid has evaporated/caramelized and allow them to cool.� (Test the walnuts when cool and if they aren�t crispy enough you can cook them a little more.)

Pour the chilled custard into your ice cream maker.� When the custard begins to thicken add the candied walnuts.� Transfer the finished ice cream to a container to put in the freezer for at least 2 hours before eating.

*It�s quite helpful to have a candy thermometer, but if you don�t just know that you don�t want to get close to boiling or strange things will happen with your eggs, like the time my mint chip ice cream was more like minty scrambled egg ice cream�.