Family and Labor Day! Because our usual Labor Day Holiday plans for next weekend have been hijacked by The Covid, let’s go back in time to share some of some cherished traditions of the holiday weekend!
One of our family traditions was making homemade ice cream. But not just any ice cream. Personally, I like ANY homemade flavor ice cream, but the following recipe has a unique back story. My great-grandmother Beulah Kincaid was a great cook (of course I’m biased!). One day, she happened upon a unique flavor of ice cream while dining at the Pine Mountain State Park Lodge near her home in Harrogate/Cumberland Gap TN. So enthralled and delighted by the flavor, she asked for the recipe. Perhaps because the cooks knew they had something special, they were reluctant to part with the secret! Also, perhaps, they didn’t know my great-grandmother, who we sometimes referred to as the Iron Fist in the velvet glove! They would get to know her full and well. Life lesson: persistence pays off.
Apparently, this delectable treat was called Burnt Sugar Ice Cream and the name has stuck with our family as the recipe has been handed down through the generations. Good news! You won’t need to worry me to death about the details, I’m glad to share our family tradition below. Although fair warning to all ye who enter this kitchen, the recipe could potentially dirty every pot you own!
There are 2 keys to make Burnt Sugar ice cream to perfection: gradually melting the brown sugar (I prefer a cast iron skillet) and keeping it in syrup form when adding water, plus the wrist-aching, carpel-tunnel syndrome-inducing constant whisking of the custard. Why go to the effort? Because the custard gives it a smoothness and mouth-feel that heavy cream alone cannot provide!
Before the invention of the electric churn, it was a sentence of hard labor for the kiddos as we took turns hand-cranking the ice cream. We might have whined about it, but we knew the payoff! I make this ice cream every year to honor the memory of my great-grandmother Kincaid and her love of cooking and caring for her family! The recipe is below, and feel free to ask any questions, and please share your memories of family and the Labor Day cooking and cook outs! Thanks again for liking, commenting and sharing this post!
Ingredients:
6 cups whole milk
¾ cup sugar
½ cup white flour
5 eggs
Pinch of salt
1 ½ boxes of light brown sugar
7 cups whipping cream
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Step one: whisk/beat the eggs, add the whole milk, sugar and a pinch of salt…make the custard over low heat slowing adding in the flour. It will take awhile and you can move the heat up a little if you are stirring constantly. You’ll know you’re done when it thickens a bit and it coats well a dinner spoon. Let cool and add the sweetened condensed milk.
Step two: Burn the brown sugar. Ok, it’s a misnomer, just melt it down preferably in an iron skillet and stir until all melted…very slowly add a cup of boiling water to make syrup. Strain it into another bowl and then add the whipping cream and vanilla extract. You may mix them all together once cooled off and into the ice cream maker you go! Enjoy!