Best. Homemade. Ice. Cream. Ever. (just ask my husband)

Last weekend Matt bought me something I have been wanting for a very long time... an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer. (We love homemade ice cream in the Slaughter house.) I was so excited, and then... he says the words, "on one condition." Of course, he did.

And the "one condition" was ridiculous. He wanted me to make him praline ice cream with caramel 'ribbons' like he used to have at Baskin Robbins when he was a kid. What?! Impossible. I searched online for recipes, but came up with nothing, and I mean nothing! So... I did what anyone would do. I came up with my own recipe, piecing together aspects I like from several different places. Starting with the Pioneer Woman.

She has an AMAZING caramel recipe that you can find here.

And next, a praline recipe. I was looking for good, but simple and found it here.

As for the basic ice cream recipe, again, I wanted SIMPLE, and found a good one I've used before here.

Ok, prepare yourself because this next picture will take your breath away...

TAAA DAAA!!!

Y'all, I'm just gonna tell you the truth, it was sort of a pain to make, but I had one extremely happy husband. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. If you're a pralines and cream fan, it is worth the trouble. Wow.

Caramel Sauce

4 T butter

1 c brown sugar, packed

1/2 c half and half

pinch of salt

Mix butter, brown sugar, half and half, and salt in a saucepan over medium to low heat. Cook while whisking 5-7 minutes until thicker. Add vanilla and cook another minute to thicken further. Turn off heat and pour into jar or bowl and store in fridge or freezer until very cold.

Pralines

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, 2 c of white sugar, 1 c packed brown sugar, 3/4 c evaporated milk or half and half. Bring to boil, stirring only to prevent sticking. When mixture begins to boil, add 2 cups chopped pecans, 2 T butter, 1/4 t salt. When mixture reaches soft ball stage, or about 236 degrees, remove from heat and let stand 4 minutes. After the 4 minutes, stir in 2 t vanilla and begin beating with wooden spoon for about 2 minutes until mixture thickens. As soon as it thickens, spoon onto buttered foil or wax paper lined cooking sheet. Spread out as best you can... (you'll be breaking it apart later). Set in fridge to cool.

Ice cream

Whisk together 4 cups half and half, 1 can Eagle Brand,

and 2 t vanilla and add to ice cream mixer.

(Just FYI: if you have an easy, quick vanilla ice cream recipe

that is tried and true for you, that would work great, as well.)

Whew! Still with me?

When the ice cream is ALMOST ready, add in around 2 cups of the broken up pralines and let them mix in well. (After this, we put the whole thing in the freezer for about an hour, but that is only a suggestion.) Then for the 'ribbon' of caramel, I put the now cold and thick caramel into a Ziploc bag, cut a hole into one corner, and squeezed it in thick lines little by little into the ice cream, folding it in very gently so it would get it's 'ribbon' appearance. After that, I put the ice cream back into the freezer just to let the caramel freeze up a bit, and that's it... finally!

Don't let the steps intimidate you... Matt and I did this together and had a blast. AND I EXPECT him to COMMENT on this post and tell EVERYONE how WONDERFUL it was! Did ya' get that, Husband? It's my "one condition" if you ever want me to make this again! : )