Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondie Ice Cream

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I was going to make a loaded brownie ice cream until my son requested blondie ice cream. I decided, from this point forward, he is a genius and should be consulted on all further recipe development.

Both of my kid’s personalities were evident from the beginning. Stella was born a spitfire. Personality for days. I used to say she looked like she needed a scotch and a smoke…or that she was channeling Bette Davis. She was six months old. I saw her living a life dancing on table tops across Europe. I imagined getting periodic postcards from random foreign cities…you know the ones that say Brugge After Dark, Dalmatia after Dark and they’re black? She will try anything with confidence and verve and she exceeds expectations. Stella will eat anything I put in front of her. Raw, cooked, sweet, savory…she’s game. I recently asked her what she would want me to make when her college self comes home for a visit. She replied: I don’t know. Surprise me.

When Gavin was born, we instantly called him Winston…as in Winston Churchill. He was pensive and introspective, but equally happy and content. We all decided he was going to be a judge. To this day he sees the world as black and white. Right and wrong. Justice is important to him. He’s guarded with people and you have to earn  his trust. He’s constantly coming up with inventions, creating things, drafting flow charts for video games or trying to streamline something that I’m doing into fewer steps. He’s witty and quick with an incredibly dry sense of humor (the best kind). He approaches food in much the same way as he does people: with caution and specificity. When I asked him what he wanted his dinner to be on the night he returned from a week-long trip with his class, he replied: Spaghetti and meatballs, no salad and instead of that loaded brownie ice cream you were talking about, what about making blondie ice cream? 

Genius.

This blondie ice cream is rich, delicious and loaded. Everything an ice cream should be. Once you make it you’ll be asking yourself the same question I keep asking: why hasn’t this been done before?

Before We Get Started:

  • Make Ahead. Sometimes, you want to devote time to making something delicious. Other times, life is busy. For these latter times, make the blondies the day before. They don’t take long to put together or bake, but they need time to cool completely and then freeze into small bites. You could also make your ice cream base the day ahead and chill in the fridge until ready to make the actual blondie ice cream.
  • Salted Caramel. I included my recipe for salted caramel here, if you’re so incline to make it from scratch. If not, I highly recommend Fran’s caramel sauce or just pick up your favorite brand.
  • Ice Cream Technique. I include three different ways to make the ice cream below: one with an ice cream maker, one with an immersion blender and lastly, with a food processor. If you have other methods, please leave them in the notes below for others to follow.
  • Blondies. When you’re making the blondies for this ice cream, it’s best to undercook them a touch. You want them to be ooey gooey…they’ll taste better in the ice cream this way. If there are any hard parts around the edges, leave them out of the ice cream. Additionally, you’ll only use half of the blondies in the ice cream. Yay, more for snacking!
  • Milk. I have made ice cream with all cream and mostly cream. This one I did with half cream and half non-fat milk. It was so dang rich with the majority cream, that I decided to cut back and I’m glad I did. The result was just right.
  • Chill. When making the ice cream, have your ingredients very cold. If there is any time lapse between mixing the ice cream together and putting it in your ice cream maker, be sure to keep it in the fridge.
  • Credits. This blondie recipe was inspired by a Phyllis Grant (Dash & Bella) recipe + Martha Stewart. The ice cream recipe is adapted from Ben & Jerry’s. This latter ice cream cookbook is fantastic, if you’re in the market.

Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondie Ice Cream | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | Tips + instructions with or w/out an ice cream maker!

Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondie Ice Cream | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | Tips + instructions with or w/out an ice cream maker!

Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondie Ice Cream | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | Tips + instructions with or w/out an ice cream maker!

Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondie Ice Cream | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | tips + instruction with and w/out an ice cream maker! #icecream #blondies @displacedhousewife

salted caramel brown butter blondie ice cream

INGREDIENTS

For the Blondies

  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter (16 tablespoons)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh-brewed espresso or coffee (you could cut this back if you don’t like a coffee flavor in your sweets…I love it when chocolate is involved)
  • 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 Β½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar (can also use dark muscovado sugar)
  • ΒΌ cup granulated sugar
  • 3 teaspoons real vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 Β½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • Β½ cup caramel sauce (I like Fran’s) or you can make your own, recipe here
  • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt to sprinkle on top

For the Ice Cream

  • 2 large eggs
  • ΒΎ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Β½ cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1 Β½ cups milk (I used nonfat, you can use any fat percentage that you’d like)
  • 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

For the Blondies

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or spray a 8-inch square baking pan (you can also use a 8-inch springform) with nonstick.
  2. Put the two sticks of butter in a saucepan and melt. Once melted, crank up the heat to medium high. Stand by, stirring and watching. This isn’t the time to go and put your dry ingredients together. Once you start seeing golden bits settling at the bottom of the pot, take it off of the heat and pour into a medium, heat-safe bowl to cool a bit.
  3. Add the espresso to the browned butter and mix together.
  4. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl.
  5. Once the butter has cooled a bit, whisk in the sugars, vanilla and eggs.
  6. Pour the flour mixture into the brown butter mixture. Use as few strokes as possible to just combine. Add the chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed. Make sure there aren’t any pockets of flour…this is thick batter and they could hide in there.
  7. Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Gently smooth it out so that it’s even.
  8. Bake for about 30 minutes. I prefer them a bit under baked for this recipe. The blondies should have a slight tan around the edges with only a tiny jiggle in the center. Cook until the major jiggle wiggle is gone. These will be ooey gooey.
  9. Cool the blondies completely in the pan and then chop up half of the pan into very small, I’m talking 1 cm square, pieces.* You’ll like them in the ice cream better if they are smaller and there are more of them. Additionally, if there are any hard edges, don’t include them in the ice cream. You can snack on those now. Go ahead.
  10. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, sprinkle the blondie pieces on top. Then drizzle lightly with the caramel sauce and sprinkle with the sea salt flakes. Shove into the freezer until frozen solid. If you don’t have a large enough freezer to accommodate a full baking sheet, use dinner plates or something smaller that will fit.

*You will only need half of the blondies for the ice cream. You have my permission to eat one now while the rest freeze. 

For the Ice Cream

  1. While your blondie bites are chilling, put together your ice cream.
  2. Put the eggs into a blender and blend on medium until they are light and fluffy (you could also use a whisk to blend your ice cream). About 2-3 minutes.
  3. Slowly add the sugar and blend until well incorporated. About 1 minute.
  4. With the blender running add the cream, milk and vanilla. Blend for about 1 minute on medium.
  5. I’m going to give you three options for making the ice cream…

Option 1: Ice Cream Maker

I have a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker that makes 1.5 QTS at a time. I split the ice cream base in half and do it it two batches. Otherwise, my maker overflows a bit.

  1. I put half of the ice cream mixture in my maker (see note above) and then run it for about 15-20 minutes. When it starts to firm up, I add in the frozen caramel-covered blondie bites and let the machine run to distribute them evenly through the mixture.
  2. Put the blondie ice cream in a sealed container in the freezer for at least an hour before serving.
  3. I have two ice cream-maker bowls to freeze, so this is easy for me to split it up. If you only have one base, make sure you re-freeze the ice cream bowl for a full 24-hours before making the second batch.

Option 2: Immersion Blender

  1. Put the ice cream mixture in a tall, narrow container with a lid. Cover and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, use your immersion blender to break up the ice crystals that are forming and place back in the freezer. Repeat this process, every 30-40 minutes, over the next 4-5 hours until the mixture is frozen and creamy. Boom. Done.

Option 3: Food Processor

  1. Put your ice cream base in a resealable, freezer-safe plastic bag and seal tightly (maybe double bag?). Place in the freezer until it is frozen solid.
  2. Let the frozen ice cream soften a touch and then put it in your food processor. Pulse until the mixture is nice and creamy. Place in a covered container and freeze until ready to eat.

{ on my mind }

  • If you missed me making Raspberry Scones on the FeedFeed, you can watch the video here.
  • I have two exciting things come up. First, I’m doing a giveaway with Teri from @nocrumbsleft. She has loads of healthy + Whole30 recipes. You should really follow her. Really. We’re giving away a beautiful Lagostina copper saucepan over Father’s Day weekend. Follow both of us on Instagram (@displacedhousewife @nocrumbsleft) for more information and I’ll also be posting info on the blog as well. Over that weekend I will post recipes using the saucepan…think stuff using brown butter, chocolate sauces, caramel sauce…and some pastry treats have been haunting me for weeks.
  • The other exciting thing coming up is another FeedFeed Snap Takeover! It’s towards the end of the month…stay tuned for details…I’m going to make the Holy Shit S’more Cookie. A summer classic.
  • I have some real yummy stuff coming up…next is my fridge pizza…which sounds disgusting and I would love it if you could help me come up with a better name? Here’s what happens…you mix up your pizza dough by hand, no special ingredients or equipment. Then you shove it in the fridge, tightly wrapped for three days. Pull it out of the fridge, let it come to room temp, divide into six pizza dough balls, let rise for a couple-three hours and voile. Easy mid-week pizza. Whatcha think? I love it. We’ve been doing it all year and I want to share. But…name please? Fridge Pizza sounds foul. Ayudame.
  • Be sure to use #displacedhousewife and tag me @displacedhousewife when you make a DisplacedHousewife recipe so that I can see all of your beautiful stuff.
  • I think that’s it for now. I hope you all are having a wonderful week. Peace.

Rebecca xo


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Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondie Ice Cream | Recipe via DisplacedHousewife | Tips + instructions with or w/out an ice cream maker!


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Leave a Comment & Rate this Recipe

I love your comments, reviews and questions! If you love this recipe, please rate it when you leave a comment. Star ratings 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 help people discover my recipes. Your support means a lot, I look forward to chatting with you!

Rebecca xox

11 Comments

  • Hayley Alderman January 29, 2019 at 7:54 PM

    Made this ice cream this past weekend for a dinner get together. It was freaking scrumptious! The four of us polished off the whole tub throughout the course of the night. ❀ ❀

    While it was a bit time consuming to make, it was still very easy to do and well worth it! More ice cream recipes, please!

    Reply
  • Mary Ann | The Beach House Kitchen June 8, 2016 at 10:05 PM

    I agree. Gavin is a genius! Lovin’ this flavor Rebecca and can’t wait to try! Love your descriptions of your children!

    Reply
  • Amisha June 8, 2016 at 10:00 PM

    Ok, I simply love this recipe!!! I love the idea of blondies with caramel sauce in an ice cream! My husband would go bananas for this one , as would my kids! Loved reading about your kids personalities! So unique and its always fun reading about kids… and as parents we are always so proud of them! its too cute!

    Lovely pics Rebecca!

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife June 8, 2016 at 10:07 PM

      I love my little people, thank you for the kind words Amisha!! xoxo

      Reply
  • Frank June 8, 2016 at 7:08 PM

    This looks great! I cant wait to try the recipe, have a nice day. :)

    Reply
  • Laura | Tutti Dolci June 8, 2016 at 6:59 PM

    Oh em gee! I have ice cream on the brain and was just plotting what flavor to make next. This is everything! I’ll take two scoops, please ;).

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife June 8, 2016 at 7:02 PM

      I mean seriously, I couldn’t be more excited with it!!! Thanks Laura!! xox

      Reply
  • heather (delicious not gorgeous) June 8, 2016 at 6:47 PM

    you should keep your son around; he sounds smart (; it has all the makings of a sundae, but all in one! i tend to go on kitchen binges, and this sounds perfect for a day when i want to make something pretty time-intensive, and then perfect to eat when i want nothing to do with the kitchen.

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife June 8, 2016 at 7:00 PM

      I couldn’t agree more!! Like I said…genius!! I hope you make it Heather!! I’m so excited we have some in the freezer as I type this!! xoxo

      Reply