What does this look like to you –

If you said chocolate chip ice cream, you’d be wrong.

If you said the inside of a cannolli, you’d be wrong.

If you said I don’t know, just tell me already, you’d be impatient.  Slow down man, we’re cool.

If you said delicious, delectable, strange but I can’t stop eating it, you’d be technically correct, though not quite giving me the answer I’m looking for.

Maple Pancake and Bacon Ice Cream?  Ding, ding, ding!

Omg, guys, omg.  This ice cream is like breakfast in a bowl, on steroids.  You can taste each component – pancakes, maple syrup, and bacon – individually but they also blend together perfectly.  The sweet and salty pops of candied bacon are so freaking good!  It might be the best ice cream I’ve ever had and that means a lot coming from the girl who ate about a million pints of Ben and Jerry’s last summer.

Maple Pancake and Bacon Ice Cream, yields 1 pint

• 5 slices turkey bacon
• 3 tsp brown sugar
• 5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 heaping Tbsp boxed pancake mix
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup skim milk

1. Preheat oven to 400*.  Fill a large bowl with ice and water and place a medium-sized, heat-safe bowl down inside the bath.
2. Lay bacon on a lightly sprayed baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle slices evenly with brown sugar and return to oven for 10 – 15 more minutes, until candied.  Watch the bacon carefully the last few minutes to ensure that the sugar does not burn.
3. Remove bacon from the oven and set aside.  Once cool, break into small pieces with your fingers.
4. Stir maple syrup and pancake mix into the egg yolks.
5. Bring heavy cream and skim milk to a light simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
6. Slowly stream half of the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture, whisking steadily to ensure that the eggs don’t cook.  Then carefully stream and whisk the yolks and cream mixture back into the cream still in the sauce pan on the stove.
7. Continue to cook the custard over medium-low heat until slightly thickened.  Take care that the mixture does not boil.
8. Pour custard into the bowl in the ice bath.  Stir until cooled.
9. Pour cooled custard into the bowl of your ice cream machine and freeze according to manufacture’s instructions.
10. Remove chilled ice cream and use a spatula to fold in candied bacon.  Freeze in an air-tight container for at least 2 hours before serving.

What is the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?