Speculoos Cookie Butter Ice Cream

Trader Joe's has this amazing stuff called Cookie Butter. It is made of Speculoos cookies, a spiced shortcrust biscuit type cookie that is popular in the Netherlands around Christmas time. Trader Joes is genius for taking these cookies and grinding them up to make this delicious cookie butter.  It is unlike anything I have ever tried before. If you have a Trader Joe's near you, I highly recommend you pick up some of this heavenly butter. Don't have a Trader Joes near you? No problem because you can buy it on Amazon too!

To make the cookie butter ice cream you will need:
*Makes 1.5 quarts of ice cream

- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 2/3 cup cookie butter

First you start by making your ice cream base. I like to infuse the vanilla bean into the cream and milk to give it a great depth of flavor. Start by putting the whole vanilla bean, cream and milk into a saucepan over medium heat. Once the cream starts to simmer, place the lid on the saucepan and take it off the heat. Let this sit for about 30 minutes.

Once the cream has been infused you can take out the vanilla bean and save it for future use. Return the saucepan to the stove over medium high heat. While this is heating up you can separate your eggs and add the sugar to the egg yolks. Whisk these together until the mixture is light yellow and smooth.

Once your cream reaches a bare simmer it is time to slowly add it to the egg yolks. This is the tricky part because you don't want the hot cream to cook the eggs. So you will add the cream to the yolk and sugar mixture 1/2 cup at a time while whisking quickly so that the yolks don't start to cook. Keep whisking and adding the cream slowly until half of the cream has been added to the yolks.

You can now return all of the ingredients to the saucepan and place over medium low heat. Stir this mixture until it starts to thicken a little and coats the back of a wooden spoon.

You will then want to place the 2/3 cup of cookie butter into a large, clean and heat proof bowl. Strain the cream mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the bowl with the cookie butter. Slowly stir the two together. The hot cream should melt the cookie butter and slowly your ice cream base will turn a beautiful creamy cookie color.

Once the cookie butter is melted and combined with the cream you can place the bowl over ice and stir the mixture every few minutes until the base reaches room temperature. This will usually take about 10-15 minutes. Then you can cover your base and place it in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight. This will help infuse some of that great cookie butter flavor into the cream. Once the base is nice and chilled you can freeze it per the ice cream maker's instructions.

For a firmer ice cream you can place it back in the freezer for a few hours, or enjoy right away for a soft serve ice cream. This is definitely one of my favorite ice cream flavors and it is perfect for the fall and winter seasons too! 

This was also the perfect ice cream for ice cream sandwiches!! Enjoy!

Peace.Love.Lauryn