Kitchen Experiment: Speculoos-Stroopwafel- Butter Fudge Ice Cream

Sweet, creamy speculoos ice cream studded  with stroopwafel bits and butter fudge, made by me!

Or let's just call this ice cream "The Flying Dutchman" since all three (the speculoos cookie butter, the stroopwafel and the butter fudge) are  from Holland.

This is how it all began: I was cooped up at home for nearly  a week, sick with cough, allergies and colds. One night,  I went crazy (bored) and woke up at 3 AM with only one goal: must.make.icecream.

Speculoos and Stroopwafel  and Butter Fudge?Why the weird flavors ? No, I wasn't really trying to jump into the Speculoos craze  by  attempting to make  its ice  cream  version. In fact I was bent on making vanilla bean ice cream but a further check of our pantry led me to discover these  opened packages:

From Left: Speculaas Spice Mix bought from Holland, the remains of  a pack of Stroopwafels given by my Holland-based BFF, a half full jar of Lotus Speculoos Choco Spread,  and  the remains of a Butter Fudge pasalubong from another Holland-based friend.

A quick google for a Speculoos Ice Cream Recipe led me to this Serious Eats Recipe for Speculoos-Stroopwafel Ice Cream. And because I am loony  and bored, I went ahead ,  tweaking the recipe ever so slightly by subbing  Butter Fudge bits for some of the crushed stroopwafels and adding about a teaspoonful of  Speculaas spice mix to amp up the  spiced cinnamon flavor . It  was pretty ambitious(and  crazy), considering that  this was  my  first time to  make  ice cream!

I will not post the whole recipe  here since I followed  in the Serious Eats recipe, but here are the critical steps and time frames  you need to keep  in mind  if and when you decide to  make ice cream .  Consider this a beginner's tip to her fellow ice cream making beginners (does that even make sense? haha):

1. My ice cream maker is the freezer bowl type.  The kind with a bowl that must be placed in the freezer at least 24 hours before using the ice cream maker.  Do not forget to  freeze the bowl  at least a day  before you plan to serve your ice  cream.

   Making some ice cream using my  basic 2 quart Cuisinart Pure Indulgence ICE Model.

2. Most ice creams use a custard base. The steps in making the custard is usually composed of emulsifying the eggs with cream and sugar at low heat then chilling the custard for at least eight hours. That means that one can place the ice cream bowl in the freezer a day ahead, make and chill the custard base at night and churn the ice cream the next day. 

3. I churned my ice cream for only 20 minutes because I wanted the slightly melty, denser feel that I have associated with Italian gelato but if one wants an ice cream  with more air and with an icier mouth feel, you can leave your ice cream in the ice cream maker longer ( from 25 to 40 minutes). 

So how was my  first homemade  ice cream? It was surprisingly good! Very  rich and creamy! Though I must admit I only tried a few spoonfuls because of my  cough and colds.  I asked my mother and cousin how it was, and they both said that the ice cream base was spot on with the speculoos flavor and because I purposely made the ice cream with less sugar, the bits of stroopwafel and butter fudge provided that zips of extra sweetness to the spiced speculoos ice cream.

 Yehey! Really satisfied with the results of this  ice cream making adventure. It feels great  to  be able to  finally make  these stuff  ( such  ice cream,  breads) from scratch. Homemade definitely beats store-bought!  But more importantly,  it's super fulfilling to have my  family savor  the  goodies  from  my  kitchen adventures  (whether  they like  it  or not haha!).

P.S.In case you are not familiar with them, here are  brief descriptions of the Dutch Goodies which inspired my "Flying Dutchman"  Ice Cream:

Speculoos Spread: also known as Cookie Butter. Speculoos  is a spread made from crushed Speculoos biscuits. It has a burnt butter, cinnamon spiced flavor that bodes well with a cup of tea or coffee.

Stroopwafel: Also known as caramel or syrup waffles,these are thin layers of crisp wafer-like disks with a caramel syrup in the middle.

Butter Fudge: This is a traditional fudge made only with butter, sugar, milk and sometimes vanilla.