Happy Friday! Woo-hoo! Not only is it practically June, with summer just around the corner, but there’s ice cream too! And not just any ordinary ice cream, no sir! Today we’re scooping into Malted Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzels. Yup, it tastes as fabulous as it sounds! I guarantee you are going to fall head over heels for it and the cookbook it’s from, Food 52 Ice cream and Friends: 60 Recipe and Riffs. Get out your cones and sprinkles, crank up your freezer and let’s get this Famous Fridays party started!

Guys, I’m so excited and not just about this ice cream and terrific cookbook—after a 2 month hiatus, Famous Fridays (aka FF) is back! If you’re new to the site, FF is a day I devote to a famous chef, cookbook, bakery etc.—someone who’s passionate about food, inspires me and often forces me to go beyond my foodie comfort level. I’ve got over 150 of them here on the blog—check them out when you get a chance and hopefully you’ll find some new ideas and inspiration too.

Speaking of new ideas and inspiration, I’m sure you all know and love Food 52 (seriously what did we do before that site?!!) and their compilation of frozen treats in the Ice Cream and Friends Cookbook does not disappoint! There are recipes for Two-Tone Fudge Pops, Chocolate-Hazelnut Baked Alaska, Lemony, Coconutty, Raspberry Ice Cream Sandwiches, Hot Honey Candied Walnut Ice Cream, Thai Tea Snow Cones and so much more. And all of the recipes are straight-forward and fairly simple, per the Food 52 way. Once you leaf through these happy pages, I just know you’re going to want to run to the kitchen and start “churning” them out! Lol!

Now who’s screaming for ice cream?!! Specifically, the malted vanilla chock full of homemade chocolate-covered pretzels kind?!! Okey-dokey, here we go—

Honestly, guys, this has become one of our favorites. The malt powder takes the vanilla to another level and the salty, chocolate-y crunch of the pretzels balances out the creamy sweetness.

Oh, and those chocolate-y pretzels? They’re a snap to make. All you do is melt dark chocolate, stir in a bit of butter and drop the pretzels in.

Once they’re nicely coated, you let them chill, chop ‘em up…

And pop a couple into your mouth—for taste-testing purposes, of course!

The custard for the ice cream comes together quickly and easily. Honestly, the hardest part is waiting for it to chill so you can churn it!

Which brings us to the subject of ice cream machines—I’ve said it many times before on here, but since it’s the start of a new ice cream season, I’ll say it again— I love, love, love making my own ice cream (and so does my crew) and I think everyone should own one. It’s rare that we buy ready-made frozen treats because the store-bought just can’t compare to homemade and you can make everything from splurgy ice creams to fairly healthy treats like sorbets and ices. Check it out here.

The machine I use is a DeLonghi—it's a self-freezing machine, which means you don't have to pre-chill the bowl. It’s a little bit pricey but you really don’t need to spend a fortune—lots of the lower priced models do a great job and if there was ever a summer to treat yourself, this is it!

Whew! Long post, so I’ll wrap it up quickly. Have a great weekend and enjoy something yummy (like this malted ice cream) with someone you love! Stay safe and I’ll be back next week with more as we head into June together!

Food 52 Ice Cream and Friends’ Malted Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

Makes a generous quart

You will need an ice cream maker for this.

Prep Time for pretzels”. 10 minutes, plus at least 30 minutes chilling time: Prep Time for Ice cream: 15 minutes, plus at least 8 hours to chill + churn time

Ingredients

For the chocolate-covered pretzels

• 8 ounces finely chopped dark chocolate

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 cup salted pretzel sticks, broken into small pieces (or just break up larger pretzels or if you are in a bind, skip this step and just buy a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and break them up a bit)

For the ice cream

• 1 ¾ cup heavy cream

• 1 ¼ cup whole milk

• ½ cup sugar, divided

• ⅓ cup light corn syrup

• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

• 6 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

• ⅔ cup malted milk powder (not ovaltine—I use the Carnation brand, sometimes it might be hard to find in stores, but you can order it online

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Recipe

1. To make the chocolate pretzels: Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax or parchment paper. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until smooth. (You could also do this on the stovetop). Stir in the butter until the mixture is smooth. Drop the pretzel pieces into the chocolate mixture and stir so that they all get coated with the chocolate. Use a fork to lift the pretzels out and drop them onto the lined baking sheet, so that they are a little bit spread apart. Chill the sheet in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then peel off pretzels and use right away or store in an airtight container at room temp for up to 1 week

2. To make the ice cream: Add the heavy cream, milk, ¼ cup of the sugar, the corn syrup and salt to a medium heavyweight saucepan and whisk together. Place over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer, then turn to low.

3. While milk mixture is heating, whisk the egg yolks with the malted milk powder and the remaining ¼ cup sugar. Place a strainer over a medium bowl and set aside. Fill a large bowl with some ice cubes and cold water and set aside.

4. When milk mixture is hot, add a ladleful to the egg yolk mixture to temper it, whisking constantly. Repeat two more times. Then pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the remaining milk mixture and whisk together well. Now use a heatproof spoon or spatula to constantly stir the mixture over low heat until it coats the back of the spoon and has thickened to a custardy texture. Remove from the heat and immediately pour through the strainer set over the bowl. This will catch any pieces of yolk that might have gotten scrambled. Stir in the vanilla and place the bowl into the bowl with the ice and water to allow it cool down quickly. Pour the mixture into an airtight container and store in the fridge for at least 8 hours and ideally, overnight.

5. Churn the chilled base in an ice cream maker following the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer container, fold in the chocolate covered pretzels and freeze.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Food 52 Ice Cream and Friends by the Editors of Food 52. I’ve made this with mini chocolate chips instead of pretzels and it was great too.