Carrot Cake Ice Cream

I did say that the next time I got carrots in my Boston Organics delivery I would make carrot cake ice cream, and I am a woman of my word. I basically followed David Lebovitz's recipe from the L.A. Times except I substituted raisins and rum for the currants and whiskey for the simple reason that I didn't have the latter two.

Carrot Cake Ice Cream (based on David Lebovitz's recipe here)
makes about 1 quart

For the rum-soaked raisins:

1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons rum

Combine the raisins and rum in a small bowl. Cover and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.

For the spiced pecans:

1 cup pecan halves
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350 °F. Toss the pecans with the butter.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar and salt. Pour the mixture over the pecans and toss to coat completely.

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and cook for 12 minutes, gently stirring halfway during baking to candy the nuts. Remove the tray to a rack and cool the nuts completely. Once cool, coarsely chop the pecans. Set aside.

For the candied carrots:

2 cups finely diced carrots
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 cups water

In a medium saucepan, combine the carrots, sugar, corn syrup and water. Bring to a low boil and cook until the syrup is reduced to about 2 tablespoons and the carrots are translucent and candied, 20 to 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the carrots during the last few minutes so they do not burn. Drain the carrots and set aside to cool.

For the ice cream base and assembly:

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sour cream (regular or low-fat)

2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon chopped lemon zest
Spiced pecans
Rum-soaked raisins
Candied carrots

In a large bowl using a hand mixer, blend together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and lemon zest until smooth. Chill thoroughly.

Freeze the base in an ice cream maker. After churning, gently fold in the spiced pecans, soaked raisins, and candied carrot cubes. Freeze until firm.

This was definitely one of the prettiest ice creams I've ever made. The candied carrots almost glowed like semi-precious gems studding the white canvas of the ice cream, and the matte brown of the spice pecans added a nice change up of texture. As for the taste, while it didn't taste exactly like a carrot cake, I did like how you couldn't taste the carrots. My favorite part was the spiced pecans, probably because of the butter and spices. If I made this again, I'd probably add some more of the spices to the ice cream base itself to make it more reminiscent of a carrot cake.