Maple Butter Tart Ice Cream

To ring in the Canada Day long weekend, I decided to make a special Canada-inspired treat. My favourite dessert of all time is a warm, gooey butter tart topped with rich vanilla ice cream, so I decided to recreate it in ice cream form using all Canadian ingredients.

Luckily, I was just in Prince Edward County last weekend and stocked up on my favourite Waupoos Butter Tarts – they take pride in sourcing their ingredients locally (the dark maple syrup in the tarts comes from the farm across the street!) so I knew I was putting the very best into my ice cream. The only challenge was sacrificing some of my fresh butter tarts to go into the ice cream mixture, but I knew it was going towards a worthy cause.

I also used pure Canadian maple syrup from Quebec, picked up on a recent trip to Ottawa, Redpath Canadian sugar, and Natrel whole milk and 2% milk for my creamy base. My *only* concession was that I used vanilla from the Dominican Republic (picked up on a vacation a couple years ago), but Canada isn’t known for it’s vanilla, so I think this is a fair adjustment.

The one requirement for this recipe is an ice cream maker – I’m sure there are no-churn options available if you don’t have one, but it makes the process so incredibly easy that it’s worth investing in one. I found mine used on Kijiji for $10 and it works wonders! The only thing to remember is to keep the bowl attachment of your ice cream maker in the freezer, so that it’s ready to go when you’re ready to churn your ice cream. It needs to freeze for at least 8-10 hours before it’s ready, but I like to store mine in the freezer all the time so that it’s ready to go whenever I need an ice cream fix.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups whipping (35%) cream
• 1 1/2 cups 2% milk (you can sub in whatever milk you have in the fridge)
• 3 tablespoons Canadian maple syrup
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 butter tarts, chopped into bite-sized pieces

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine whipping cream, sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix until sugar has fully dissolved.
2. Remove frozen ice cream mixing bowl from freezer, add cream mixture from mixing bowl and churn for 20 minutes in ice cream maker, or until thoroughly frozen and creamy (a McDonald’s McFlurry is a good point of reference for consistency!)
3. Add in butter tart pieces and maple syrup, letting them swirl into mixture for about 45 seconds.
4. Serve immediately for soft-serve style, or place in the freezer in a freeze-proof container (plastic works best) for firmer results.