Chocolate ice cream with candied bacon bits (and no ice cream maker)

Chocolate ice cream with candied bacon bits

Believe it or not, this is my 200th post. Yowza.

That's 200 things I've cooked and shared with you ... at least 200 photos -- not all good, but still ... and 200 (well, probably 5000) smart-assed comments about food -- not all good, but still.

So what better way to celebrate than with ice cream? With candied bacon in it.

Yes, my friends, candied bacon. As if bacon alone wasn't enough.

(I think Job 1 this weekend is to re-make the bacon oatmeal cookies with candied bacon, don't you agree?)

Before we get too far down the candied bacon road, let me emphasize that this post is really about making ice cream without an ice cream machine. Really, it is.

For a while now, I've been debating about whether or not I need an ice cream maker. On the pro side: ice cream -- yummy goodness. On the con side: ice cream -- yummy fatness. We don't really need a whole lot more yummy fatness around here.

I am torn.

Should I decide in favor of ice cream, my choices for making it are to get the attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer or buy a standalone machine.

That is, until Three Clever Sisters posted a link to this video about how to make ice cream without another unitasking gadget; this recipe simply requires your existing food processor.

So, here's how my thinking went after that:

1. If I'm going to try making ice cream, it should be a good one, one we'd really like to eat, rather than experimenting with boring old vanilla or something.
2. Why not try the yummy salted caramel gelato recipe that my best bud and I made for her supper club last January?
3. Hmmmm. Why not pick a recipe with less cooking and disaster potential involved?
4. (Insert lazy factor and Google search here.)
5. Oh hello -- a no-cook recipe for chocolate-bacon ice cream.

You see what a slippery slope it was.

But now we've got good news and bad news. And some more good news.

• Good news: The candied bacon is simple and amazing. Seriously, it's bacon candy. I can see this making its way into a variety of baked goods in the future.
• More good news: The food processor technique really works!
• Bad news: The base chocolate ice cream recipe I used was not that great. It wasn't really creamy enough to call ice cream, and I blame the yogurt (since I used whole milk as well). 

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you how to make candied bacon and how to make ice cream in your food processor. Then you can choose your own ice cream recipe, throw some bacon in and give it a whirl (pun intended). Or you can modify the aforementioned Cake Spy chocolate ice cream recipe.

But do report back your results, please. At that point, I should have a whole larder full of candied bacon waiting to be mixed into something.

Candied Bacon:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lay bacon slices on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed lightly with non-stick spray. Cover each slice with 1 tablespoon of light brown sugar.

Bake for about 7 minutes. Turn each slice over (they will be swimming in bacony-sugary goodness) and bake for another 7 minutes or until the bacon looks crisp and the sugar is all carmelly.

Cool completely on a wire rack and crumble.

No-Ice-Cream-Maker Ice Cream:
Prepare a regular ice cream recipe as usual. Pour the mixture into a gallon-sized zipper freezer bag and remove as much air as you can. Lay the bag flat on a rimmed baking sheet and freeze (mine took about 3-4 hours).

Once frozen, break the frozen mass into pieces and cram them into your food processor.

Process until smooth and creamy (this took about 10 minutes for me). Stir in candied bacon or any other mixins. Transfer to a container and refreeze.

Eat and enjoy, friends. Eat and enjoy.