Cinnamon Toast Ice Cream

Don't mind me, I'm just a bite of delicious cinnamon toast ice cream.

Last weekend or maybe two weekends ago, I made Cinnamon Toast Ice Cream. I stumbled upon the recipe in Epicurious like a year ago and pasted the url to my "Tasks" list in gmail. Then a year later I made it, and friends, it was VERY TASTY. Or as the Quiznos say, it was "toasty."

What's great about the recipe is that it doesn't just have cinnamon toast IN it - the ice cream itself is flavored like cinnamon toast. I daresay I should have tried making it with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'm not sure it could have been any better.

Needless to say, since this has toast in it, it's an acceptable replacement for your daily breakfast. Bonus, you got your milk in there too. Great work!

Here is the recipe from Epicurious:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
• 5 slices firm white sandwich bread
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon molasses
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Special equipment: an instant-read thermometer; an ice cream maker

Bring milk and cinnamon sticks to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then remove from heat and let steep, covered, 30 minutes.

While milk steeps, put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Cut 3 slices of bread into 1/4-inch cubes and transfer to a bowl. Quarter remaining 2 slices and pulse in a food processor to make bread crumbs. Whisk together butter, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon in another bowl. Drizzle 3 tablespoons butter mixture over bread cubes and stir to lightly coat. Spread in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan. Add bread crumbes to remaining butter mixture and stir to evenly coat. Spread crumbs evenly in another shallow baking pan.

Bake bread cubes and crumbs, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until golden brown and crisp, about 25 minutes total. Cool in pans on racks, then transfer bread crumbs to a bowl.

Return milk to a boil, then pour over bread crumbs and let stand 10 minutes. Pour milk through a fine-mesh sieve into saucepan, pressing hard on solids, then discarding them.

Whisk together yolks, granulated sugar, molasses, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Return milk mixture to a boil and add half to yolk mixture in a slow stream, whisking until combined well. Add yolk mixture in a slow stream to milk in saucepan, whisking, then cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and thermometer registers 170-175 degrees F (do not let boil).

Remove from heat and immediately stir in cream, then pour custard through fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Quick-chill custard by setting bowl into a larger bowl of ice and cold water and stirring occasionally until cold, about 15 minutes. Freeze custard in ice cream maker until almost firm. Fold bread cubes into ice cream, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours.

Cooks' note: Though the toast is crunchiest the first 2 days after it's made, the ice cream keeps 1 week.

I'm a jar of ice cream.

And we are tiny bowls of melty ice cream!