I served a sweet potato pecan pie to finish off my Thanksgiving dinner this year. The fact that the pie was already composed of two already great pies was not enough and I tried to make dessert even better by topping it off with some ice cream. At first I was thinking just some simple vanilla ice cream would do and then I thought; Why stop there? I could make it a maple ice cream and it would be including some of the flavors from the pie that it would be topping. Thinking of working similar flavors into the ice cream my next thought was to add some pecans because nuts always go well in ice cream. I had finally arrived at a maple pecan ice cream which sounded really good.

There was just one last thing to add to the ice cream, a splash of bourbon. I like to add a touch of alcohol to my homemade ice creams as it helps to keep the ice cream from freezing into a solid brick. The consistency of the ice cream straight from the freezer is always nice with the alcohol and there is no need to wait for the ice cream to start to thaw out before eating it. Since I was also including a splash of bourbon in the pie it was the natural choice for the ice cream in this case.

For the base of the ice cream I used a pretty standard combo of milk, cream and eggs and the maple syrup provided all of the sweetness without the need for extra sugar. I toasted the pecans in some butter and brown sugar to 'candy' them before adding them to the ice cream. Other than candying the pecans this ice cream was a pretty standard ice cream and thus really easy to make. You pretty much just make the custard, chill it and then throw it into your ice cream maker. The maple pecan ice cream turned out so well! If you like maple then this ice cream will be the perfect treat! The maple flavor came through nice an strong and the candied pecans provided a great texture and flavor. One of the things that I liked most about the ice cream was that I could make it the day before and not add to the load on the day of the big meal. I will definitely be making this ice cream again and again.

Maple Pecan Ice Cream

(makes 4 servings)



Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a pan.
2. Add the pecans, toss to coat, sprinkle on the sugar and heat until the pecans are nice and toasted, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Remove the pecans from the heat and let cool completely.
4. Heat the maple syrup, cream and milk in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes.
5. Reduce the heat to low.
6. Temper the eggs and stir them into the cream.
7. Cook at low heat until it thickens and can coat the back of a spoon.
8. Remove from heat and stir in the bourbon.
9. You may want to strain the mixture at this point to remove any bits that may have formed while warming.
10. Chill the mixture in the fridge.
11. Freeze the maple custard and toasted pecans according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.

Although I tend to spend a long time thinking about and planning the side dishes for holiday dinners you just can't forget about the dessert! When I recently discovered the sweet potato casserole I was amazed at how well sweet potatoes work in sweet dessert like dishes and I have been wanting to try using them to make a sweet potato pie since. I was set to make a sweet potato pie for my Thanksgiving meal this year but just before I came across the concept of a sweet potato pecan pie which sounded so good that I had to quickly change my plans. A sweet potato pecan pie is essentially a pie with a layer of sweet potato pie topped with a layer of pecan pie. How can you go wrong rolling up two great pies into one? I just had to try it!

Most of the recipes that I found for sweet potato pies and pecan pies called for golden syrup but I decided to go with a maple twist and I used maple syrup instead. The pie was surprisingly easy to make; you simply mix the two different filling, pour them into the pie shell and bake. The sweet potato pecan pie turned out so amazingly well! The sweet potato pie filling spiked with pumpkin pie spices and bourbon with the hint of maple was so good! The maple pecan pie was of course just as good as the last time that I made it and it went really well with the sweet potato pie. This of one of those cases where the sum of the parts is better than the individual components. Even thought the sweet potato pie was really good by itself and the pecan pie was really good by itself, together they were even better! I could not stop there and I topped the sweet potato pecan pie off with some maple pecan ice cream with a hit of bourbon.

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

(makes 6+ servings)



Directions:
1. Place the pie crust into a pie plate.
2. Mix the sweet potatoes, eggs, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and bourbon in a large bowl and pour it into the pie crust.
3. Place the pecans on top of the sweet potato filling.
4. Mix the sugar, maple syrup, eggs, butter, vanilla and bourbon and pour it on top of the pecans.
5. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until the pastry id golden brown and the pecan layer is set, about 40-60 minutes.