We were at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen the other day, and before our meal that brought out the most heavenly homemade croissants drizzled with honey butter. They were, in a word, delicious! After basically inhaling them, we decided we needed to order some more to take home, to turn into ice cream, of course.
We infused the base with the croissants (drizzled with a little bit of honey butter). We took the remaining croissants, broke them into small pieces, and tossed them in melted butter and sugar to toast them in the oven until nice and crispy. Finally, we just mixed some butter and honey together to create a sweet and smooth honey butter swirl. The result, an amazing ice cream that tastes just like our fabulous restaurant experience!
Honey Butter Croissant
This one is the bees knees!
Ingredients
- Croissant Base
3 croissants (drizzled with some honey butter if desired)
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 cups sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup dry milk powder
- Toasted Croissant Chunks
1 croissant (broken up into small pieces)
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbs sugar
- Honey Butter Swirl
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbs butter
Directions
- Add the cream, milk, and sugar to a medium sized sauce pan. Place on the burner over medium heat.
- Once it is steaming, break the croissants in half and add them to the liquid. Cook, stirring constantly, for 20 minutes.
- Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature and strain. Discard the soggy croissant pieces.
- Mix together the egg yolks, powdered milk, and infused cream/sugar mixture. Make sure to mix thoroughly! Don’t want any sugar or egg clumps left behind!
- Heat on medium low heat until it reaches 162, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom with a spatula to avoid cooking the eggs. No need to reduce afterward.
- Add base to a plastic gallon bag, and put in a prepared ice bath until cooled (about 15-20 minutes).
- Make in your ice cream maker based on the maker’s instructions.
- During the last 5-10 minutes in the machine, when the ice cream is about the texture of soft serve, add in your toasted croissant pieces.
- When ready to remove, add a layer of the ice cream to your ice cream container. Top with honey butter swirl. Repeat layers until all of your ice cream is in the container.
- Move to the freezer until hardened (about 4 hours).
- Toasted Croissant Pieces
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Break your croissant into small pieces and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter and sugar together in the microwave. Pour the melted butter and sugar over the croissant pieces. Stir to make sure they are all thoroughly coated.
- Bake the crumbs for about 5-10 minutes, stirring halfway through. Keep a close eye! You’ll want to make sure that your croissant pieces will brown a little bit and crisp up, but you don’t want them to burn!
- Allow the pieces to cool before you add them to your ice cream!
- Honey Butter Swirl
- Add the honey and butter together in a microwave safe dish.
- Microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, just until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool a bit before you layer it in your ice cream.
