Recipe courtesy of Gale Gand

Pear Crisp with Hand-Churned Vanilla Ice Cream

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  • Level: Intermediate
  • Total: 45 min
  • Prep: 15 min
  • Cook: 30 min
  • Yield: 6 servings
When I was a brownie in summer camp at Camp Sacajewea we would make hand cranked vanilla or peanut better ice cream on those hot August days, taking turns turning the crank. I can still remember the slightly icy quality of it. Maureen Shay's mother was my troop leader so I suspect she was the instigator of this long love affair I've been having with homemade ice cream. No fancy vanilla bean used here like in my normal ice creams. Vanilla extract is what the Brownies pantry stocked. My aunt Jimmy (her real name was Sylvia) brought apple crisp into the family's repertoire. In the recipe file her name adorns the top of the card. I, of course, needed to make it my own by using pears and making it a bit lighter and more flavorful with the apple juice concentrate.

Ingredients

Ice Cream:

Crisp:

Directions

Special equipment:
2-quart baking dish; old-fashioned hand-crank ice cream machine
  1. Ice Cream: Heat the milk and cream until scalded then turn off the heat. In a bowl whisk together the yolks and sugar; then temper the yolks with the hot cream mixture. Return to the heat and cook carefully stirring constantly until thickened and is 180 degrees F. Immediately pour the custard through a fine strainer into a bowl in an ice bath. Chill. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Turn in a hand crank ice cream machine with ice and rock or kosher salt and keep frozen.
  2. Make the Crisp: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  3. In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Using a pastry blender or the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, mix in the butter to make a crumbly, sandy mixture.
  4. Peel, core, and thickly slice the pears and put them in a deep, buttered 2-quart baking dish. (The pears should be at least 2 1/2 inches deep in the pan; add more if necessary.) Drizzle the apple juice concentrate over the fruit and sprinkle the topping over the pears. Bake for 30 minutes, until pears are tender and topping is lightly browned.