Sweet Melissa Sundays: Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream with Brownie Chunks

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick is Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream, chosen by Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More. I was also supposed to make chocolate or butterscotch sauce, but completely forgot. Oops! Instead, I chopped up a couple of Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies from this week's upcoming Tuesdays With Dorie assignment, and happily added them to the just-made ice cream before storing it in the freezer to firm up.

I can be a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to my groceries. I've never bought a vanilla bean in my life (please don't yell at me!), and even though this recipe did call for one, I used my pure vanilla extract instead.

The recipe also called for skim milk powder, which I also skipped - I'm way too cheap to buy a big, expensive box of milk powder when this recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of it.

Other than that, the rest of the ingredients were typical baking staples: eggs, milk, cream.

Despite my frugal adaptations, this ice cream turned out beautifully. Melissa Murphy (the author of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book) promised that the skim milk powder would yield an extra-smooth and creamy ice cream, but my powder-free version was very creamy - it tasted sinful enough as it was. However, if I do ever find that I need to buy skim milk powder, I'll be sure to give it a try in this recipe.

In fact, I think this could become my staple vanilla ice cream recipe. The brown sugar added sweetness and depth of flavour, and the brown sugar-vanilla combination could be complementary to so many add-ins. Beyond brownies, I'm thinking chocolate bars, skor bits, or chopped m&ms. Yum.

Thank you, Karen, for your excellent choice! It's always fun to break out the ice cream maker. Visit Karen's blog for the recipe for the ice cream, as well as for the hot fudge sauce which I forgot to make.