Buttered Popcorn Ice Cream

This popcorn infused ice cream is sweet, buttery, and is  just as addictive as the stuff they serve up at the movie theaters.

Hot buttery popcorn  is my all time favorite snack food. Actually, sometimes it's my favorite dinner as well. A common conversation between my boyfriend and I goes something like this:

Him: What should we have for dinner?

Me: oooh lets just have popcorn

Him: no.

Me: why not?

Him: We can't just have popcorn for dinner every night. We have to eat real food

Me: It is real food. Its corn. But popped. So it's basically a big bowl of vegetables.

Him: Fine. You have popcorn, I'm going to make some pancakes.

So when I found a recipe for buttered popcorn ice cream I knew that my life would not be complete until in was in a bowl in front of me. Popcorn for dinner and then popcorn ice cream for dessert anyone?

 

I knew that I was going to change a few things in the recipe like the amount of sugar and the cream to whole milk ratio. But I was torn over what kind of popcorn to make the ice cream with. None of the recipes I found really stated whether it should be popcorn that you either oil or air popped and then add your own butter and salt. Or if it should be the microwave kind that has the butter flavoring oil added to it.

Instead of choosing one or the other I decided to play Test Kitchen and make the same recipe twice. Once with microwave popped popcorn which contains the butter flavoring and once with air popped popcorn coated with real butter instead.

Ice cream science lab! The first batch was made with two heaping cups of extra buttery flavor microwave popcorn.

 

And the second batch was made with this air popped popcorn and real butter and salt.

 

The popcorn gets heated up with the milk, cream, vanilla, and sugar and then is taken off the heat and left to infuse the flavors for 30 minutes.

 

Once milk has been infused with the popcorn flavor the popcorn is strained out and discarded and the milk is used to make a custard for the ice cream. At this point in time I began to realize that the popcorn infused milks were both tasting very similar. The microwave popcorn dyed the milk a yellowish colour so I added a tiny bit of yellow food colouring to the real butter popcorn milk so that there wouldn't be a colour difference when it came time to do the tastings

The both custards were chilled overnight in the fridge before being churned in my ice cream maker.

Wellington hung out with me during the ice cream churning because there was an tiny shoebox which was irresistibly calling to him to stuff himself inside it.  Plus there was a possibility that I'd drip some cream on the floor..

 

Making two batches meant that we had a lot of ice cream. But really it was for the greater good of science so that justifies it.

I scooped them the soft ice cream into separate containers and put it in the freezer to firm up before we had the taste test.

 

We spooned the ice cream into different bowls and tasted to see if one was clearly better than the other.

We were very diligent with the tasting.

 

Both batches of ice cream were sweet and buttery and the perfect consistency of creaminess without being too rich. It was actually pretty hard to tell the two batches apart.

In the end the ice cream made with the microwave popcorn had a slightly more distinctive popcorn flavor while the one made with real butter and air popped corn had a more subtle flavor. I think this is probably due to the fact that butter flavoring oil will taste the same when frozen while the butter in the other batch loses its flavor when it gets chilled.

 The final verdict: The ice cream is seriously delicious regardless of what kind of popcorn you make it with. However, if you want something that is identifiable as popcorn ice cream I'd go with the microwave popcorn. If you want ice cream that is buttery and sweet and subtle then make it with the air popped popcorn and real butter.

 

(Note:  Our vintage silver His and Hers ice cream spoons are from The WoodenHive on Etsy. )

 

Buttered Popcorn Ice Cream

Recipe Adapted from Almost Bourdain

2.5 cups whole milk

1.5 cups heavy cream (aka whipping cream)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1tsp Vanilla extract

2 heaping cups of buttered popcorn (your choice! Either microwave or air/stove popped tossed with butter and salt)

1. Combine milk, cream, 1/2 cup sugar , vanilla and the popcorn in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Heat until almost boiling and then remove from heat. Let rest for 30 minutes to infuse the popcorn flavor

2. Using a cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer strain out the popcorn and discard.

3. In a separate bowl whisk or use a mixer to beat the eggs and remaining /2 cup sugar until it reaches the ribbon stage

4. While still whisking/beating pour the warm milk into the eggs and beat until combine. Pour the egg milk mixture back into the clean pot and heat over medium until the mixture thickens while stirring constantly.

5. Chill custard in fridge with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. I like to chill mine over night. Then churn in an ice cream maker and either enjoy it as a soft serve ice cream right away or put it in your freezer to firm up and enjoy as scoops of ice cream.

Comments

[Chelsey V]

This looks awesome! Would you believe I haven't used my ice cream maker yet? I need to get on that homemade ice cream train.

[Danielle Wilson]

Yummeh!

[kristin]

If I could have popcorn for dinner every night, I'd be extremely happy! I had some kettle corn from the farmer's market a couple weeks ago, and I just can't get it off my mind! I need to learn how to make it or go buy some more. I'm going to have to test this recipe out. It looks and sounds delicious!

[Heather]

Sounds AMAZING! But we don't have an ice cream maker, any suggestions? Also, what is the ribbon stage? The link won't work!

[Michelle @ If Toys Could Talk]

I laughed out loud when I read the part about your boyfriend saying popcorn for dinner wasn't real food but pancakes were okay. Personally, I could eat either for dinner. I'm saving my "pancakes for dinner" card for when my kids are a little older and can really get a kick out of it.

The ice cream sounds awesome, by the way. And I pinned one of your photos to my Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/iftoyscouldtalk/.

[LunaCafe]

What a fun idea and it sounds delicious as well. I make a fresh corn ice cream that I love. Can't wait to try this popped corn version. ...Susan

[DK]

Oh that's awesome. Add this to my list of things to do, but with kettle corn because I am completely addicted to the stuff.

[Rigel_p]

Now that's dedication to popcorn. Looks so creamy and buttery. I bet it would be awesome with toasted peanuts on top too. Mmmmm!
P.S Wellington looks like he has a mustache in that photo :)

[my favorite and my best- MFAMB to you]

holy assnuts! i am so going to make this. i wonder if a stronger, euro frenchy butter would make it taste better.
also- i superlove wellington. my cat loves boxes that he can barely fit his fat, tabby ass into as well.

[Mary at n00bcakes]

WOW. That is totally awesome...especially because like you, I have a bad addiction to movie-style popcorn. I'm not sure I could eat it for dinner ("real" food often calls my name instead) but I would totally dig a taste of it in ice cream. Waaah...you and Jessica from Bake Me Away have me jonesing for an ice cream maker...I need to start pricing. >.>

[JenLynn]

So excited to try, I just ordered an ice maker attachment and am adding this recipe to my must try list.

[Ester]

Omg yum. My favorite Jelly Belly flavor is buttered popcorn, so I deff have to try this out!

[Kate]

Hey I really like your blog, I just went through all of the recipes and girl you are busy!
How are you doing university at the same time!
Relentless and Delicious!
Kate

[Tone Belsvik]

Pure genius! I'll definitely have to try this - I've had popcorn flavored ice cream exactly once in my life, in a small fishing village on the Amalfi coast, and have been pondering the experience since. Finally you've given me the excuse to buy an ic cream maker. Thank you! :-)

[Jo - Lost in the Haze]

mmm, that looks so delicious

x
www.lostinthehaze.com

[Joe Moose]

Wellington looks so cute and adorable!

[Patty]

Haha Wellington is like Puuuroduct placement lol! This reminds me of the Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly's jelly beans - which are my favorite!

[Amanda]

It likely also depends on what popcorn you eat more frequently. As you would like the taste of that better. But I'd agree with you in saying that butter tastes different from frozen.

To me, this actually doesn't sound appealing, though I love popcorn, but some days the smell of popcorn gags me and all I can think of is that gagging smell. I work around popcorn so this is likely why. Smelling popcorn at 10 in the morning is not always as pleasant as it sounds.

[Carolyn]

Hello,

I am doing an end of summer ice cream round up on my own blog, All Day I Dream About Food, and would love to include this recipe. I would use one of your images, and link back to you, but I wouldn't be posting the recipe directly. If you would like to be a part of it, please email me at carketch29 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Thanks,
Carolyn

[Mrs. Jen B]

You are a super genius and I am SO GLAD to have found your blog today. :) Here I am, thinking I'm clever for putting parmesan cheese on my popcorn. You're making ice cream out of it. I'm hanging my head in shame.

[Eggton]

I just stumbled here from Saveur and love what you're doing! I also just made buttered popcorn ice cream and blogged about it and the (hopefully) funny story of why we made it. I took the October 2011 bon appetit recipe and adapted that, and then used Almost Bourdain's caramel. Interesting the huge difference in eggs- I used 8 and he only uses 2. Check it out if you're looking for new food blogs to read? Take care. (www.eggton.com)

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[kay]

I just found your blog via stumbleupon a,nd I love yourblog and your writing style. Sorry bout bad punctuation etc, am on illiteratebipad. Bet your blog thinks this is spam. Love your kitty helping with the cooking :-D