Tag Archives: Bourbon

Smoked Bourbon Ice Cream

I’ve got a great idea! Smoked ice cream! I know what you’re thinking, “puddles of sooty cream in the bottom of my smoker…great idea…”, but hear me out. It’s amazingly delicious!

When making ice cream, I prefer to use the custard method, it’s smoother and creamier and best of all, it can even be made without an ice cream maker. The custard method lends better to freezing without the constant churning of an ice cream maker. The basic idea is to warm a mixture of egg yolks, sugar and heavy cream to a temperature of 170°F and then slowly cool the mixture, stirring when possible, until frozen.

Now the trouble is: how to get the smoke into this frozen treat? Can’t very well smoke a tub of Ben & Jerry’s now can you? So instead we have to smoke part of the custard base. Since we want a hint of smokiness in the ice cream we’re not going to smoke the whole shebang. Instead let’s just smoke some of the cream.

Cold Smoke Attachment

It is important that the cream stay cold while being smoked, so clearly cold-smoking is the route to go and on top of that we need to keep the cream in an ice bath. Just as you shouldn’t leave a litre of cream out on the counter, you shouldn’t leave it in your smoker at ambient temperature.

Once you’ve got your cream smoked and cooled then channel your inner alchemist and make the right blend of fresh cream and smoked cream to your taste. In my experimentations, I’ve used anywhere from 15% to 40% smoked cream. The amount of smoked cream that I choose to use depends on the flavour I’m making. If I’m making something more on the delicate side than I use less smoked cream than if I were to make something with a stronger flavour like coffee or chocolate.

When adding flavours the possibilities are endless, just keep in mind that you don’t want to add too much liquid to the custard or else it will freeze into ice crystals. Some of my favourite flavours to add to smoked ice cream are:
– caramel
– dark chocolate
– spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves & ginger (think a smoky gingerbread cookie)
– espresso
– maple
– whiskey or bourbon (remember that alcohol doesn’t freeze like water, so you can be a little more generous)

Here’s one of my biggest hits so far:

Smoked Bourbon Ice Cream

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
  • 8 egg yolks
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • 2 Tbsp bourbon
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Setup Smoker and Cold smoke ¾ cup of heavy cream with Hickory Bisquettes for 1.5 hours. Smoke the cream in a disposable aluminum baking pan placed inside of a larger baking pan filled with ice to keep the cream at a cool safe temperature
  2. Remove cream from smoker and allow to cool in a sealed container in the fridge
  3. Combine smoked cream with fresh cream to taste until you have 2 cups of cream (I ended up using ¾ cup smoked cream and 1 ¼ cups fresh cream for this recipe)
  4. Whisk yolks and sugar together in a saucepan then add cream and milk and combine
  5. Heat on low-medium until the custard reaches 170°F, stirring frequently
  1. Remove from heat, stir in bourbon, vanilla & salt
  2. Strain custard and refrigerate covered until temperature is lower than 45°F, preferably overnight
  3. Add custard to your ice cream maker (follow your ice cream maker’s instructions!)
  4. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can simply place the cold custard into a container in the freezer and stir vigorously every 30-60 minutes to get a similar consistency

Compliments of Bradley Smoker North America

Smoked Maple Bourbon Wings

Ingredients

  • 2 Lbs. chicken wings

Sauce:

  • 1 Tbsp Butter
  • 2 Tbsp grated or finely minced Onions
  • ½ cup Bourbon Whiskey
  • ¾ cup Maple Syrup
  • 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 2 Sprigs fresh Rosemary
  • ¼ tsp Salt
  • ¼ tsp Black Pepper

Directions

  1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat.
  2. Add the onions and cook until translucent.
  3. Add remaining ingredients for sauce.
  4. Simmer until thickened, 5-10 minutes, and remove from heat.
  5. Preheat Smoker to 121°C (250°F) with Maple Flavour Bisquettes.
  6. Toss wings with half of the glaze and place on an aluminium baking sheet.
  7. Smoke until an internal temperature of 73°C (165°F) is reached, about 2 hours.
  8. Remove from smoker and toss in remaining glaze.

Recipe by: Lena Clayton

Peaches smoked with Brown Sugar and Bourbon

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

  • 6 Large Peaches cut in half and pitted
  • 1 cup Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
  • 1 cup good Bourbon

Directions

  1. Put the peach halves on an oiled smoker rack.
  2. Into the pit hole, put some of the brown sugar and some of the bourbon.
  3. Continue until all the peach halves are filled with sugar and bourbon.
  4. Some at 93°C (200°F) for 2 hours with Apple Bisquettes.

 

Recipe compliments of Bradley Smokers

Smoked Lamb Shanks with Bourbon Onion Coulée

INGREDIENTS

10 to 12 lamb shanks

MARINADE

  • 120 ml (½ Cup) Bourbon Whiskey
  • 420 ml (1 ¾ Cups) Red Wine
  • 1 Tbsp minced Garlic
  • 2 Tbsp dry Rosemary or a sprig of fresh Rosemary chopped
  • 2 Tbsp coarsely ground Black Pepper
  • 2 Tbsp Salt

BOURBON ONION COULEE

  • 6 large Onions sliced
  • 60 ml ( ¼ Cup) Olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp Black Pepper
  • 120 ml ( ½ Cup) Bourbon Whiskey

PREPARATION

  1. In a bowl mix together marinade ingredients.
  2. Place lamb shanks in a casserole dish and pour marinade over lamb shanks.
  3. Cover and turning occasionally refrigerate for 24 hours.
  4. Remove lamb shanks from marinade and place on oiled smoker racks.

SMOKING METHOD

Preheat the Bradley Smoker to 110°C (225°F).

Using Maple or Hickory Flavour Bisquettes smoke/cook for approximately 4 hours depending upon outside weather conditions and temperature. Aim for an Internal temperature of 185-190°F (85-87.7°C).

The shanks should fall apart with just a fork.

BOURBON ONION COULÉE

In a small saucepan with olive oil, salt and pepper, sauté onions on a stove over a medium heat.

When onions begin to soften, add bourbon and simmer stirring until onions become soft.

 

Bradley Smoked Lamb Shoulder with Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

1 lamb shoulder (2.7 kg)

Coarse salt (kosher or sea), freshly ground black pepper, and hot pepper flakes

 

For the Bourbon Honey Barbecue Sauce:

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 cup tomato sauce

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup bourbon

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup honey, or to taste

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (optional)

 

10 to 12 buttered and grilled hamburger buns (optional)

  1. Generously season the lamb on all sides with salt, pepper, and hot pepper flakes.
  2. Prepare the Bourbon Honey Barbecue Sauce: Combine the ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to a boil, and cook until richly flavored and slightly reduced, 5 to 10 minutes, whisking often. Transfer 2/3 of this sauce to a serving bowl and set aside to cool.   Reserve the remaining sauce for basting.
  3. Set up your Bradley Smokerfollowing the manufacturer’s instructions, add Hickory Bisquettes to the feed tube, and preheat to 120C. Place the lamb, fat side up, on one of the smoker shelves.
  4. Smoke the lamb until fall-off-the-bone tender and the internal temperature reaches 90C, 6 to 8 hours. (The cooking time will depend on the size of the shoulder.) Replenish the bisquettes as needed.  Start basting the lamb with the sauce the last hour of cooking and baste every 20 minutes.   Transfer the smoked lamb to a cutting board and loosely tent with foil.   Let rest for 10 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, grill or toast the buns if serving.
  6. Thinly slice the lamb across the grain or finely chop it with a cleaver. Pile it on buns (or serve on a platter) with Bourbon Honey Barbecue Sauce spooned over it or served on the side.   Makes 10 to 12 sandwiches.