I Scream, You Scream. We all Scream for Sweet Potatoes?

This past Friday, a co-worker and I decided to run down over our lunch hour to grab a bite to eat at a local food festival, called the Taste of Omaha.  There are about 40 different restaurants that participate in this event, so one can imagine there is a variety of different foods to enjoy.  Seeing as how we had a very limited time to get some food and head back to work, I had done a very small amount of research before heading down there.  First I checked on the times of the festival, which said it runs from 11-11 on Friday.  Then I checked out a map of the vendors and the menu at each place, so I had sort of a game plan in place.  I managed to highlight about 10 different vendor stations, and one that I absolutely wanted to check out for dessert.  One of the vendors was selling Sweet Potato Pie Ice Cream and I just had to have some. 

We figured we would head down at 11 to beat the rush and find a close parking space. We found a great parking space, really close to all the carnie rides, which I saw weren't running yet and headed to where all the food tents were stationed.  First thing we notice is, no one was even at their stations yet.  There was no food being prepared at all, no ticket stations open to use to buy the food, nothing! CRAP!!!  I know the article I saw about the event said it was supposed to run from 11-11 Friday and Saturday, so what in the world was going on and more importantly, how was I going to get that Sweet Potato Ice Cream now?  

Since I wasn't about to accept defeat, my only solution was to get on the internet, find a recipe and make it myself.  Conveniently enough, I had purchased a really awesome Cuisinart ice cream maker a few weeks ago and have already made two different batches of ice cream with it.  One was Double Chocolate Peanut Butter (which was to die for!) and the other was Honey Vanilla (also really awesome).  It is no wonder I am starting to see the digits on the scale increase a bit over the last few weeks.   Instead of scaling back on my ice cream intake, which is the smartest option, my strategy is to increase my workouts from maybe once a week (let's face it I don't like working out) to every other day, at least until the novelty of my new gadget wears off a bit. 

Sweet Potato Pie Ice Cream - adapted from post by Brynnie on Fine Cooking

Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
Pinch of sea salt
5 large egg yolks
1 cup cooked, pureed sweet potato (about 2 medium sized sweet potatoes)
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Pinch of ginger*
Pinch of nutmeg*
Pinch of cinnamon*
Handful of chopped pecans
(*please note I plan to add 1/8 tsp of each of these spices next time I make it so it is a bit more spicey, yet still not too spicey.)

Directions:
1.  Cook the sweet potatoes at 375F for 50 minutes.  Allow to cool then peel off the skins, and place into a food processor with the vanilla, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Puree until smooth. 
2.  In a medium saucepan, mix the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream and a pinch of salt. Warm mixture slowly over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and it begins to bubble a bit around the edge of the pan, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Don't let it boil! 
3. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl and pour about half the cream mixture into the eggs, mixing constantly.  Pour this back into the saucepan and stir over low heat until it thickens to a point it will coat your spoon.  Don't let it boil!!!
4.  Pour the contents into a bowl and stir in mashed potato mixture.
5.  Refrigerate over night or until chilled completely.
6.  Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and operate according to the manufacturer's directions. Add the chopped pecans the during the last five minutes of operating time.   
7.  Transfer your ice cream to an air-tight, freezer safe container and pop it in the freezer. 

This ice cream was a really good and enjoyable treat!  As you can see in my instructions I do wish it had a bit more kick to it to make it taste more pie like but that is as easy as adding a tad more spices to the mixture for next time. This would be perfect for Thanksgiving dessert with deliciously sinful caramel sauce.  Mmmmm!  

It took me two days, but I finally got a shot of Momma Robin sitting in her nest in my backyard.  I kept scaring her away creeping up close for a photo op.  This was my only shot before she took off.   She just looks so darn cute in her nest!