“Chunkless” Pecan Pie

Curiosity driven by this post, I tried making a pecan-pie flavored ice cream without any chunky nuts. I’ve had good success with Jeni’s pistachio recipe in the past, so I started there; roasted a pile of pecans and spun them into butter. I added sugar and cinnamon to that. I made the ice cream mix following Jeni’s recipe, subbing out pistachio with pecan butter and adding a ton of vanilla by steeping in three beans.

I layered it with ribbons of the pecan butter, an intense molasses caramel, and a lightweight-but-bulky caramel designed to mimic the pie filling. The end result was pleasing and reminiscent of pecan pie in flavor; the unique textures of the pie aren’t quite there, though. I’m still interested in the idea of cooking a batch of actual pie filling to see if it could be swirled in, though not sure how it would freeze.

Regardless, it’s good enough we’ll be serving it on Thanksgiving.