I am definitely of the school of thought that nothing goes better with a brownie than a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  So what goes best with pumpkin spice kiss brownies?  Pumpkin ice cream, of course!  Really – the brownies were great and the ice cream was great, but the combination of the two was outstanding!

This recipe comes from the most recent addition to my ice cream cookbook collection, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and Dessert Book.  This is quite an awesome little cookbook!  Normally I am really big on good photographs in cookbooks because I need the visual inspiration to try some recipes.  This little book has only funky cartoon illustrations, and yet every time I look through it I want to make basically every recipe in it (which is a LOT!)  I also love the book because of its conversational tone.  The obviously fun attitudes of Ben & Jerry, so evident in their inventive ice creams, are there with you on every page of the book.  Thanks to my friend Chelle for this awesome gift!

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin

1 tsp. ground or freshly grated nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

To prepare the cream base, whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.  Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more.  Pour in the cream and the milk and whisk to blend. 

Pour about 1 cup of the cream base into another bowl, add the pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and stir until blended.  Return the pumpkin mixture to the remaining cream base and blend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Source: adapted from Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and Dessert Book by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Workman Publishing Company, 1987.