Roasted Pumpkin & Bourbon Ice Cream

Happy Day-After-Halloween -- you know, the day where you are in a mild state of shock wondering how on earth you are going to get rid of all that leftover candy.  We had a whopping four groups of Trick-or-Treaters (though that did include one very adorable baby cowboy), so it was a pretty quiet evening for us.  Not anticipating the heaps of leftover candy, my husband and I made a little "treat" for ourselves this week -- a batch of Roasted Pumpkin Ice Cream with a splash of bourbon for good measure. It's to die for (no Halloween pun intended). 

(recipe based on David Lebovitz's Sweet Potato Ice Cream in The Perfect Scoop -- I love this cookbook)

makes 1 quart

Ingredients

1 sugar pumpkin, at least 1 lb.

1 cup plus 2 Tb of whole milk (we substituted heavy cream)

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

a few drops of lemon juice

1 oz of bourbon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350

Slice off the pumpkin stem. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Rub the outside of pumpkin with a little bit of olive oil and then place it cut-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet (to make clean-up easier). 

Roast at 350 for about 50 minutes, until a knife can easily pierce the skin.  The skin will be darkened some, and the flesh will be soft.

Remove pumpkin from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Scoop the flesh out of the skin using a spoon or ice cream scoop. Add scooped out pumpkin (along with any juices that accumulated in the baking sheet) to a food processor and puree until smooth.

Measure out 16 oz of pumpkin puree (you can freeze any puree that you have leftover) and add to a large mixing bowl. Add whole milk or cream, light brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, salt, lemon juice, and bourbon. 

With a stand mixer or a hand mixer, mix until well combined.

Put the mixture in the refrigerator and let chill for a few hours.

Once well chilled, pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.