Easy butter pecan ice cream has a no churn ice cream base and is filled with chunks of candied pecans. Candied pecans are easy to make and are the perfect addition to an easy ice cream recipe to give it fancy finish.

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for this super easy butter pecan ice cream with you. I hadn’t had butter pecan ice cream until I moved to the states, and the first time I tried it, I was hooked.

I have a few homemade ice cream recipes here on the site – making your own ice cream at home does take a little bit of work, but it is so fun to do, and means that you can add as many or as few mix-ins of your choice to your homemade ice cream.

This butter pecan ice cream is a super easy no churn ice cream base, which I filled with chunks of candied pecans. If you haven’t made candied pecans before I highly suggest it – they are great on this ice cream, but also can be used to add a delicious crunch to recipes such as my vegan cinnamon rolls.

Easy No Churn Ice Cream

I used a no churn ice cream base for this butter pecan ice cream recipe. No churn ice cream is made of whipped heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk, and the cream mixture can be mixed up and put straight into the pan to freeze – no ice cream maker needed. Often ice cream recipes use egg yolks – this is made with just cream and condensed milk so is a great egg free ice cream recipe if you need one!

If you wanted to do a more traditional style ice cream base for this butter pecan ice cream, you could use a philadelphia style ice cream base, which uses an ice cream maker but is a super simple egg free recipe that will still let the pecan flavour shine through.

How to toast nuts

There are a bunch of ways to toast nuts – my preferred method is to do them in the oven. Toasting nuts for any recipe gives an amazing, toasty depth of flavour. Nuts can also be toasted in a pan or a skillet on the stove, but doing it in the oven means that the nuts get fully toasted throughout without burning.

I make toasted pecans for my candied pecan recipe by toasting them on a baking sheet lined with silicone or parchment paper for about 10 minutes at 350°f / 180°c. Watch them carefully as they can go from toasty to a little too toasty quite fast.

How to make Candied Pecans

Candied pecans are super easy to make – It just involves making a quick caramel mixture. I do this all at once in the pan so the nuts get evenly coated. Heres how to candy pecans:

1. Toast your nuts. This is important as it adds to the caramel flavour of the butter pecan ice cream.
2. Have a pan ready to go – once these are done you want to remove them from the heat quickly.
3. Combine sugar, butter, and salt in a saucepan, stir together, then add the toasted pecans.
4. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly and adjusting the heat as necessary. You want to cook the candied pecan mixture until the sugar melts and coats the nuts.
5. Once the candied pecans are done, turn out onto the prepared pan and spread out the pecans so that they aren’t touching and don’t clump together.
6. Leave to cool before chopping and using.

Candied pecans are also amazing in salad or chopped up for ice cream topping – so you can make extra and store in an airtight container at room temperature for a later time.

FAQ for Butter Pecan Ice Cream

What tools and equipment do you use?You can find a full list of the tools and equipment I use on my products page

Which pan did you use?I set my ice cream in a regular sized 9″x5″ loaf pan – you can put it in whatever you want as long as the container is freezer safe.

What is heavy cream?Heavy cream is the cream that you would use to make whipped cream.

For more easy ice cream recipes, check out:

Made this recipe and love it?

If you made this recipe then I would LOVE for you to leave me a review below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram if you make it!

A note on salt and oven temperature

It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes – if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is ‘saltier’ than others. Morton’s salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.

All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.

Using the double / triple function in the recipe card

You will notice that there is a ‘1X’ ‘2X’ ‘3X’ button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!

Tools and equipment

For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.

Why is this recipe in grams?

I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here’s to accurate baking!

Recipe For Butter Pecan Ice Cream

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