Ever wished you could have ice cream for breakfast? With my croissant butter ice cream, you now have a very reasonable excuse. Today’s recipe is a goodun’ — no-churn vanilla ice cream with malty, gooey croissant butter threaded throughout, topped with croissant brittle. Add a spoonful of Jumbleberry Jam and it becomes a proper dessert — a sundae that tastes uncannily like a jammy croissant. Make the ice cream, the croissant butter, the brittle, or all three. Trust me, there are no wrong moves here.
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I committed a culinary sin: I pulverized croissants in a food processor. That, I’m afraid, is how my no-churn croissant butter ice cream begins.
The barbarism took place a few years ago, while I was testing a croissant butter to give to friends and family as gifts. The inspiration came from Pollen Bakery, where I’d discovered their croissant butter. Yes, you read that correctly — butter made with croissants. Not to be confused with croissants made with butter. Whatever it was, I needed it. So, apparently, did everyone else, because it had sold out. Unwilling to wait a moment longer (patience is not one of my virtues), I put on my best recipe developer’s hat and resolved to recreate this culinary delight in my own kitchen.
I did a little research, gathered my ingredients, shoved everything into the food processor and hoped for the best — not my usual process, I’ll admit. And yet, out came a sweet, buttery, malty goo, not unlike the texture of crunchy peanut butter, but, um…with croissants.
Side note: I love silver dessert cups in any form and for anyone interested, the dessert cups in the photos below are from here. I have also fallen in love with the Louise Roe silver champagne coupes - definitely a special purchase.
I didn’t want the croissant butter to work. I willed it to be an epic failure, because I knew that if it succeeded, I wouldn’t be able to keep this delicious abomination to myself. It should be illegal. It ain’t right. It’s an insult to pastry chefs everywhere. But I figured that if I was going to commit a croissant crime, it might as well be a spectacular one. Good call, as it turns out — the final result is a real winner.
A professional bakery has every reason to find inventive uses for day-old croissants. But I’m a home cook, and I never have leftover croissants. Ever. So yes, for this experiment, I used freshly baked ones. No regrets. I’d do it again.
Truly, this croissant butter is ambrosial, especially when spread with abandon on a warm, freshly baked (yep, you guessed it) croissant. I also tried it warm: 15 seconds in the microwave, spread on a fat, juicy medjool date. That was something else.
Mind you, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy it is hunched over the food processor, licking the spatula and laughing manically, like the insane croissant killer you are.
Btw, if you were wondering, the jam jars pictured above are from here.
Summer has officially arrived - not that you’d know it here in England, where the stormy, grey skies hug the horizon. As everyone knows, summer is ice cream season — and I’ve always longed for a croissant-flavored ice cream. Even after ten years in America, where ice cream fills entire gigantic grocery store aisles, I have never encountered this flavor option. And this is what insomnia is for: coming up with wild ideas at 4 am. And what being a cook is for: creating the recipes you wish existed in your local store. Ben & Jerry’s, eat that!
I’m somewhat of an ice cream snob, and I’ll admit, I used to think you couldn’t beat traditional ice cream — the proper sort, made by coaxing egg yolks into a custard and churning it in a machine. But not everyone wants to fiddle with egg yolks, and not everyone owns an ice cream machine, so I was forced to experiment. The easy no-churn alternative surprised me: super creamy, super light, and incredibly delicious.
Croissant brittle is one of those recipes that feels far cleverer than the effort it asks of you. Croissants are sliced, soaked in sweetened cream and baked low and slow until they turn deeply golden, glassy and shatteringly crisp. They’re lovely with coffee, even lovelier piled into a tin and given to friends and family, and they’ll happily keep for a week in an airtight container.
Alright, enough yapping, let’s make ice cream.
The full detailed recipes for the no-churn ice cream base, croissant butter and croissant brittle are below + a downloadable PDF, and prep video. This is a highly customizable recipe where you can choose to make one or all the elements.
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