I first made this Pumpkin Ice Cream for a pumpkin dessert buffet. Back in the day we hosted serious pumpkin carving parties and I love a good theme so it was pumpkin recipes. Caramel sauce and sweet and salty pumpkin seeds elevate this from a dish of ice cream to a worthy seasonal dessert.

A dish of Homemade Pumpkin Ice Cream with Bourbon Caramel Sauce topped with sweet and salty candied pumpkin seeds.

When I volunteered to make Thanksgiving dessert I said I wasn’t making pumpkin pie but it would be something amazing. That dessert turned out to be a Bourbon Caramel Pumpkin Tart with Candied Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds and this pumpkin ice cream.

Jump to:

Pumpkin Spice Season
My Thanksgiving Dessert
Homemade Ice Cream
Get The Tools
A Pumpkin Spice Podcast and Pumpkin Recipes
Pumpkin Ice Cream

Pumpkin Spice Season

I’m not a devoted pumpkin fan but October seems like the perfect reason to make as many pumpkin recipes as possible. So that’s what I’m doing and the month isn’t over yet.

Starbucks turned pumpkin spice into an actual season and you can hear more about that on my recent podcast interview with Sue Jennett (link below). For more recipes check out my Pumpkin Recipe Round Up.

My Thanksgiving Dessert

I've been getting a lot of requests to post the pumpkin tart recipe after I shared pics of my dessert from the dining room table. It will be next but this is a perfect example of the planning steps required for some fancy desserts. No one step is hard but I can't publish one recipe post that includes five recipes; the tart pastry, the bourbon caramel sauce, the candied sweet and salty pumpkin seeds, the filling and this pumpkin ice cream. Just like you probably don't want to make all of those recipes at the same time.

The Bourbon-Caramel sauce is part of the tart recipe and it’s divine over the pumpkin ice cream. Luckily there was extra sauce from the tart recipe and I could make more Candied Pumpkin Seeds in minutes. Together this was a perfect contrast and we enjoyed ice cream with caramel sauce a few times after the pumpkin tart was gone.

Homemade Ice Cream

You can buy a lot of fancy ice cream and there's plenty of it that's gluten free. Sometimes we make things from scratch because we can and it's fun for me to see young people learn this. No one wants to cook all day every day and it's always fun to buy a treat but if you have ice cream lovers in your family you need an ice cream maker.

Watching the magic is good fun and there's always someone who wants to do it. I like to assign the freezing of the ice cream to any guest who comes into the kitchen. Then it goes into the freezer to harden while we eat yet it's still freshly churned and soft when it's time to serve it.

At home I have a Donvier ice cream maker and have raved about it in all my ice cream recipe posts. I’ve had it for decades and since it has no moving parts I don’t think it could ever die. At our family cabin we were recently gifted an electric ice cream maker and I have to admit, it was even easier. I just plugged it in and watched it churn for twenty minutes.

Get The Tools

An ice cream maker is a great gift for Christmas, birthdays or anyone new to gluten free who's trying to create new traditions around food.

Let me know in the comments below if you made homemade ice cream and don't forget the Candied Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds.

A Pumpkin Spice Podcast and Pumpkin Recipes

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