Waffles and Bacon Frozen Custard

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Place butter in a pot over medium heat; cook and stir until mostly melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Add flax meal and cinnamon; cook and stir until butter becomes a deep toasty brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Pour browned butter into a large heat-resistent bowl.

2. Step 2

   Mix half-and-half, milk, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract together in a pot over medium-high heat. As the mixture approaches a boil, scoop out 1/4 cup and whisk it with egg yolks in a bowl. Repeat this 3 or 4 times until egg mixture is almost doubled in volume. Stir egg mixture into milk mixture; simmer until custard begins to thicken, about 2 minutes.

3. Step 3

   Pour custard through a strainer into the bowl with browned butter; stir until butter is incorporated. Cover bowl and refrigerate until completely cooled, 6 hours to overnight.

4. Step 4

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack on top.

5. Step 5

   Mix brown sugar and 1 tablespoon maple syrup together in a small bowl.

6. Step 6

   Place bacon on the wire rack on the baking sheet.

7. Step 7

   Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Flip bacon and cook until about 2/3 cooked, 5 to 10 minutes more. Flip bacon again and baste the tops with brown sugar-syrup mixture; bake for 5 minutes. Flip bacon and baste the other side; bake for 5 minutes. Continue this process until bacon is crisp and coating has candied and all the brown sugar-syrup mixture is used, 5 to 10 minutes more.

8. Step 8

   Turn off oven and sprinkle sea salt over both sides of bacon; let sit for a few minutes in the oven. Chop bacon into bite-size pieces.

9. Step 9

   Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle 1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup over the parchment paper, keeping the drops dime-size or smaller.

10. Step 10

    Bake in the preheated oven until drops are bubbling and height of each drop is less than half of it was in the beginning, about 1 hour. Cool on baking sheet until stiff yet slightly sticky.

11. Step 11

    Stir chilled custard and pour into ice cream maker; start churning. Start adding bacon bits, a few at a time, to churning custard about halfway through. Once the custard is getting thicker, add the syrup drops, 1 or 2 at a time to ensure they are evenly dispersed. Continue churning until custard is thick. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until it sets, 2 to 4 hours.