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You are here: Home / Ice Cream / Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream

Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream

July 8, 2019 118 Comments

Old Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream Served Scooped into a ice cream bowl.

My favorite ice cream treat as a girl, Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream has disappeared from freezer cases all over the country so one day I decided it was time to make my own. Everyone who has made this says it’s the real deal…and the real deal is wonderful!

Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream Scooped into a Bowl

The push to finish some gardens in my yard is almost done and I promise some new posts soon but in the meantime I made this Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream for a picnic this past weekend and everyone raved about it.

It is simply the best ice cream so I thought it perfect for me to share again. Toffee flavored ice cream with toffee bits is simply heavenly. I thought my readers wouldn’t mind a blast from the past, especially with a recipe for my favorite ice cream of all time!

I haven’t seen it in grocer’s freezers in decades (which is a big mistake) and yet I’ve never quite let go of how much I loved that delectable treat. Buttery toffee flavored ice cream with toffee bits? It’s not just an ice cream, it’s a journey through my childhood.

From the time I entered kindergarten at the age of four until we moved to a bigger home more suited for the size of our family (5 kids) when I was ten, we lived on St. Madelaine St. in Florissant, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. All of the streets in that neighborhood had Catholic names and both the Catholic church and school were within walking distance of our home.

Did that have anything to do with the number of kids on our street? I don’t know but I have idyllic memories of those times; when walking outside meant finding a playmate and summer days meant trips to the community pool, playing ‘King of the Hill’ during the day and flashlight tag at night.

I had a brother less than a year older than I was and another 2 years younger and I did what they did so I guess you could say I was a tomboy. One of my crowning achievements EVER was beating every single one of the boys down the hill in a road race (balloon tires and all).

I might have had reservations at first but wanting to keep up with the boys saw me swan dive from the high board and cannonball with the best of them.

But I was different from them in many ways. I loved to read and play with Barbie dolls (I was so afraid of tornadoes it was pathetic but I was a good mom…I didn’t race to the basement without those dolls!). I talked sooner than my older brother too.

I remember the Sunday morning when I climbed out of my crib; grabbed our Sunday morning stollen from the kitchen table, climbed into his crib and we both finished it off but I blamed him. Oops.

Quite the trek for little kids but it never seemed that long!

Still, one of the summer memories that is most ingrained in me were the trips to Bergen’s Dairy on Florissant Road. I actually took a gamble they might be there but no; seems they’re long gone. Still that trip remains so familiar in my memory that I was able to recreate it with the magic of Google maps.

A nice little trek for little kids…shows we worked for our ice cream! I don’t recall that I ever walked into Bergen’s and ordered anything but Butter Brickle ice cream.

Oh, I recall perusing that board every single time but nothing ever held the same appeal and as evidence of true love; nothing ever has. Sadly it is unrequited love. Where has all the Butter Brickle ice cream gone? Really; why isn’t every dairy making it even if just for me?!!

Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream with Extra Toffee Bits

I’ve found it in two local spots, neither close enough to walk to and sometimes an urge for an ice cream cone should not constitute having to make a 40 minute round trip by car. Maybe I wanted it all; the sense of family around me, the luxury of a warm summer night and walking lazily home, licking that amazing cone while fireflies fluttered all around us. A time when my world was at peace and seemed almost perfect.

Well, I’m grown up now…that sense of perfection is long gone and now we look for those moments of perfection to punctuate our hectic days. I thought I had found mine. One of those local shops actually agreed to provide me with their recipe and I was as excited as that schoolgirl from long ago.

Until…they waffled. They thought better of it. They changed their mind. I don’t know about you but that set me on fire to make it MYSELF and I have to tell you…this is good, really, really good and in my quest to get it made I discovered some things I did not know.

Butter Brickle was the registered trademark of a toffee ice cream flavoring and of a toffee-centered chocolate-covered candy bar similar to the Heath bar. The flavor and the candy were produced by the Fenn Bros. Ice Cream and Candy CO from Sioux Falls South Dakota.

Old-Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream was introduced to the world back in the 1920’s at the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha, NE. When the company was liquidated in the 1970’s the trademark and formula were sold to the makers of the Heath Bar whose assets were acquired by The Hershey Company in 1996.

If you look closely you’ll see that the packaging on the Heath English Toffee Bits still includes a reference to this history by referring to the content as ‘Bits ‘O Brickle Toffee Bits’. I’ve seen recipes suggest using Skor candy bits covered in chocolate and I’m sure that must taste just fine but it is so not MY Butter Brickle!

Old Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream in a Serving Dish

I had searched for a recipe before but all I found were egg based and MY ice cream surely was not. One recipe that I saw repeated over and over in my Internet search called for ‘butter flavoring’ and that just seemed wrong so I took my own path. Wanting the ice cream to have a rich toffee/buttery flavor, I made a small batch of a butterscotch sauce that I cooked down until thick and brown which I then added to the ice cream base to intensify that toffee flavor profile.

I had considered making my own toffee and breaking it into bits but stopped myself for a couple of reasons. First, breaking up homemade toffee into little bits seemed a disaster waiting to happen; I imagined toffee dust would ensue more than little toffee pieces. Second; without that effort at homemade candy in the mix, the ice cream was significantly easier to make and really, how much more authentic could you get then by adding the original product? This is decadent; exactly how I remember it. I’m in love.

PIN ‘Old Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream’

Old Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream Served Scooped into a ice cream bowl.

Yield: One and a half quarts

Butter Brickle Ice Cream

Old Fashioned Butter Brickle Ice Cream Served Scooped into a ice cream bowl.

A rich butter toffee flavored ice cream with toffee bits.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

For the Butter Toffee Sauce:

  • 1 Tbsp salted butter
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt

For the Butter Brickle Ice Cream:

  • 2 cups half and half
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 4 Tbsp toffee sauce
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup Heath toffee bits
  • Dash of salt
  • Additional bits for garnish if desired

Instructions

To Make the Butter Toffee Sauce:

  1. Put the butter, brown sugar, cream and salt in a medium saucepan and stir until the butter melts.
  2. Simmer over medium low heat without stirring for three minutes.
  3. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
  4. Allow to cool while you make the ice cream base.

To Make the Ice Cream:

  1. Warm the butter, brown sugar and half and half over medium until the butter and sugar have melted. Add the sauce and vanilla, still until thoroughly mixed and chill for a minimum of 4 hours; preferably overnight.
  2. Add the heavy cream and process the mixture in an ice cream machine.
  3. Add the toffee bits at the end of processing just to mix them in.
  4. Ripen in a container for a minimum of four hours before serving.

Notes

While this ice cream did freeze, it was never going to get as hard as some I've made but that bit of melting seemed to make it even more accurate...I also remember licking those dribbles that would find their ways down my forearm!

© Creative Culinary
Category: Ice Cream

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Comments

  1. Monica says

    January 4, 2021 at 6:01 pm

    Can you make this without an ice cream maker??
    Reply
    • Barb says

      January 8, 2021 at 8:52 am

      Monica...sorry for the delayed response. As to making it without an ice cream maker, I can't recommend that. There are a couple of recipes for doing that that involve making whipped cream and adding ingredients to that, but I've never tried it with this ice cream and just don't see it working.
      Reply
  2. Julia says

    October 30, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    Thank you so much. I grew up in Washington, DC and this was my favorite flavor at the local High's Dairy Ice Cream Store. 2 scoops for a nickel; 3 for a dime!!! Can't find it anywhere since then, but I've gotten use to making ice cream and experimenting with my little Cuisinart maker during the pandemic. And I love, love Heath bars. Will need to scale the recipe down just a bit for the little Cuisinart. I am going to also try making my butter pecan with your buttery, light brown sugar base. That should make it really good. I use 1/2 amt. dark brown sugar (and 1/2 white sugar) for my chocolate ice cream base and it gives it a wonderful richness and depth to the flavor.
    Reply
  3. Barney F Howell says

    October 7, 2020 at 9:20 am

    Thank you so much for this. I was born & raised in the mid-West (Galesburg, IL) & my favorites as a kid were, butter brickle ice cream, pecan cinnamon sticky buns & Dixie cream donuts. Sadly I can't find any of those anywhere. About 10 years ago, while visiting home, I over reacted when I found butter brickle ice cream in a grocery store. It was made by Blue Bell out of Iowa. It was listed as a "novelty" item & no one has seen it since. To let everyone know how special this ice cream is; to bring it home to Phoenix, AZ from Illinois I paid a small fortune in dry ice (we were driving) to get 4 cartons home. Of course we also had breaded pork tenderloins frome Gray's in Galesburg, because BPT sandwiches are also a midwest thing. I make them myself & now, Thanks to you, I can make my most favorite ice cream in the world! If you can come up with my sticky bun & Dixie Cream donuts, I will swear an "Oath of Fealty" to you & you will become a Queen!
    Reply
    • Barb says

      October 7, 2020 at 12:28 pm

      I know exactly how you feel Barney! What it really comes down to is a toffee flavored ice cream with toffee bits. Why is that so hard for someone to make ALL THE TIME! I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as we do. As for those others? There are a million recipes for pecan sticky buns but I've only made one; my own simple version. As much as I enjoy time in the kitchen, I can't say I love waiting for bread to rise a couple of times so I fabricated one using puff pastry and they were both delicious and easy. You might want to take a peek? Yeah, I like to add bourbon to sweets...but it's always optional. https://creative-culinary.com/puff-pastry-pecan-sticky-buns-maple-bourbon-glaze-recipe/ I was curious about the Dixie Cream Donuts; no recipes and seems few franchises. Funny but it does appear that the key ingredient was a flour mixture made in my hometown of St. Louis. The old building was being renovated for office space in 2013. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8389/8553497012_f9a0186e53.jpg Also curious about Gray's...seems they are still doing business and the pork tenderloin is their number one sandwich! Their website is from the 90's though. :) Great hearing from you...take good care. Barb
      Reply
  4. Angie Castro says

    September 10, 2020 at 2:09 pm

    I loved reading about your search for butter brickle ice cream. I also had this wonderful experience in the "Lake of the Ozarks" in Missouri when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I used to save my money just so I could ride my bike to the ice cream shop on the strip to get some. My parents owned a restaurant there and it was some of my favorite childhood memories. I am from Nebraska originally and I think we used to get this at Goodrich dairy too, but it was never as good as that old fashioned ice cream shop in the Ozarks. I am going to make this for sure. Maybe a couple of batches, LOL. Thank you for putting this together.
    Reply
  5. Anita W. says

    August 19, 2020 at 11:32 am

    Thank you sooooo much! I’m a Colorado native (Longmont, Arvada, and now Aurora) who remembers this ice cream from my childhood! My father loved this flavor which is no surprise bc he loved Heath bars, something he passed along to me lol. I hadn’t thought about Butter Brickle ice cream in decades, but I was looking at a Nebraska Runza recipe (another childhood food) and the author mentioned that BB ice cream came from NE. After glancing at several recipes, it was your writing that kept me entranced and entertained. You are such a talented writer! Your memories are so sweet and relatable that I knew you HAD to have the right recipe. Plus, you’re here in Colorado :-)! Be well and Stay safe from Covid-19) Thank you!
    Reply
    • Barb says

      August 19, 2020 at 4:11 pm

      Well we share that love and I love how sweet you are...this is a labor of love. Most food blogs today want to mimic the big guns, no personality, just hard core data that follows Google rules to a 'T.' I can't, I just can't. I've been doing this for over 20 years, these are truly recipes I love made for people I love...if that comes through in any way, I'm a happy camper.
      Reply
    • Kleanthi says

      December 23, 2020 at 2:36 pm

      Anita, I also live Colorado in the DTC area. I have loved this ice cream since I was a little girl. My grandparents lived near downtown Denver and introduced me to Butter Brickle their favorite. I have loved this ice cream since then! You can find this ice cream at the Bonnie Brae Ice Cream Shoppe on S. University Blvd (North of I25). All their ice cream is made on-site. Hope you will check it out! I’m going to try this recipe! Thank you Barb!!!
      Reply
      • Barb says

        December 24, 2020 at 2:03 pm

        Yes you can...maybe what inspired me to make my own too. I used to take my kids down there a couple of times each summer but it was quite a trip from DTC. The owner had actually agreed to give me his recipe in return for featuring his shop but he reneged and the rest is history!
        Reply
  6. Laura Whittaker says

    August 12, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    Aloha, Can you explain why the heavy cream is added just before churning in the ice cream machine as opposed to before being refrigerated?
    Reply
    • Barb says

      August 13, 2020 at 4:08 pm

      You could add it to the other ingredients if you want to while they chill but it's not necessary; because it's refrigerated, it should already be chilled when it's poured into the machine.
      Reply
  7. Beth Davy says

    July 29, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    Can I make the base/toffee sauce 2-3 days before using?
    Reply
  8. Jen says

    June 9, 2020 at 7:31 pm

    My 96 year old dad is begging me to make this and I’m eager to please as It was my favorite as a kid. But, a question, please: May I assume that since you mention the butter in the sauce is salted, that the butter in the ice cream is unsalted? Don’t want to screw this up. Thanks.
    Reply
    • Barb says

      June 10, 2020 at 1:04 am

      Hi Jen... I think I'm only surprised that I specified salted butter because I normally use salted butter for everything. So I would say even though I have not made this myself for a while, that I used salted butter in both parts of the recipe. I hope your dad loves it!
      Reply
  9. Liz says

    June 6, 2020 at 6:18 am

    Turkey Hill makes the best Butter Brickle around but they don't sell it in stores. You can only get it at ice cream stands because they only sell the big giant tubs that Ice Cream shops use. I can't wait to try this recipe.
    Reply
  10. Pam says

    May 15, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    Can I double this recipe and have the same outcome? My Ice cream maker is 4 quart. Should I expect the churning time to be longer?
    Reply
  11. Thomas Scott says

    November 16, 2019 at 5:22 pm

    Not ice cream weather here, so add a shot of dark rum to a scoop of butter brickle, add two whole cloves a cinnamon stick and top with hot water. Best hot buttered rum ever.
    Reply
    • Barb says

      November 16, 2019 at 6:39 pm

      I would love to try that accept there is no Butter Brickle for me to be had unless I make it myself. In the end they actually sound very similar to each other. I could just throw in a spoonful of toffee pieces! :-)
      Reply
  12. Matthew says

    August 15, 2019 at 11:58 am

    Do i just use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar for the ice cream itself?
    Reply
    • Barb says

      August 17, 2019 at 11:53 am

      I changed it to read light brown because that's all I ever use. Still, I would substitute dark brown without a problem or a blend of the two...they would all work.
      Reply
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