Van Leeuwen - Praline Butter Cake

Praline Butter Cake - Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Praline Pecans and Brown Butter Cake Pieces

 

Today is another flavor from the Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen brand.  They are carried locally at Kowalski's Markets.  This year, Kowaski's has rotated which flavors from this brand that they carry which gives me some ice cream to try.  Today's point is called Praline Butter Cake.  It has a plain sweet cream base with praline pecan and brown butter cake mix-ins.  That is an interesting combination of mix-ins.  I have had many flavors with praline pecans and a handful of flavors with butter cake, but I would not have thought to combine those two.  Plus, this is a brown butter cake.  Brown butter is butter which has been heated up to caramelize and concentrate it a bit.  I have had a couple of brown butter pecan pints from Graeter's and Sweet Science, but in today's pint the brown butter is in a cake and the pecans are praline coated.  This should be itneresting.

Removing the lid, the sweet cream base had a creamy off-white color to it and several of the mix-ins are visible right away on top.  Normally, I do think of sweet cream as being extra white, but Van Leeuwen makes "French-style" ice cream which mean that they use twice as many egg yolks.  Digging in, the ice cream is thick and the extra eggs make it creamier -- almost like a custard.  I quickly encounter all the mix-ins.  The praline pecan pieces are the size of crushed pecans (i.e. not full-sized).  They taste quite good.  The butter cake pieces are also small in size but are large enough that you notice the chewy texture.  The texture reminded me a little bit of cookie dough because it is a dense cake.  The flavor of the cake pieces is not as noticeable as the praline pecan pieces but I can tell there some caramelized flavor in there if I focus in on them.  The main thing I notice is the texture which keeps me guessing as I eat my way down the pint.  That is, some mix-ins are crunchy and some are chewy and I am never sure which one I am going to get.

This is an interesting and unique flavor from Van Leeuwen.  I would never have thought to mix butter cake and praline pecans.  It is not too exciting, but it works.  This may appeal to pralines and cream fans looking for a twist on their favorite flavor.