The Best Butterscotch Ripple Ice Cream (Maricopa Copycat)

The Quest for Butterscotch Ripple

Whenever I get a request for a copycat recipe, I always try to find the original ingredient list. That gives me a starting point for experimentation.

The Isaly’s folks do not have the recipes printed on their website, nor would they tell me the ingredients when I asked via email and social media.

Then I sent friends of friends who live in Pittsburgh on a mission to take a photo of the ingredient list for me. No dice. They tried, but Maricopa wasn’t stocked where they went.

My main question was this: Is the base French vanilla (custard-based with egg) or a Philadelphia style (no-egg) base?

It all came down to looking at photos (the vanilla appears to be a very pale yellow like a custard) and also the hunch that a Pittsburgh brand wouldn’t make a Philadelphia-style base.

French vanilla ice cream it was. And then off to the races.

Why This Recipe Works

The thing you’ll most like about this recipe (I think, anyway), is that there is not too much butterscotch ripple. While that may sound like a bad thing, it’s actually a plus.

Butterscotch is a very assertive flavor, so to still be able to taste the vanilla notes in the base, the ripple takes a bit of a back seat to the ice cream.

It makes sense. You generally use much less sauce than the ice cream itself.

Less is definitely more. Of course, if you want a ton of swirl, you may double the swirl recipe.

Also, I worked hard to create a vanilla base as creamy as my original no-churn French vanilla ice cream while cutting back some on the fat and the sugar.

Again, you need to make room in the recipe for the sugar and fat present in the ripple, so the fat and sugar have to get cut somewhere. Otherwise, you end up with a dessert that is overly sweet, overly rich, and probably won’t freeze properly.

This butterscotch ripple ice cream freezes nice and firm so you have time to savor it before it melts.

How to Make This Recipe

To make a butterscotch swirl ice cream, you need two different components: the base and the swirl itself.

PRO TIP

To make swirled ice cream, alternate layers of ice cream base and swirl. Then when you scoop it, you’ll get swirls in every scoop.

Ingredients and Substitutions

First up, the ripple. As a bonus, it can double as a butterscotch ice cream sauce.

For the Butterscotch Ripple

I contend that if you don’t see these three ingredients in a butterscotch recipe, it doesn’t qualify as true butterscotch. (If you are interested, you can read about the difference between butterscotch and caramel)

• unsalted butter: Adds the nutty, browned-butter flavor to butterscotch
• dark brown sugar: Adds the caramelized sugar and molasses flavors to butterscotch.
• salt: Brings out the other flavors as well as being an integral part of the flavor profile.

Subs: You may use light brown sugar if you don’t have dark brown. If all you have is granulated sugar, add 2 teaspoons of molasses to the sugar.

To those 3 ingredients, we add

• water: I have just started to add some water to my butterscotch mixture. The additional water (aside from the little bit of water present in the butter) ensures that the sugar dissolves completely so you end up with a perfectly smooth butterscotch that doesn’t recrystallize or get grainy in the fridge.
• heavy cream: Allows the butterscotch to pour–mellows the flavor just a bit
• vanilla extract: Rounds out the flavors. Not strictly necessary, but I do like to use it in mine

You may use half and half in place of the heavy cream. Don’t substitute whole milk, though, because the milk may curdle at such high temperatures.

Procedure for Making the Ripple

1. Melt butter, brown sugar, and salt into the water.
2. Bring to a boil and cook until the butter browns and the sugar caramelizes. Follow your nose! (See Tips and Tricks)
3. Stir the cream.
4. Cook until the mixture until it reaches the soft ball stage.
5. Remove from heat, pour into another heat-proof container to stop the cooking, and stir in the vanilla.
6. Cool to room temperature before layering it in with your base.

For the Ice Cream Base

In my experimentation, I found that using evaporated milk adds to the volume of the base without adding too much additional water.

This results in a nice, creamy base that also happens to be lower in fat than my original French vanilla, which uses heavy cream and half and half.

• egg yolks: the yolks provide the custard base, and since they come in the form of a pate a bombe, they’re completely cooked, so there’s no need to cook the entire base.
• sugar: cooked into syrup, this provides sweetness as well as the heat necessary to cook the yolks. The finished pate a bombe also provides a nice, creamy mouthfeel since it’s full of wee, tiny bubbles
• water: to dissolve the sugar for the pate a bombe
• salt: whisked together with the yolks. I use less salt in this vanilla base than in most because the butterscotch ripple has plenty of salt in it
• heavy cream: whipped together with the sweetened condensed milk, these two ingredients are the base of most no-churn ice cream recipes
• sweetened condensed milk: You may use regular sweetened condensed milk or fat free
• evaporated milk: In my “regular” no-churn recipes, I use a full 16 oz of heavy cream. In this recipe, since it contains egg yolks and sugar cooked together in a pate a bombe, I wanted slightly less fat, so I use 10 oz of cream. The remainder of the original 6 oz are made up of 3 oz each evaporated milk and whole milk.
• whole milk: You could use all whole milk instead of using some evaporated milk, but I think that might make the ice cream too icy, since you’d be adding additional water. Most of the water is cooked out of evaporated milk, and that allows for a very creamy final product.
• vanilla: Provides the vanilla in French vanilla. You may use either vanilla extract or vanilla paste.

Procedure for Making the Ice Cream Base

1. Make the pate a bombe.
   1. Whip yolks and pinch of salt until creamy.
   2. Cook sugar and water together until it reaches 240F.
   3. Whip the hot syrup with the yolks until very light, billowy, and room temperature.
2. Whip heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla until thickened but not at peaks. Whip will leave tracks in the cream.
3. Whip in the pate a bombe.
4. Add the evaporated milk and whole milk and stir until well-combined.

Equipment You May Need

To take the temperature of your sugar syrup for the ice cream base and the temperature of your butterscotch, you’ll need a good instant-read thermometer. Fortunately, they are not very expensive and are very accurate.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, you will need a pretty powerful hand mixer for whipping the yolks and sugar as well as the base.

As far as ice cream containers are concerned, you can buy dedicated ones that are insulated like these, but I have good luck using cake pans or bread pans and some Saran wrap.

Tips and Tricks for Success

This is not a hard recipe to make, but it does require some patience with the layering.

Since this is such a rich ice cream, you really have to let each layer freeze for at least 45 minutes before adding the next.

Tip for Speeding Up the Process

If you don’t have the time to do all of that waiting, put the base in a metal bowl (if it isn’t already) and freeze it.

Whisk it very well every 30-45 minutes until it is very thick and about the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.

Then, you can quickly layer the base with the butterscotch before freezing the whole container.

Tip for Using a Churn

Even though this is technically a no-churn recipe, there is no reason you can’t speed up the process by churning your base before layering everything together.

Tip for Knowing When Your Butterscotch Is Done

Since sugar caramelizes at about 320F, you could take its temperature to know when your butterscotch is done.

I prefer to use my nose.

As the butterscotch cooks, it will smell pretty much like nothing to begin with.

Then it will smell like nutty brown butter, and eventually, it will start to smell like caramelized sugar.

As you stir your butterscotch overheat, keep smelling it. Once it starts to smell like caramelized sugar, you’ll know it’s ready. That’s when you’ll add the cream.

Butterscotch Ripple Ice Cream Q & A

Serving Suggestions

As much as I love a smooth and creamy texture, sometimes it pays to up the ante with some crunch.

For an easy butterscotch ripple sundae, scoop the ice cream, top with warmed butterscotch ice cream sauce or even this easy butterscotch coffee syrup. Add a dollop of hand-whipped cream and a sprinkling of butterscotch pecans from my pumpkin butterscotch angel food bread pudding recipe. or just use plain chopped toasted nuts.

Bonus points for building the whole thing on top of a slice of butterscotch sheet cake or a rich butterscotch blondie!

Also, consider topping butterscotch ripple ice cream with hot fudge sauce or chocolate syrup.

Make ice cream sandwiches by sandwiching a big old scoop of butterscotch ripple between two brown butter chocolate chip cookies.

If you have questions about this post or recipe, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can leave a comment on the post and I will get back to you within about 24 hours.

If your question is more urgent, please shoot me an email, and I will respond within 4 hours, unless I’m asleep.

A Note About Measurements

NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids.

Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.

This is the scale I use, love, and recommend. If you’re unsure, please read my post about how to use a food scale.