While coming off of the perfect long weekend was tough, I had these some New Orleans pralines to get me through. I’m not sure why I thought I loved pralines as they are ludicrously sweet, but to appease my 17 year old self, I bought a few at the airport. With a fistful of candies I didn’t particularly care for, I headed straight to the ice cream maker.

Usually, I’m a sucker for the French method of ice cream making which is whip up a custard, chill, and freeze. This batch, I just didn’t have the time for custard making and my new desire to find healthy food (haha) had me reaching for 2% over cream. So, what we have is David Lebovitz’s recipe for Philadelphia Pralines and Cream. It uses no eggs and cooks in a fraction of the time. Plus, it’s healthier; or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Step 1:  Buy a bunch of pralines and realize you don’t like them.

Step 2: Chop about 2 cups of them into bits. Find pecans in the back of the fridge, toast them and add them to the pile of chopped.

Then, follow David’s recipe.

Philadelphia Style Vanilla Ice Cream

• 3 cups of milk
• Pinch of salt
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Add 1 c. milk, salt, sugar, the seeds of the vanilla bean, and then the bean itself to a saucepan. Over medium heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and stir in rest of the milk and vanilla extract.
3. Chill until cool, 30-60 minutes, in the refrigerator.
4. Discard vanilla bean.
5. Follow ice-cream maker’s instructions and churn for about 15 minutes.
6. In the last 5 minutes of churning, toss in nuts and praline pieces.

Voila! Creamy, crunchy, salty, nutty, goodness.