Name: Brown Butter Ice Cream
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 60 min
Yield: 8–10 servings
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: 1½ cups heavy cream; 1 cup whole milk; ½ cup unsalted butter; 1 cup packed brown sugar; 8 large egg yolks; ¼ tsp. kosher salt

One of chef Bill Briand’s earliest culinary jobs was at Emeril’s in downtown New Orleans. It was an impressive place to launch a young career, and Briand admits the opportunity wouldn’t have come without a loving push from his mother, Virginia Eileen Briand. An afternoon spent dropping off résumés around the Crescent City (with his mom behind the wheel) led them to Emeril’s back door—a spot Briand believed beyond his reach. She shifted the car into park and said, “You gotta try.”

“That’s the type of woman she was,” says Briand of his late mother. The Alabama chef can’t recall a memory of her that doesn’t have food placed at the heart of the narrative. He was born on a military base in Great Britain and spent his childhood on Marine bases across the United States. Cooking was the constant thread that brought their family together, both in the kitchen and at the table.

Now left with nearly 250,000 of his mother’s handwritten recipes, Chef Briand is channeling her legacy into a new restaurant called Little Bird in Fairhope, Alabama, which is set to open in June. Its name stems from the Gaelic translation of “Eileen,” and each room at Little Bird will be a homage of sorts: There’s the Ginny Bar, an ode to his mother’s nickname and go-to drink (a gin martini); Victory Hall, a reference to her birth on Victory Day; the Blackbird Room, a nod to her favorite Beatles song; and the Virginia Eileen Dining Room, which will be adjacent to the kitchen and closest to his heart.

A vintage photo of five people in a garden — Briand’s mother (middle) in his uncle Bill’s garden, whom he was named after.

Launched in collaboration with the Hope Farm, the restaurant will be a comfort-focused, trinket-adorned space crafting coastal Southern dishes. Briand has grown tired of the chaotic kitchen scene and strives for a place to cook food in contentment—an ethos he knows his mother would agree with.

One of the recipes he spent time trying to emulate was Virginia’s brown butter ice cream, a toastier older sibling of vanilla with a subtle nutty flavor. Briand remembers his mother blending the season’s freshest fruits into the base but attests that even by itself, it’s a homespun delight.

Ingredients

BROWN BUTTER ICE CREAM (YIELD: 8–10 SERVINGS)

1½ cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
8 large egg yolks
¼ tsp. kosher salt

Preparation

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue cooking, swirling occasionally, until the butter turns golden. Strain out the solids and let the browned butter cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, salt, and egg yolks until pale and smooth.

In a saucepan, combine the heavy cream and milk. Heat over medium until just simmering and remove from the heat. Slowly pour about ½ cup of the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly to temper, and follow with the remaining egg mixture.

Return the tempered egg mixture to the stove. Add the browned butter. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Strain the custard into a clean bowl. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a container and freeze until firm.