Maker's Mark Bourbon Buttered Pecan Ice Cream

This ice cream is definitely for bourbon lovers, not for the faint of heart or children (unless said children are bourbon lovers). I think this would be fabulous with pumpkin pie or sweet potato cake. This is another recipe from Jeni's Ice Cream.  I don't think I will ever need to look at another ice cream recipe book again.

For the buttered pecans:
3/4 cup pecans
1 T unsalted butter, melted
1/2 t fine sea salt
Combine ingredients and bake in a single layer on a baking sheet at 350º for about 10-15 minutes, stirring once. Let cool and coarsely chop.

For the ice cream:
2 cups whole milk
1 T plus 1 t cornstarch
3 T cream cheese, softened in a stainless steel bowl (one size smaller than your ice bath)
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 T light corn syrup
1 t vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup bourbon

Mix about 2 T of the milk with the cornstarch to form a slurry. Fill a large stainless steel bowl with ice and water.
Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla paste in a heavy duty saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 4 minutes. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and boil again, stirring with a heatproof spatula for another 1 minute. Whisk the hot mixture into the cream cheese until smooth and then whisk in the bourbon. Put this into the ice bath and stir until cool. Refrigerate the base until completely cold.
Freeze the base according to your ice cream maker directions (I do this in a Cuisinart for 25 minutes). In the final couple of minutes, add the chopped pecans. Pack into paper cartons.