Salted Butter Almond Ice Cream

1. In a medium-sized heat-safe bowl (metal, ceramic, or glass), whisk together the eggs until well blended. Set aside.
2. Pour the heavy cream into a metal bowl set in a larger bowl of ice and set a medium-mesh sieve on top. Set aside.
3. In a medium thick-bottomed saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter. Cook it, stirring constantly, until it just begins to brown. Add the brown sugar and salt. Stir until the sugar completely melts.
4. Slowly add the milk and half-and-half, stirring to incorporate. It will foam up initially, so make sure you are using a pan with high enough sides. Heat until all of the sugar is completely dissolved. (I don’t think my sugar completely melted so it got hard once I poured in the half-and-half and milk. If this happens to you, just be patient and the sugar will automatically release from the bottom and dissolve into the liquid.) Do not let it boil or the mixture may curdle. (Mine ended up curdling but I continued with the recipe.)
5. With a whisk in hand, slowly pour half of the milk and sugar mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly to incorporate. Then add the warmed egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk sugar mixture.
6. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden or heatproof rubber spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula, about 5-7 minutes (my entire liquid ended up curdling and almost ended up looking like scrambled eggs and never thickened but I continued onward).
7. Pour the custard through the sieve and stir it into the cream. (Since my liquid curdled I pushed most of the liquid through the sieve and left a lot of the curdled bits in the sieve and threw it away. The cream/custard mixture was very liquidy before I put it into the machine but once it churned, it was fine.) Add vanilla and stir until cool over the ice bath. Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
8. While the mixture is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F. Lay out the almonds on a roasting pan in a single layer coat with some melted butter or butter PAM spray and sprinkle with fleur de sel. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until lightly toasted and fragrant. Let cool. Once cool, roughly chop the almonds and set aside.
9. Pour chilled cream mixture into an ice cream maker and churn for 25 minutes or to desired consistency. Add chopped almonds and churn for another 5 minutes. Eat right away or put into airtight container with plastic wrap touching the ice cream so crystals do not form on it.