Frozen Concoction #1 - Salted Caramel Ice Cream

June 22, 2012 Plate Fete

Okay let’s talk salty-sweet for a moment…amazing-rad-completely-addicting-salty-sweetness. You add this combination to a few cups of cream and churn it away to yumo-town and you find yourself on the kitchen floor with a empty bowl and five pounds heavier than you were twenty minutes before. This happens, it’s okay.

This wasn’t just an ice cream, this was frozen happiness. At first taste you might be tempted to think that you didn’t add enough salt, but then you wait and the sweet caramel fades into a slight twang of saltiness which makes it totally addicting. It’s like a chocolate coated pretzel, except without the pretzel, and no chocolate, and creamy instead of crunchy…you just need to make it!

This recipe is super simple, so let us begin! First, we have to make the caramel. Caramel intimidates people, but really it’s just melted sugar, nothing scary here.

Melt it away until it becomes a dark amber color and all the sugar is dissolved. Next, you need to add the cream to your caramel until all the caramel has dissolved into the cream. When you add the cream to your caramel the sugar will begin to harden, DON’T PANIC, just continue stirring and it will all dissolve once again. Pour into a bowl, add salt and vanilla and set aside to cool. Bring your milk and remaining cream and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs and slowly pour half of hot mixture into the eggs, don’t stop whisking! This step is call “tempering”, we need to temper the eggs so they don’t scramble, that would be icky. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and continue cooking until it has reached 170 F, don’t let it boil. After it has reached the proper temperature pour into a fine-mesh strainer and then add to cooled mixture. *Straining the custard will ensure that there aren’t any lumps in the final product.* Chill in the fridge for at least eight hours, or overnight. I know it’s hard to wait, but trust me, it’s worth it! When your mixture is cooled, pour into your handy-dandy ice cream maker and churn away.

You could be a nice, patient, little chef and let this sit in the fridge to thicken up a little and then enjoy with a mug of iced coffee. Or you could do the intelligent thing and take a spoon to that sucker and not feel guilty. Whatever way you want to roll this ice cream is truly amazing! Enjoy, and happy summer!

Sincerely,

Pedantic Foodie

Salted Caramel Ice Cream Recipe:

adapted from epicurious.com

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups sugar (divided)

2 1/4 cups heavy cream (divided)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

3 eggs

Directions

Heat 1 cup sugar in a medium skillet over medium heat, stir occasionally until mixture begins to melt. When the sugar is fully melted and dark amber in color add 1 1/4 cups cream and stir until all the caramel has dissolved into cream. Pour into a separate bowl and add salt and vanilla and cool to room temperature. Bring milk and remaining cream and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Whisk eggs in a small bowl and add half of hot mixture slowly while whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture reaches 170 F then pour into a fine mesh strainer. Stir into cooled mixture and chill 8 hours or overnight. Churn in ice cream maker according to machine’s instructions. Enjoy!