Before this, I have tried many caramel ice cream recipes before. Some contains all egg yolks. Some contains butter or condensed milk but nothing is good enough for our fussy taste until I found this Epicurious recipe!
Although there is this one and only caramel ice cream in our ice cream hall of glory, this recipe can be used to make two different kinds of ice cream!!!
When I followed the recipe exactly to the tee and cooked the mixture after adding the eggs, the custard mixture become very thick and creamy. Sounds yummy, isn't it? Strangely, I feel that the cooked eggs and its thickened texture has sort of masked the caramel taste eventually... Please don't get me wrong here! We really love this thick caramel ice cream but my intuition tells me that I should try making this ice cream according to the Ben and Jerry's way by not cooking the mixture after adding the eggs. And guess what? I'm totally right!!!
This is the best salted caramel ice cream that I have made.
You don't need a candy thermometer to do this...
The sugar itself with NO water will melt evenly to reach a rich dark luscious color.
This requires some patience and time to cook and stir until the caramel dissolves.
At this point of time, you can either:
1) Add heated milk and cream into the eggs. Cook the custard until it coats the back of the spoon. Then combine all the ingredients or
2) add the remaining ingredients and don't cook the mixture.
To minimise the risk of food contamination due to the use of raw eggs, I have used shelf stable Farm Pride powdered whole eggs which have been pasteurised before use.
The finial touch and the must have... The salt and vanilla.
The cooked ice cream mixture - It is slightly darker in colour, thicker and "flaky".
This is the uncooked egg version of the caramel ice cream.
Although it looks lighter in its color and also a little more icy during the churning of the ice cream...
... it is perfectly smooth and more robust in its flavour!
You have to believe me that this recipe is really good.It is so good that we are always craving for this ice cream!Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from Epicurious
Makes about 1 quart or 1L
200g (1 cup) caster sugar plus 50g (1/4 cup) if you prefer the ice cream to sweeter but we didn't use the extra 1/4 cup of sugar
2 1/4 cup heavy cream, divided into 1 1/4 cup and 1 cup3 large eggs*
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
* Use 4 1/2 tbsp whole egg powder plus 100ml (6 2/3 tbsp) water if you are not cooking the custard.After enjoying the extremely smooth and velvety texture of Ben's ice cream, I would strongly recommend the addition of eggs (preferably the powdered ones) in this recipe as the presence of the eggs can really make a huge difference.
Heat 1 cup sugar in a dry 10-inch (25 cm) heavy skillet or pot over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly. When it starts to melt, stir occasionally and allow it to melt and cook evenly to form a deep dark amber color.
Add 1 1/4 cups cream. Be careful that the mixture will spatter. Cook and stir the mixture until the caramel has completely dissolved. Cool to room temperature.
*If you are like me, prefer not to cook the custard and do what I did with the Ben and Jerry's way, you can combine the rest of the ingredients into the cooled (room temperature) caramel mixture. Pour mixture through a sieve into a large bowl or container and chill mixture in the fridge until it is cold enough to churn in an ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream into an airtight container and store it in freezer for at least 5-6 hrs to firm up the texture before serve. Otherwise, please proceed to the next step.Meanwhile, bring milk, the remaining cream and 1/4 cup sugar (optional) just to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally.
Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add half of hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard coats back of spoon or check if the mixture is 170°F using an instant-read thermometer (do not boil the mixture).
Combine both custard and caramel mixture and stir in the salt and vanilla. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl or container. Chill mixture with occasional stirring until very cold, 3 to 6 hours. Freeze custard using an ice cream maker following the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer ice cream into an airtight container and store it in freezer to firm up the texture further.
Enjoy the treatIf you are currently living in the wintery Australia, you might ask... Why am I having ice cream at this freezing season? Sorry to say that this is one of ice cream recipes that I have intensively made during our last Spring, Summer and Autumn and I hope that you will consider making this beautiful ice cream for the coming Spring, Summer and Autumn.
To prepare for your ultimate ice cream experience, I hope that you can serve and enjoy a perfect scoop of this best caramel ice cream with a Tovolo ice cream scoop.
It is a fantastic ice cream scoop made with style and great quality :)
It is easy to use and also a steady scoop which means that it can scoop ice cream which is very firm without waiting for the ice cream to soften.
It has a stand which means that it has no mess to clean. Best of all, it is dishwasher friendly and won't go rusty with any dishwashing detergent.
I must thank Donaldson (Tovolo Australia) for providing me one Tovolo ice cream scoop to give away in my blog. This giveaway is open to ALL international readers. Submission ends on 23 June 2015. Good Luck!
Our Little Thumbs Up event starts on the first day of the month until the last day of the month. Please join us! To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is CREAM for June 2015 and link with us at this post anytime until 30th June 2015.
What after June 2015? Cheryl from Baking Taitai will be the next hostess of July 2015 and her theme is TEA!
Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within this month. (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to Bake for Happy Kids, my little favorite DIY and Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. For more details, please see this.
