Salted Caramel Ice Cream
A custard ice cream swirled with salted caramel, chilled for 4 hours, churned and frozen until firm.
Photograph credit: Salted caramel ice cream by T.Tseng · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
How to Cook Salted Caramel Ice Cream
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Heat the 150 g sugar and water in a heavy pan without stirring for 8 minutes until deep amber. Off the heat, whisk in the warm cream and salt. Cool, and set half aside for swirling.
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Heat the milk to steaming. Whisk the yolks and 60 g sugar until pale, then whisk in a ladle of milk and tip back into the pan.
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Cook over low heat to 80°C / 176°F, stirring, then strain into the half-portion of caramel cream with the vanilla.
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Chill the base for 4 hours, then churn until thick.
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Layer into a container with ribbons of the reserved caramel and freeze for 4 hours.
Things to Watch For
- Take the caramel to a deep amber.
- Stand back when adding the cream.
- Swirl the caramel in after churning.
About This Recipe
Dark caramel, cold cream and a pinch of salt: the flavours of a toffee, in a scoop. A real salted caramel ice cream starts with a real caramel, cooked to the colour of a dark penny, which gives it a depth of flavour that a shop-bought sauce cannot match. It is bittersweet, a little smoky and rich.
Make the caramel first. Heat the sugar with a little water in a heavy pan without stirring, tilting the pan to even the colour, until it turns a deep amber, about 8 minutes. Carefully pour in warm cream, standing back, as it splutters violently. Whisk until smooth, stir in the salt and let it cool. Half goes into the custard, half is saved for swirling.
Take the caramel a shade darker than seems safe. A pale caramel tastes only of sugar, and a good ice cream needs the bitterness of a deeper cook. The moment it smells slightly smoky and the colour is that of strong tea, pull it from the heat. Seconds later it burns.
The custard is made with egg yolks and milk and cooked to 80°C / 176°F, then combined with the caramel cream. Chill the base for 4 hours, churn, then layer the ice cream into a container with ribbons of the reserved caramel and freeze for 4 hours. Finish each scoop with a few flakes of sea salt.
On the Table Alongside
Brownies · Apple pie · Wafer cones · Espresso
Keeping Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Keeps in the freezer for 2 weeks.
Questions People Ask
How long does Salted Caramel Ice Cream take to make?
40 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 8 hours of Chilling and freezing, so allow 8 hours 55 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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