This stuff is pure gold! Rich and toasty homemade caramel in a cool and creamy frozen custard and worth every calorie!
Difficulty level: I would give this recipe a moderate rating. It’s a little higher than my other ice cream recipes due to the fact that is includes two different techniques: making a caramel sauce as well as making a custard. Neither of these are very difficult, but if you are unfamiliar with one or both of them, it can be anxiety inducing. But don’t let that scare you off. Just read through the entire recipe first, familiarize yourself with the process and have everything measured out before starting.
Here’s what you need:
First thing you’re going to do is make the caramel. My preferred way to make a caramel is the dry method, which is simply putting sugar in a pot and heating it until it melts. Sounds easy to make, but is also easy to mess up if you’re not careful. It’s more hands on than making a wet caramel, but I prefer it that way!
Make a dry caramel.
Spread the sugar out across the bottom of a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and turn the heat to medium. You don’t have to stir so much right away, but once that bottom layer of sugar starts to melt, you need to stir it pretty regularly.
It will start crystallizing and clumping together and that’s perfectly normal. Sugar just loves to be in it’s solid form, so anytime melted sugar touches something else that is slightly cooler than itself, it instantly re-solidifies.
It’s important to keep moving the sugar at this point because if you leave it alone, the bottom layer of sugar will burn before the top layer even really begins melting.
You just keep stirring and the sugar will continue to melt and caramelize.
Towards the end, if there are some pesky clumps that just don’t want to melt, use your spatula or wooden spoon to smoosh them into the caramel. Also, later on the whole thing is going to be strained. So if there are any rogue bits of crystallized sugar still floating about, you will be able to strain them out at that point.
This is where it gets interesting.
If you have never made a homemade caramel sauce, then this next part will probably give you a good scare.
Pour half of the cream into the caramel. Only half, which is 1 cup. Introducing this new, cooler ingredient is going to cause the melted sugar to seize up and bubble aggressively. It’s totally normal. Just keep on stirring and it will melt into the sauce.
The reason I don’t add the entire amount of cream at first is because if you add too much of a cooler ingredient to the caramel right away, it will seize up and solidify to the point that the sugar won’t fully melt back into the sauce.
You can see here that it’s still a bit solid but the sauce is beginning to darken and become thicker. That means the caramelized sugar is beginning to melt into the rest of the sauce.
Once the sauce is smooth, add the butter and keep stirring until it has melted into the sauce. At this point, you have successfully made a caramel sauce! Now we are going to turn the sauce into an ice cream.
Add the remaining cream, the milk and salt. Slice the vanilla pod in half lengthwise and use the back of a knife to scrape the seeds out and add them to the pot. Go ahead and toss in the remaining vanilla pod. There’s a lot flavor in that pod and we don’t want to waste any of it. The whole thing is going to be strained in the end anyway.
Make the custard.
In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks. Next, slowly begin drizzling about a third of the hot caramel and milk mixture into the yolks while whisking constantly. This is tempering. You are cooking yolks gently so they don’t scramble.
Once the yolks are tempered, pour them into the pot with the remaining milks and heat the custard to 165 degrees, stirring all the while.
Strain the custard into a bowl.
Place a sheet of plastic directly on top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate the custard for at least 4 hours. It has to be totally chilled before going into the ice cream maker. I try to always give my custard overnight to chill.
Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and churn it up! Scoop the ice cream into a container and place it in the freezer to harden.
This ice cream is even more delicious topped with my Quick and Delicious Candied Pecans, or scooped onto my Perfect Crisp and Fudgy Nutella Brownies or Cinnamon Apple Cake!
Other recipes you may like:
Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 vanilla bean sliced in half lengthwise and the seeds scraped out
- 4 egg yolks
Instructions
- Pour the sugar into a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and heat to medium. Stir the sugar as it begins to melt and caramelize. Keep on stirring until all of the sugar is melted and the caramel is a rich amber color. Stir in one cup of the cream. The sugar will seize up but just keep stirring it until it melts back into the caramel. Add the butter and stir until melted then add the remaining cream, milk, vanilla and salt. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Heat the caramel and milk mixture just to a simmer, then slowly drizzle about a third of it into the yolks while whisking constantly. Finally pour the tempered egg yolks into the saucepan with the remaining caramel/milk mixture and heat to 165 degrees while stirring constantly. Strain the custard into a bowl, then lay a sheet of plastic directly on top to prevent a skin from forming. Place the bowl in the fridge to cool completely, at least 4 hours, better if overnight.Once the custard has cooled sufficiently, pour it into an ice cream maker and churn for however long instructed by the appliance's manual. Scoop the ice cream into a container and place it into the freezer to harden.
Delicious. Easy. Great for summer.