I am not a big fan of ice cream, I never have been. Not sure why. I just never found it particularly enjoyable to eat. Maybe its because I have sensitive teeth and it hurts, maybe its because you get brain freeze when you eat it too quickly. Its just never been something that excited me much.
I do like Ben & Jerry’s however, but I think that’s more to do with the ‘bits’ inside rather than the ice cream. My perfect friend would be one that loves the ice cream and not the bits. Marriage made in heaven! My favourite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is Caramel Chew Chew – caramel ice cream with swirls of caramel and chocolate covered caramel pieces. Incredible.
So anyway, a couple of weeks ago I had some friends over for dinner and I was trying to think of a pudding I could make that would be easy, tasty and could be made in advance so I didn’t need to spend the whole night in the kitchen. I decided to make a batch of chocolate brownies and serve them warm, topped with a scoop of caramel ice cream. But, never one to make life easy for myself, I decided to make the ice cream instead of buying it.
I searched for recipes for salted caramel ice cream and came across loads, so I took bits from different recipes to make it as easy as possible. The recipe below serves 4 people. I doubled the quantities for my dinner party. I suggest making more rather than less of this. IT TASTES AMAZING!! I’m not blowing my own horn here, I just followed the recipe. But anything that mixes sugar and cream together is always going to taste great.
PLEASE try out this recipe if you get a chance. I don’t have an ice cream maker so it took a bit more effort but my goodness, it was worth it! If you do have an ice cream maker, you have absolutely no excuse not to make it. It really is so easy and it really does taste so delicious. Its creamy, in taste and texture and the hint of salt cuts through the sweetness. Yummmmm!!
Ingredients
6floz/170g caster sugar
8floz/225ml double cream
5floz/150ml semi-skimmed milk
4 egg yolks
½ tsp Maldon sea salt
Start by placing a pan on the stove to heat. Once hot, put 5oz/140g of the caster sugar into the pan.
Heat, shaking the pan occasionally until the sugar melts to a good caramel colour.
Add the double cream and bring back to the boil.
Then finally add the milk.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl beat the egg yolks and remaining caster sugar until pale and mousse-like (this is called a sabayon).
Pour the hot caramel on to the sabayon and whisk well, then sieve and chill it.
Add the salt to the chilled mixture and churn in an ice cream machine.
Alternatively, if you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can churn it by hand.
To do this, pour the ice cream mixture through a sieve into a deep bowl made of plastic, stainless steel or something durable, and place it in the freezer.
After 45 minutes, check it. As it starts to freeze near the edges, remove it from the freezer and stir it vigorously with a spatula or whisk. Really beat it up and break up any frozen sections. Return to freezer.
Continue to check the mixture every 20-30 minutes, stirring vigorously as it’s freezing.
If you have one, you can use a hand-held mixer for best results.
Keep checking periodically and stirring while it freezes (by hand or with the electric mixer) until the ice cream is completely frozen. It will likely take 3-4 hours to be ready, and should look like this…
This ice cream actually melts quite quickly so don’t leave it out too long before scooping it.
It tasted AMAZING when served with the hot chocolate brownie. PLEASE give this a go if you can. You won’t regret it!
19 Comments
[…] one scoop of the salted caramel ice-cream which was nice, but not the best I’ve ever had. This is the best salted caramel ice-cream I’ve […]
If I can’t find caster sugar can I use Powdered sugar for a substitute?
Hmmm….I don’t think so to be honest. Whereabouts do you live? You should be able to get caster sugar anywhere, even in newsagents! If you can’t, maybe you can just order it on Amazon?
If you have a coffee grinder or food processor you can run ordinary granulated sugar through it to turn it to caster sugar but watch it and don’t let it go to far. Incidentally if you are in the USA you may find that “superfine” sugar is more or less the same as our caster sugar.
Great recipe. How do you adapt it to just a basic ice cream recipe that other flavours can be added to. Would the cream and milk after being added to eggs have to be heated to thicken prior to freezing? Thanks
Hey there! This is a good basic recipe for ice cream – http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1881/ultimate-vanilla-ice-cream. I hope that works out for you.
Made this today, with some trepidation, as I had never made caramel before.
It was easy and the pictures were very helpful (My word! Is it meant to look like this? Well, it’s like the picture…)
And it tastes really good. I regret not following your advice to make twice the quantity.
Hi
When do you add the double cream to the caramelised sugar? When I added it,the sugar turned really hard and became one big lump.
So diassapointed
Hi there! I added the double cream as soon as the sugar had melted to a good caramel colour. Then I brought it to the boil again and then added the milk. I’m really sorry it seized up when you did it. I’ve made this several times and haven’t had that problem. It could happen if the cream was extremely cold? If you’re willing to try it again, it might help to warm the milk up slightly before adding it in? x
If you just keep warming it and stirring the big lump will dissolve into the cream, it’s not a problem! Good things come to those with patience!
Exact same thing happened to me. It must be what happens when you add cold to boiling – the caramel immediately crystallised when the cream hit it. Had to stand and stir it for nearly half an hour to dissolve the caramel again. I was wondering if I you could just melt some toffees to create a caramel and then add cream and bring to the boil before adding the milk? Lovely flavour though, and the leftover egg whites will be perfect for pavlova!
I have made this several times both with an ice cream maker and by hand using electric beaters – really easy and truly delicious. I also used granulated sugar in the absence of castor and it worked just as well. Huge hit with friends.
The one thing I question is adding sugar to a hot pan – I did this the first time and it spat everywhere and then went solid! Since the I have heated the pan slowly with the sugar in it and this works and is much safer
Thanks a lot for a wonderful recipe!
Hi Fiona, I’m so pleased to hear you enjoy this recipe! Thanks for the tip on the heat of the pan, I’ll certainly try that myself next time I make it. 🙂
Turned out really well. Just one tip I followed which I saw on sat kitchen; don’t stir sugar as it is melting just shake it around. Basically it doesn’t matter if you use castor or granulated as essentially you are melting it and it ends up the same
Hi,
I’m planning on using this recipe for my food tech exam. Is it possible to use lacto-free milk/cream instead?
And also, can I use golden caster sugar or does it not matter?
Thanks
I’m so sorry for the late reply! I saw it at the time then got distracted and it totally slipped my mind. I’m sure I’m too late now but… I’m not sure about the lacto-free milk/cream actually, but its worth a try. I haven’t tried it myelf though. As for the caster sugar, it really doesn’t matter what type you use, I usually tend to use golden caster sugar in my recipes as I think it has a better flavour.
Hi there, I saw Nigella making a salted caramel ice cream around Christmas time, with double cream and a tin of condensed milk and adding a pinch of sea salt to it. She just had it in one of those KMix things and she let it do its thing while smiling at it.
I’m wondering if you have tried that version?
Nigella has let me down on 2 out of the three of her recipes that I’ve tried so I’d love if someone has given this one a go!
I’ve friends coming round for dinner tomorrow night and I don’t want to chance it. One is gluten free and one has a nut allergy so I reckon I’m adequately challenged on the menu front already without chancing desert
I haven’t tried her version I’m afraid but I might try it soon, it sounds nice and simple! I have tried out a lot of her recipes and they’ve always turned out well. I hope your dinner went well!
I made this ice cream yesterday and it was a huge success but I thought I would feedback on things to bear in mind when using an induction hob.
Patience is the key to induction hob caramel as well as using a saucepan that sits within the induction ring rather than hanging over the edges.
Mine was going really well and then I put the cold double cream in and the caramel went completely solid – took another 10 minutes to mix it all together.
I use a Cuisinart square ice cream machine so I confess I didn’t sieve the mixture at all, just gave it a good mix before putting in the machine. It did take a long time to solidify (maybe I needed a slightly thicker mixture or the bowl for the machine hadn’t been frozen for long enough). However, I popped in the freezer for three hours before going to our friend’s house for dinner and it was perfect. We had it with mixed spice oven-baked donuts. Delicious!
I will definitely make it again so thank you for the recipe!