Random recipe#9: Salted caramel Ice-cream!

What’s my favorite food? Ice cream and it will be probably forever. I’m constantly craving it and this salted caramel ice cream is my newest craving. It is the best ice cream I have ever made, yes strawberry gelato you are getting pushed to second. Side note: can anyone tell me the real difference between gelato and ice cream? I’ve read so many various opinions on this but so many of the recipes are nearly identical. My thoughts were that gelato had less fat and often used cornstarch in place of eggs, but over the years I’ve seen so many recipes for gelato that don’t hold true to that. In my opinion, gelato should have less fat, less egg yolks (or none at all) and use cornstarch instead and it should be softer and seemingly silkier than ice cream. With that said, this recipe could pass for gelato or ice cream, but since I’m in the Australia and ice cream is more common I guess we’ll just call it ice cream. Maybe it will just depend on the temperature you choose to freeze it too. I first ate this semi-firm and it tasted just like gelato, then I upped my freezer temperature and let it freeze until firm and it had the texture of ice cream. Another side note, this ice cream will need a lower freezing temperature as it contains salt if you want it to become firm. Funny that I’d never thought about that before but it’s like salt water, it takes lower temperatures to reach freezing point. If you are an ice cream lover like me and are looking for a new recipe to test out – please let this be the one. It’s simply amazing! My family devoured it and ended up sharing the last scoop. Enjoy

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt, partially crushed

Method:

• Preparation of caramel:

Gather all of your ingredients and have them nearby ready to add to the mixture as needed. In a heavy-bottomed 3 quart saucepan, heat sugar, corn syrup and water over moderately high heat whisking constantly to dissolve sugar. Once mixture reaches a boil, stop whisking and allow mixture to boil until it reaches a dark amber color, carefully swirling pan occasionally (be careful not to burn it, it should become a deep orange with a bit of red/browness). Once mixture reaches a dark amber color, immediately add butter and whisk until butter has melted then immediately remove from heat. Wait 3 seconds then carefully pour in 2/3 cup of the heavy cream and immediately whisk to combine (it will bubble vigorously so be careful). Whisk until mixture is smooth then stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool slightly while preparing ice cream mixture.

• Preparation if the Ice-cream

In a separate medium saucepan, bring remaining 1 1/3 cups heavy cream and 1 3/4 cup of the milk just to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile in a small mixing bowl whisk together cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup milk until smooth. Once cream and milk mixture begins to bubble, stir in cornstarch mixture and reduce heat to medium-low, then cook stirring constantly until mixture has thickened well and coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 4 – 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in caramel sauce. Transfer mixture to a heat proof container and chill in refrigerator until completely cool, then transfer to freezer and chill until very cold, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally during chilling process. Process mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufactures directions, adding sea salt during the last 5 minutes of mixing. Return ice cream to container, cover and transfer to freezer and freeze until semi-firm or firm.