Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Let's talk about how this ice cream rocks my not-always-matching-socks. Seriously no Haagen Daas, Ben & Jerry's or other luxury ice cream can hold a flame to this recipe. And I can that say while retaining modesty because this is not my own but rather Ina Garten's recipe (Three cheers for Ina). The caramel is sweet with that sneaky bam! of flaked sea salt. The ice cream base is smooth and slinky. I up-ed the sea salt quantity, as I felt it got fairly lost when it got mixed in with the vanilla ice cream. Omit it completely if you wish, no harm done.... other than a lost opportunity to savour the caramel/salt explosion, which is a type of harm in itself.

Is it a bit cold for ice cream? I thought about this before making it. Piffle, tut and other words of indignation- of course not! But if you are a cold blooded creature serve it with something warm like I did- chocolate malt bread and butter pudding, coming soon to a blog near you!!

For the ice cream base
1 cup whole milk
2 cups cream
4 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp flaky sea salt

1. Heat the milk over a medium heat in a pan until almost to a boil. Allow to cool slightly.
2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar with an electric beater until pale in colour. Add the milk in a stream from a height while continuously beating. Pour back into the pan and beat continuously until thickened, around 5 minutes.
3. Put through a strainer to remove any egg lumps and allow to cool for half hour. Add the cream and salt and allow to cool for many hours.

For the salted caramel
1 1/4 cups of sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tsp flaky sea salt


1. Heat the sugar in a pan over a medium heat. Don't use a non-stick pan, it will prevent caramelisation.
2. Stir at first until the sugar starts to melt then stop stirring. Allow to turn a dark amber colour.
3. Add the cream and be careful as it may sputter.
4. Strain if there are any lumps into a bowl and then add the sea salt. Put the bowl in an ice bath or inside a bigger bowl with very cold water. That will stop the caramel continuing to cook.
5. Once completely cold mix in with the ice cream base.
6. Use an ice cream maker to churn and then freeze overnight or if you don't have one put in a container in the freezer and give it a good mix every few hours to prevent crystallisation.