Salted Caramel Ice Cream

By Melissa Clark

Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Angie Mosier for The New York Times
Total Time
30 minutes, plus several hours’ cooling, chilling and freezing
Rating
5(920)
Comments
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This luxurious ice cream is the ideal balance of sweet yet salty and rich yet light. It's custard-based, which means you have to separate a lot of eggs (six), but the thick and silky results are worth a little bit of fuss. For something a little lighter, use more milk and less cream, as long as the dairy adds up to three cups. You can also cut down on egg yolks for a thinner base, but don’t go below three. Despite the rumors, making caramel is not hard, but it can be a little tricky. If this is your first time, make sure you have enough sugar for a second batch in the event your first is a bust. Also, remove the cooking caramel from the heat just before you think you need to to prevent burning.

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Ingredients

Yield:About 1½ pints
  • 1¼ cups granulated sugar
  • 2cups heavy cream
  • 1cup whole milk
  • ⅛teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 6large egg yolks
  • ¼teaspoon flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

255 calories; 17 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 23 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 87 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a medium pot over medium heat, melt ¾ cup sugar with 3 tablespoons water, swirling skillet frequently, until sugar turns mahogany brown in color (it should be almost but not quite black).

  2. Step 2

    Add heavy cream, milk, remaining ½ cup sugar and the salt; simmer mixture until caramel melts and cream mixture is completely smooth. Remove pot from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about a third of the hot cream into the yolks, then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream.

  3. Step 3

    Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).

  4. Step 4

    Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

  5. Step 5

    Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Sprinkle flaky sea salt into base during the last 2 minutes of churning. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in freezer until needed.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
920 user ratings
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Comments

Chum

The recipe asks to cook the Carmel base way too far. It should not be almost black, but medium brown when removed from the heat. It will continue to get a little darker, to the correct point, when removed from the heat.

Great recipe but tricky

This ice cream is very rich and delicious. Bee aware that the steps for the carmel may leave you thinking you've messed up when you haven't. Initially the sugar and water turn liquid and simmer, then the liquid dries up and leaves thick crumbly sugar, then the mixture begins to melt again and turn brown. This process can take awhile. At this point you add the cream, the caramel seizes up and solidifies, but with continual cooking it melts and flavors the cream mixture.

A bad cook

I don't blame the recipe for what happened. I should have stopped after dropping the eggs or after spilling half a bag of sugar. But yet. Things got really bad when making the caramel. I was using a cheap spoon made of cheap plastic. I didn't realize it was melting, because the caramel would stick to the spoon and distort the spoon. The melted plastic sort of mixed with the caramel before cementing to the pot. I owe my housemate a new pot. My tip: use a heat resistant spoon. <3

Ahona

After making this, I agree with the comments saying the caramel doesn’t need to be pushed to the point where it’s very dark. I followed the recipe exactly and did that, and the resulting ice cream ended up tasted more like a salted honeycomb/sponge candy ice cream. Don’t get me wrong - it was still delicious, but if you want a more classic true salted caramel flavor, probably best to go for a medium brown caramel.

CO

I initially thought the recipe said to cook the caramel too far as it was pretty dark and the warm custard tasted a bit bitter. But once it's cold and aerated ice cream, it mellows out a lot. I'll try it with a lighter caramel as well but I would say to give the recipe a shot as written, especially if you're a fan of those darker caramel chews. Also, for "swirling frequently" step, I stopped touching it once the sugar was dissolved and it worked well.

LSS

I'd like to try another time with fewer egg yolks. Has anyone done this?

CO

Yes I just tried with 3 and it worked well. Maybe even still more custardy than I like. My impression, with this base recipe, is that you could even leave all the eggs out and still get ice cream, it's just a bit icey, like a cheaper ice cream from the grocery story. I'm going for something a little more "ice cream shop" than "frozen custard" so I'm experimenting with less and might try something like a xanthan or guar gum.

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