Salted Caramel Ice Cream

By Melissa Clark

Updated January 25, 2017

  • An overhead image of a scoop running through caramel colored ice cream.
    Angie Mosier for The New York Times
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
30 minutes, plus several hours’ cooling, chilling and freezing
Rating
5(977)
Comments
Read comments

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.

Featured in: The Only Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Need

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

    or to print this recipe.

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:About 1½ pints

  • 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

  • 2 cups heavy cream

  • 1 cup whole milk

  • ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt

  • 6 large egg yolks

  • ¼ teaspoon flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

28 grams carbs; 166 milligrams cholesterol; 306 calories; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 21 grams fat; 1 gram trans fat; 105 milligrams sodium; 4 grams protein; 28 grams sugar

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.

Powered by

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.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
977 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

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

Good base recipe to replicate Toscanini's Burnt Caramel Ice Cream!

I used this as a guide to attempt the burnt caramel ice cream at Toscanini's in Cambridge, MA. I took the caramel to almost black. 3/4 sugar and 3 tablespoons water worked just fine for me, though I kept the flame a little more medium/low that full medium. I added only an extra 1/4 cup of sugar in and to be honest think for the burnt flavor I wanted, I could even have forgone that. I also added 1/2 flaky salt at the end instead of 1/4. Churned up beautifully and tasted great!

Naina

me again! forgot to mention I also only used 4 egg yolks instead of 6, still worked out great!

Dig-n-Slop

This ice cream stole the show at dinner - both for those watching the process and eating the final result. Great Recipe but Tricky's comments helped keep me going or I might have thought I'd messed it up very early on. Will be making it again for the perfect affogato.

Emma S

Ok first off - INCREDIBLE! Could barely keep myself from eating the base before it even became ice cream. Some thoughts along the way - i added vanilla bean paste to the milk mixture, which was an amazing choice. Also the caramel seized up which made me a little nervous but i just continued to whisk together with the milk on low heat and we eventually got to the smooth base. Soooo good. I plan to add crushed Oreos in tomorrow when i make the ice cream!

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.