Caramel Ice Cream

Very exciting things are to come, as I am now the proud owner of my very own ice cream maker (or sorbetière électrique, since I took a picture with the wrong side). I've had my eye on this bad boy for a long time now, at least two weeks if not three. I spotted it in the kitchen appliance section at JCP, right next to the popcorn popper and cotton candy maker. I technically have an ice cream maker already, but it kinda sucks. It only makes one serving at a time, you have to freeze the bowl for at least two hours between servings, and it's battery powered. So it's pretty freaking useless. For a good while I've wanted a real one, and Friday was pay-day. So I went for it. It's originally $70, but it was on sale for $50, I have my associate discount, so it came out to $37.50. Then I got at $10 mail-in rebate. What a fantastic bargain!! So I just could not wait to make ice cream.

So in making this ice cream, I kind of tackled two challenges, the first being ice cream making in general. It's not something I've done before and it was scary. The other challenge is caramel. Literally every time I try to make it I pour in the cream too fast or the cream is too cold or I'm cursed and it seizes up into a big messy sugar blob. Naturally, that happened again. But it is what it is. I melted the big chunks down and ate the little ones (yummy). At least I didn't burn it, that would have sucked. #irreparabledamage

Caramel Ice Cream- From Annie's Eats

Ingredients

1½ cups of sugar
1 cup of heavy cream, nuked for 30ish seconds
4 tablespoons of salted butter, room temperature
½ teaspoon of sea salt
2 cups of whole milk, divided
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (which, as I'm writing this, I realized I totally forgot to add, oops)

Directions

It's game time. Get psyched because this is the make it or break it moment. Pour the sugar evenly into a medium-sized pot and heat it over medium. Let it chill there until the edges start to melt, then start stirring with a heat proof spatula or wooden spoon. So the sugar will start to get kind of chunky, I like to stab them and break them up. Nothing is scarier than when most of your caramel is already getting dark and you still have those chunks that are light. Pull it off the burner right away when all the caramel is like a dark amber color. Better to err on the side of lighter because burnt caramel is gross. Now, start pouring the cream in a sloowww stream into the pot while you stir. Word of warning, it gets crazy. The mixture gets all bubbly and steamy so be careful. If it seizes like mine always does, just put it back onto the stove on low and melt it down as well as you can. You'll strain it later before it goes into the ice cream maker, so whatevs. Stir in the butter. When the butter is incorporated, add 1 cup of milk and salt (if you're like me and don't have salted butter, you can use unsalted with ¾ teaspoons of salt). 

Put all your egg yolks in a bowl, and pour a wee bit of the caramel in to temper them. If you threw it all together at once the yolks would curdle and be disgusting. So pour in a little more and a little more, then put it all bag in the pot and heat it over medium-high heat (now it's called a custard!) Keep stirring the whole time until it reaches about 175 degrees, or it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Now pour the custard through a strainer in case there's any caramel chunks or weird cooked egg pieces. Stir in the rest of the milk and the vanilla. The cream is ready! All that's left is to freeze it according to machine's instructions, then you've got ICE CREAM!

Reviews

I love this stuff. I usually don't like rich desserts but caramel is my soft spot. I could eat it by the spoonful. This ice cream is so good! Kevy gave it a positive review, and my mommy said awesome flavor and texture, best caramel ice cream she's ever tasted (although I'm not sure how many times she's eaten caramel ice cream, is it that common?) Anyhow, it's amazing.