Salted Caramel Ice Cream
A dark, bitter caramel base churned into custard, salted hard enough to keep the sweetness honest.
- Serves
- 8
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Written
Method
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Warm the cream and milk together in a saucepan over medium heat until steaming, then remove from the heat.
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In a separate heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the sugar over medium heat, swirling the pan (not stirring) until it turns deep amber and smells faintly burnt.
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Off the heat, whisk in the warm cream mixture in a slow stream — it will bubble hard — until the caramel is fully dissolved.
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Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then slowly whisk in a ladleful of the warm caramel cream to temper them.
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Scrape the tempered yolks back into the pot and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a spoon.
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Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl set in an ice bath, then stir in the salt and vanilla.
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Cover and refrigerate until fully cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.
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Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions until it holds its shape like soft-serve.
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Pack into a container, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface, and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.
Notes
The caramel wants to go further than feels safe — pull it once it’s the color of dark honey and just starts to smoke, since it keeps darkening off the heat and a pale caramel tastes like plain sugar once it’s frozen. Cold mutes sweetness, so the salt and the burn are both there to give it something to taste like.
No machine, no problem: pour the chilled base into a shallow pan and freeze it, raking with a fork every 30 minutes until it’s scoopable, for a coarser, granita-adjacent texture. Either way, let it sit out five minutes before serving — straight from the freezer it’s too hard to scoop cleanly.