Salted Caramel Ice Cream!!

My favorite place for ice cream in S.F. is Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission Dolores area. Their Salted Caramel Ice Cream has the perfect balance of sweet and salty. The texture is creamy and incredibly dense, just the way I like it.

I wanted to see if I could make a salted caramel ice cream that would come close to Bi-Rite's.

I found a Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream recipe on famed food blogger and cookbook author David Lebovitz's blog, David Lebovitz.com. Lebovitz's recipe adds a twist with crushed salted caramel candy swirled in at the very end of the ice cream-making process.  

I tried the recipe and it very close to Bi-Rite's Salted Caramel Ice Cream.  It turned out rich, creamy, dense, and with a very similar balance of buttery, sweet caramel and salt. It is definitely an ice cream recipe worth trying out, especially if you don't live in S.F. near Bi-Rite Creamery or you just want a big bucket ready for your indulging in the freezer.
 

For the salted caramel candy mix in:
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon sea salt

For the ice cream custard/base:
2 cups whole milk, divided
1½ cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons salted butter
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Other Important Materials:
Ice Cream Maker (recommend Cusinart ICE-30BC)
Baking sheet, and oil or sheet to line
Ice (for ice bath)

MAKING THE SALTED CARAMEL PIECES:
1. Spread ½ cup of the sugar in an even layer in a medium-sized, heavy duty saucepan. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, foil, or spray it lightly with unflavored baking spray (like Pam).

2. Heat the sugar over medium heat until the edges begin to become translucent and begin to dissolve. Use a heatproof utensil to gently stir the liquefied sugar from the bottom and edges towards the center, stirring, until all the sugar is dissolved. Melt as many leftover lumps of sugar as possible, but it's fine if there are a few left.

3. Continue to cook stirring infrequently until the caramel starts smoking and begins to smell like it is just about to burn, it will only take a minute or two to get here. Quickly sprinkle in the ¾ teaspoon salt and then immediately pour the HOT caramel (be careful!) onto the lined baking pan and tilt the pan in circles to make the caramel spread very thin. It will begin hardening immediately so move quickly. The thinner the better.

4. Let the caramel cool until completely hardened, then crush into fine confetti-sized pieces in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin, or with a mortar and pestle if you have one.

If you don't crush them fine enough you will end up with a bunch of crunchy hard pieces of caramel in your ice cream. If you crush them fine the caramel pieces will actually dissolve and result in nice swirls of caramel, with few crunchy pieces that never dissolve here and there.

MAKING THE ICE CREAM BASE:
1. Start by making an ice bath:   fill a large bowl about a third full with ice cubes and add a cup or so of water so they’re floating. Nestle a smaller metal bowl (at least 2 quarts) over the ice, and pour 1 cup of the milk into the inner bowl, and rest a mesh strainer on top of it.

2. Spread 1½ cups sugar in a medium sized saucepan in an even layer. Cook over moderate heat, until caramelized, using the same method described in Step 2 above.

3. Once the sugar is caramelized remove the pan from heat and add the 4 tablespoons butter and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir until dissolved. Then slowly whisk in the 1 cup heavy cream. This will cause the caramel to seize up and harden but it will melt again when you return it to the heat.

 

4. Return the pan to the heat and stir until all the caramel is dissolved. Stir in 1 cup of milk.



5. Whisk together the 5 egg yolks in a small bowl. Gradually pour some of the warm caramel mixture over the yolks, stirring constantly, slowly bringing the temperature of the eggs up. (If you add too much caramel too quickly, you will end up with scrambled eggs, so take your time). Scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan and cook the custard over medium-low heat using a heatproof utensil, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom, until the mixture thickens.You will know it's ready when it is thick enough that you when you run dip your spoon and then your finger through it the line holds.

6. Pour the custard through the strainer into the bowl of milk set over the ice bath, add the vanilla, then stir frequently until the mixture is cooled down, about 20 mins. Then cover and refrigerate the custard for at least a couple of hours, until it is completely chilled.

7. Turn on your ice cream maker and pour the chilled custard in. Follow the instructions for your particular machine (my Cuisinart requires 20-25 minutes of churning).

Once your ice cream is finished churning, stir in the crushed caramel pieces, pour into a container, and chill in the freezer until firm.