Espresso Caramel Ice Cream
I’m just going to say it. Ice cream significantly improves my quality of life (apart from maybe this one time). That’s right. Not everlasting friendships, not love, not financial security. Just ice cream.
Vanilla, chocolate, coffee, caramel, cheesecake, praline, rocky road, cookie dough, strawberry, banana, fudge, chocolate again, coffee always, breakfast, lunch, dinner, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, birthday parties, pyjama Sundays – these are just some of many flavours and occasions where ice cream makes my life just great.
The same goes for this monstrous tub of joy above, so let’s discuss.
Espresso infused cream is mixed with bubbling caramel then spiked with Daim chocolate and churned to creamy perfection. The resulting ice cream is sweet but not overly so, with just the right amount of bitterness from the coffee and crunchy surprises of that Scandi favourite. The coffee in this means it’s entirely acceptable to eat this for breakfast behind closed doors. I don’t think it really gets better than this.
I can just hear some of you screaming ‘but what about donuts?!’ – coming soon my friends… just you wait.
In other news spring decided to show up, which means this song is getting its annual airtime. Enjoy!
Espresso Caramel Ice Cream
Serves 8
Ingredients
480ml double cream
240ml whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed
200g granulated sugar
60ml water
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder, mixed to a paste with splash of water (optional for all y’all haterz out there)
100g Daim bar chocolate, roughly chopped
Method
- Mix together the cream, milk, seeds from the vanilla bean and espresso paste and set aside.
- In a heavy pan, heat the sugar and water until it caramelises and turns dark amber in colour – around 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream mixture, then quickly return to a low heat to keep warm.
- Whisk the egg yolks for 5 minutes until pale yellow. Temper the eggs by pouring in about 1 cup of the caramel sauce, then whisk the egg mixture back into the caramel and heat on low while stirring until it coats the back of a spoon.
- Remove from the heat, strain into a large bowl and leave to cool to room temperature.
- Once the mixture has cooled stir in the chopped Daim chocolate and simply add it to your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer instructions, then transfer the ice cream to a tub and freeze for at least 3 hours or overnight to firm up.
Keeps for one week.