tasty tuesday: salted caramel ice cream

So....remember when I said that I kind of am totally and completely obsessed with salted caramel?  Yeah, well I couldn't stay away from it for long, so I now present you with our homemade salted caramel ice cream!  I think Jordyn and I both were astonished at how well this turned out, and we both agreed that it was potentially the best ice cream we've ever had in our whole lives.  So yeah.

Also, you have to eat it with pretzels.  That's the rule!  You won't regret, I promise.  We crushed up pretzels to serve with it, and they add just the perfect salty crunch!  Seriously, it's the best.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
4 cups milk 
5 cups whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Caramel flavoring

1/4 cup of caramel (we used homemade, but store-boughten  would be fine)

1/4 cup Skor bits
Approximately 1/2 cup of caramel for swirling into ice cream once it's done.
*Ice and coarse salt - this will be needed for the ice cream maker

Directions:
1)  Beat eggs in a large bowl.
2)  Gradually incorporate sugar.
3)  Add the rest of the ingredients, including 1/4 cup of caramel and mix well.

4)  Place mixture in the barrel of your ice cream maker, and follow manufacturer's instructions.  This will include layering ice and salt around the edges of the ice cream maker.  Ours called for about 2 inches of ice, and then 1/2 cup of salt, repeated until the ice reached the top of the maker.  Then we attached the motor, and let it run for about 40 mins.  We added more ice about half way through.  On our machine you know the ice cream is finished when the motor stops running.  Yours may be different!

5)  Once the ice cream was done, we swirled the rest of the caramel into the ice cream, as well as some Skor bits for some added crunch!

6)  Serve with pretzels! (I'm dead serious...this is not optional!)

{Optional}: Homemade Caramel

1/2 cup Sugar

3 TBSP Butter (we used salted butter!)

1/4 cup Whipping Cream

1)  The most important thing to do first is to assemble all of your ingredients!  Once your sugar mixture has reached the right colour, you'll need to move fairly quickly, and don't want to be fussing around with measuring out the other ingredients.

2)  Place your sugar in a medium saucepan, and melt at a medium heat.  Once it begins to melt, you'll want to start whisking it. (You can also add a tad of water if you don't feel comfortable melting dry sugar!).

3)  Once the sugar starts to boil, you can stop whisking, and wait for it to turn a light amber colour.

4)  When it's light amber, then add your butter, and stir like crazy!

5)  As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the whipping cream.  Again, stir like crazy! (Be cautious when adding the cream as it will foam a lot!)

6)  Let the caramel cool for a bit, and then you can move it to a heat proof container and pop it in the fridge to help hurry up the cooling process.

Also, did I mention that as soon as this ice cream was done, Jordyn and I may or may not have stood around and dipped pretzels into it for a good ten minutes.  True story.

p.s.  ♥ kelsey (and jordyn)