Butter Caramel and Honeycomb Ice Cream
Droolworthy butter caramel and honeycomb ice cream from Gizzi Erskine. This homemade ice cream recipe is topped with Crunchie bars for extra indulgence.
From the book
My Kitchen Table: 100 Foolproof Suppers
100 failsafe recipes for delicious home cooking
Fresh ideas for midweek meals
Mouthwatering puddings to please a crowd
Introduction
Wickedly decadent, this dessert has a grown-up bittersweet quality to it that little ones don’t really appreciate yet adults flock to. But that doesn’t mean we have to ignore our childish side: a pack or two of crushed Crunchie bars stirred through the ice cream before it has set in the freezer should do the trick, as the honeycomb in a Crunchie is both sticky and crunchy. Can you imagine? For salted caramel ice cream, instead of Crunchie bars, add three-quarters of a teaspoon of Maldon sea salt halfway through churning.
Ingredients
| 300g (10½oz) | golden caster sugar |
| 4 tbsp | salted butter |
| 500ml (17fl oz) | double cream |
| 250ml (8fl oz) | whole milk |
| 5 | large egg yolks |
| 1 tsp | vanilla extract |
| 2 | Crunchie bars, chopped, or 2 x 37g (1½oz) packs of Maltesers, chopped |
Essential kit
You will need an ice cream machine.
Method
Put the sugar into a dry frying pan and melt over a low heat until it starts to caramelise – you want it to be a nice midbrown colour, not too light or too dark. Stir in the butter and half the double cream, then leave to cool a little.
Meanwhile, heat the milk and the remaining cream in a small non-stick pan until bubbles start to rise up the edges. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla extract, then in a slow stream carefully pour in the hot milk, whisking continuously. Pour it back into the pan and, with a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pan while cooking the custard gently on a low heat for a minute or so, until it thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. (Be really careful – the eggs can scramble quite easily, and if it starts to look grainy it has gone too far.)
Strain the custard into a bowl and leave it to cool, covered with clingfilm. (This will take about 30 minutes, but you can speed the process up by placing the bowl of custard in an ice bath.) Whisk the cold custard into the caramel until combined.
Set up your ice cream machine, pour the caramel custard into it and leave to churn for 20 minutes. Add the chopped Crunchie bars and churn for a further 25 minutes or until smooth and frozen. Transfer the ice cream to a freezerproof container and freeze for at least 2 hours before eating.
