Flavor #39 - Caramel Swirl

I first had this flavor while I worked at Haagen Dazs on Newbury Street back in the 80's. The Dazs calls it Dulce de Leche. I never thought I could make this on my own. It is a simple vanilla base with lots of caramel mixed in, but it is easy to screw up, from ruining the initial batch of caramel to not mixing it with the ice cream correctly. A lot can go wrong.

I first had to make the caramel. Learning from my first attempt when I made the caramel flavored ice cream, I knew I had to be very careful bringing the caramel mix to the right temperature and then cooling it down sufficiently to eventually add to the ice cream.

2 Cups of Sugar

1 1/2 Sticks of Butter

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

Melt the sugar over medium heat until it liquifies, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Watch it carefully and do not let it burn or boil! Add the butter after taking the sugar off the burner and watch out for the butter splatter! Once the butter is added in and you keep stirring, add the cream slowly as the mixture continues to cool. After an hour of so, this should be ready to add to the ice cream mix.

1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups of Milk

3/4 Cup of Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

1 Pinch of Salt

As you take the ice cream out of the machine, flatten out the batch in the container in layers. Add a thin layer of caramel topped off with more ice cream. Flatten out the next layer of ice cream while trying not to disturb the layer you just made beneath. It is easy to screw up and it takes some time to develop your technique. But at worst, you have a tasty mess on your hands and at best it looks aesthetically pleasing! The caramel recipe should give you enough for a long while so feel free to spoon it out Sundae style or add it to your coffee while remembering how little you paid to make it and how much Starbucks charges for your Caramel Macchiato!

Enjoy!