Salted Caramel C'est Magnifique!

A friend just started a great dinner tradition called "UN Food Gathering" which gives foodies like myself to create a dish from a country and share a night eating dishes from around the world with other foodies. Since I was a French baker in my past life (even if I don't believe in reincarnation), I decided to represent France through three ice cream flavors: Salted Caramel, Goat Cheese and Honey Lavender. I also made some French macarons, which I will post later since it's a great way to use egg whites from egg yolks used in ice cream recipes. But this article is dedicated to one of my favorite ice cream flavors: Salted Caramel Ice Cream.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Photo by my friend Christina Liang Wei-lun

What I love about this ice cream is that unlike other homemade ice creams, this stays soft and pliable even after freezing, producing a creamy texture until the last scoop! I also love the fact that it's really made of simple ingredients: sugar, salt butter, milk, egg yolks, salt, heavy cream and vanilla extract --stuff you can find in your kitchen. For the salt, I do get fancy and put the finest Fleur de sel I can find.

The recipe I used was from my favorite ice cream author/blogger/foodie, David Lebovitz, who I mention often (because he's an ice cream genius). David's recipe is formally called "Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream".
Since this recipe calls for a lot of attention (do not have the TV on or have the kids to distract you), make sure to have all the ingredients out. The first thing you should do is create an ice bath. I didn't know what an ice bath was before I made ice cream.

My ice bath filled with milk

An ice bath is simply a large bowl filled with ice and some water, then place a smaller bowl on top of it. An ice bath is very important to ice cream making because it will cool your custard quickly so you don't end up with egg bits in your ice cream (confused yet? it's ok, it will make sense when you make ice cream).

Now for the scary part of the recipe...

The most challenging thing about this recipe is burning sugar to the point it turns into a copper color. If you burn the sugar too much, it just becomes bitter and if you undercook the sugar, the caramel is more like sugar syrup. It took me about three or four times of burning sugar in a pan to get this right for me.

Burning sugar to caramel

In David's website, he has a great description on how to burn the caramel just right. The trick to making sure your caramel burns right is not to stir the sugar too much in the beginning and make sure the heat is distributed evenly throughout the pan. I accomplish this by taking the pan and moving it around so it doesn't burn one side of the pan too much. Once you think the sugar is burnt enough, do not hesitate and take it out of the heat right away and place the butter. After that part, everything else was pretty easy to do.


Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Photo by my friend Christina Liang Wei-lun

A revision I've done from David's recipe was to put a little bit more milk than he called for. I did this because I thought it was too sweet for me and I wanted to lighten it a bit. I also ommitted making my own caramel bits, which he says to do as a mix-in ingredient (you put these bits towards the end of the ice cream machine process). The caramel bits turn gooey which is great if you want more sweetness to the ice cream. But I like to keep my Salted Caramel pure in its form and keep it simple. So give this recipe a go!

Frozen Yogurt, Attempt #1

So, I was driving past the Whole Foods near my house last night after work, and I noticed a new Pinkberry had just opened up. Well, that instantly got me in the mood for some good Frozen Yogurt! But I wasn't gonna wait in the long line while it was raining. Then I thought to myself, "Why don't I just make my own frozen yogurt? Hello, I got an Ice Cream Maker for my birthday!" So I parked my car, went in Whole Foods and bought a 32 oz. container of plain Greek yogurt and some organic kiwi, to cut up as a topping. I spent over $10 for those 2 ingredients at Whole Foods. I will definitely be shopping for Greek yogurt somewhere else. I just can't justify paying more than $6 for yogurt, especially since I've seen the same yogurt elsewhere for much less.

I didn't want an overtly sweet, vanilla-y frozen yogurt. I wanted a tart fro-yo, like Pinkberry's. I used the entire container of yogurt and some sugar…that's it! The finished product came out so smooth and creamy, like a soft serve. I love that there are only 2 ingredients, minus the toppings. And I love the fact that it totally rivals Pinkberry's, which in my opinion, is so awesome! The next day however, I pulled the frozen yogurt out of my freezer and it was as hard as a rock! The soft serve texture was no more. Eventhough I'm not happy with the freezing results, I do still love this frozen yogurt and would definitely make it again. I suggest making enough to eat on the spot, right after it is done. That way, you'll have the correct consistency. Other than it turning into a cold rock once put in the freezer, this frozen yogurt is utterly delish when consumed right away!

Tart Frozen Yogurt

• 32 oz. 2% plain Greek Yogurt
• ¾ cup sugar

In a bowl, mix the sugar and yogurt together and put it in the fridge for an hour. Then, put the mixture in an ice cream maker for 20 to 25 mins.

Declaration of my love for Ice Cream!

Sure there are many reasons to love Ice Cream but for me, it would have for the memories. My best memories are somehow incorporated with me holding an ice cream cone (which I sinfully admit). These memories spark up celebrations, travels, good times with friends, and the simpler pleasures of life. What I also love about eating ice cream from my travels is that no matter how it's made or even what it's made of, it has the same components that just makes you smile and love life.

Below is a picture of me and my brother enjoying ice cream back when days were longer and life was a little less complicated...

Another fact that I'll have to admit (since I'm on a roll) is that Ice Cream really makes me feel better. Case in point, I have a pretty bad case of motion sickness, which is ironic because I love to travel and love it when I hop on a plane! There's been numerous times when I'm really not feeling well in transit, so I would buy a plain vanilla ice cream right before boarding a plane or getting in the car, and viola...the nausea is gone! I know it's all psychological but who cares, it works me!

Since I started making my own home made ice cream, the experience has definitely been more pleasurable as I love seeing the simple ingredients churn into a lovely masterpiece! As much as I love to cook, bake, or making arts and crafts, making ice cream is probably the most forgiving hobby. I say this because as many times as I have burnt what I was baking, I can't remember making an awful ice cream batch that ends up in the trash...even the "rejected" batches still gets finished!

The question is, why do YOU love ice cream?