Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Super Easy Caramel Ice-Cream (no ice-cream maker required)

I have a confession to make. I think I am becoming a Donna Hay addict. It started with her Chocolate Essentials cookbook - several years ago, browsing a bookstore, I was enthralled by the combination of luscious food styling and, well, chocolate. I still love this book - so much that I have given it as a gift. I think the next purchase was Seasons. It was on sale just before we moved to Wellington, and the carefree picnics in the summer section were too alluring to resist. Over the winter, when Milly from Gusty Gourmet tweeted about a wonderful cauliflower soup she'd just made I was convinced to buy the magazine - and now can't pass it by on the racks. And when I was watching Australian Masterchef yesterday and she started talking about "ultimate lickability" I pretty much swooned.

She is a magnificent food stylist - her photos do make you (well, me) want to lick the page - but puts emphasis on taste and (my favourite part) making things as easy as possible. Plenty of her recipes are complicated, multi-step affairs - but never more so than necessary - and they're interspersed with quicker, simpler ideas. In the most recent issue she has some quick ice-cream recipe (which technically aren't super quick as they still need to freeze) and though it's pretty hard to replicate the texture of true ice-cream without making a custard, sometimes something a little different is good.


This particular recipe is about as simple as they come - two ingredients (surely you couldn't have a recipe without at least two ingredients!), and it doesn't even require an ice-cream maker. It took me all of five minutes to put together, and the only potential screw-up I can imagine is possible would be if you beat the cream for a bit too long and made butter instead. And if you're really worried about that you could buy thickened cream (which is actually what the recipe in the mag called for). 


I can barely talk about making it - I whipped the cream to be reasonably firm, but still smooth, then mixed the caramel through. I decided to use our ice-cream maker to start the chilling process, and it was ultra creamy and getting thick by the time I put it in the freezer, but it was far from being ice-cream. The ice-cream maker step is unnecessary, though - just pop the mixture straight in the freezer (Donna says in a metal container; I always use old ice-cream containers. It's only about a litre so the container doesn't need to be huge).


We froze it overnight, though I confess to having a sneaky spoonful about an hour after I put it in, and the edges were freezing up nicely and it was delicious. This is the sort of ice-cream you have to exercise a lot of self control for - it's very rich but utterly delicious. I strongly recommend never risking eating this straight from the container, for you will struggle to put down the spoon!

So, quite possibly the easiest recipe ever - and definitely has ultimate lickability in terms of flavour - do you know of any recipes which beat this for delicious simplicity?


Easy Caramel Ice-Cream (from Donna Hay Magazine)
Ingredients
395g tin caramel (found next to sweetened condensed milk in the supermarket)
300ml cream 

Whip the cream until firm but still smooth. Mix in the caramel until well combined. Transfer into a 1 litre container and freeze overnight or until firm.

30 comments:

  1. For some reason, Donna Hay irritates me. Don't know why, she just does.

    But I can't fault her food styling, and this is one of the easiest recipes I've seen, so I should try it.

    But I said that with the brandy snap ice cream, and haven't looked at that one yet. Roll on the Christmas break, and time to make yummy things.

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  2. I haven't actually seen her on tv much, I quite often get annoyed with her ilk if I see much of them - Nigella rather annoys me on the telly, it's fair to say. ;-) But I do love Donna's cookbooks, and her tips on Masterchef the other day were great.

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  3. Thanks for that recipe, it makes a yummy icecream and so easy. It would be great for kids to make.

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  4. I am so going to have to try this next week, when I get home

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  5. I am going to the patisserie for a treat. It's the only way I can continue reading your blog and not want to eat the screen ;) e

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  6. i was looking at this recipe the other night and your photos make it look even yummier
    i am a donna hay addict as well. And i have converted my husband and my Dad as well!

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  7. Kay, you're welcome - it would be great for kids!

    Kiwi Cakes Sandra, I hope you like it! Let me know how it goes. :-)

    Anon, sorry to be leading you astray! (but really it's the right path, nothing wrong with eating delicious and wonderful food)

    Sandra, it is soooo good - good work on the converts! ;-)

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  8. Sometimes, only one ingredient is needed. :-)

    http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/stay-cool/how-to-make-creamy-ice-cream-with-just-one-ingredient-093414

    (and yes, it's very yummy!)

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  9. My girls made this today - and they were rapt!

    Here's a photo:

    http://flic.kr/p/8R9gMd

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  10. mrlew1, that looks great - definitely will have to try that, looks a bit healthier than mine! ;-)

    Alan, I'm glad they liked it - looks great. :-)

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  11. Hi- thanks for posting this. We are about to make it a second time at my seven year olds request.

    I'm going to have to look into Donna Hay's recipe books if the results of this recipe are anything to go by

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  12. Amanda, glad you like it! I love Donna Hay - her recipe books are a combination of great recipes and cool tips for dressing things up. The simple essentials ones are pretty good (I love the chocolate one) - and I have several others, love them all!

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  13. What % fat is in the cream you use?

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  14. It's about 35% - I have heard of people making this lower fat, which would make it healthier but probably also makes it a bit icier. :-)

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  15. Darn, I got your message too late and bought 'single' cream and now I dont think its going to work :(... I can try again next week!

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  16. UPDATE: The ice cream still turned out fine I thought, the taste was amazing! Cant wait to try it again although next time I promise to leave it to set overnight. ;) Thank you!

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  17. Yay, so glad it worked out! :-)

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  18. This recipe is very good, but massively unhealthy as you basically are just eating frozen cream!!! Love Donna Hay, but wish she would tie her hair back when she's cooking!

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  19. Anon, it certainly isn't healthy but is delicious. ;-)

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  20. Can you switch the caramel for something else? Like choco syrup perhaps?

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  21. Anon, not sure if chocolate syrup would work, I think this only works because of the high sugar density and thick consistency of the caramel - but there's nothing wrong with experimenting! Good luck. :-)

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  22. Wow! Super easy recipe! I have to try it because I looooooove caramel! Thanks for the cool (ha ha) recipe!

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  23. It's delicious - definitely give it a go! :-)

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  24. Normally, well in the other recipes I have seen for this, it is double the amount of cream to caramel - is it meant to be only 300g cream?

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  25. Hi Anon, that's the recipe I have. Personally even this proportion is at the high end of fat content for my tastes so I wouldn't want to up the cream quantity, but I'm sure the other recipes would still work so it's just a matter of taste. :-)

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  26. Thanks! So did you use double cream then? Maybe the 600ml only applies to single!

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  27. Nope, I used "normal" cream, around 38% fat, which is what is readily available in NZ. :-)

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  28. Chill it a bit, then pipe it into brandy snaps and then freeze it!

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    1. I like it! I am a massive brandy snap fan and that combo sounds amazing. Have you seen my brandy snap ice cream recipe? It takes a bit more to make the ice cream but it is brandysnapilicious - http://www.mrscake.co.nz/2010/10/brandy-snap-ice-cream.html

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