Salted Caramel and Honeycomb Ice Cream
This recipe was inspired by something I read in Olive Magazine earlier on this year, having half a can of Carnation Caramel spare was just the excuse I needed to get around to making it up.
This is a lazy person’s version of Salted Caramel and HoneyComb Ice Cream, based on the frozen cream approach. Sometime, I’ll try my hand at making the caramel sauce out of sugar and cream and mix it into a frozen custard base, just to see if it’s noticably different.
Easy isn’t always bad, though, this resulted in a very soft scoop and an intense, almost popcorn-like flavour that met with popular acclaim.
I haven’t made honeycomb for a great many years, but it’s still fun when it bubbles up like a gooey volcano. The photos are of a bigger quantity than included here, I’ve got a few ideas for other things to do with it. Just rememeber to store it in an air-tight container, honeycomb absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and quickly gets sticky.
Ingredients
Makes 500ml of ice cream
160g (half a tin) of Carnation Caramel
200ml double cream
200ml milk
50g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
Honeycomb
20g golden syrup
20g butter
40g sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Shallow tray that’s been greased, or lined with greaseproof paper or a silicone sheet.
Method
Honeycomb ingredientsStart by making the ice cream base by putting the caramel, cream, milk and sugar into a pan and heating it up until the sugar dissolves and it’s smooth. Take it off the heat and stir through the vanilla extract and salt. The salt might sound strange, but it really accelerates the caramel flavour and you’d notice if it wasn’t there.
Whilst the ice cream mix is cooling down, make the honeycomb by putting the syrup, butter and sugar into a heavy-bottomed steel pan. Gently bring it to the boil and then boil it until the colour of the bubbling foam has darkened and you can just start to smell burned sugar. This took me a bit less than 5 minutes, but I was careful not to let it catch on the bottom of the pan by swirling it around a bit.
Honeycomb once it's melted and then once it's heated up and darkened
Add the bicarbonate of soda to the mix and stir it like crazy then, just as it’s starting to expand, quickly pour it into the lined tray. It should set quickly.
Don’t worry about it leaving a nasty glued on mess in the pan, boiling water will easily dissolve the hardened sugar.
Bubbly honeycomb that's then set, scored and snapped into pieces, which can then be bashed into crumbs
Leave the honeycomb to set and cool for a couple of hours whilst you chill the ice cream mix in the fridge or, preferably, freezer. Once the honeycomb is solid, crush it up with a plastic bag and rolling pin, or just your fingers.
Churn the ice cream mix until it holds its shape inside the ice cream machine, pour it into its tub and stir through the honeycomb. Freeze it for at least 5 hours before serving, the condensed milk makes a very soft scoop and it melts easily.
Enjoy, but don’t tell your dentist.