Caramel Swirl Ice Cream Recipe

A pan of caramel swirl ice cream with an ice cream scoop.

5 from 11 votes

Caramel Swirl Ice Cream Recipe

Caramel Swirl Ice Cream combines rich, creamy vanilla ice cream with ribbons of sweet and gooey caramel. This simple churned ice cream recipe will make your taste buds happy!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword caramel swirl ice cream, homemade ice cream, salted caramel sauce

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 25

Chill Time 2

Total Time 3 10

Servings servings

Calories 538kcal

Author Sue Ringsdorf

Ingredients

For the ice cream:

1 ½ cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ cups heavy cream
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

For the caramel sauce:

1/4 cup water - room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream - room temperature
1/4 cup unsalted butter - room temp
1 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

For the Caramel Sauce:

**ALL INGREDIENTS MUST BE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!
Cook water and sugar. In a small saucepan, heat the water and sugar over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and stop stirring. Let the mixture continue to boil until it turns amber in color. This could take several minutes.
Add remaining ingredients. Remove pan from the heat and slowly (and carefully!) whisk in the (ROOM TEMPERATURE) heavy cream, whisking or stirring the entire time. Then mix the butter into mixture and add the sea salt. Stir well.

For the ice cream:

Temper eggs. Whisk egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the whole milk to a saucepan and heat over medium heat to a temperature of 165 degrees. (Do not boil.) When the milk is hot, pour 1/4 cup at a time into the eggs/sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Then pour the egg mixture back into the pan and heat again to 165 degrees.
Add remaining ingredients. Pour the hot mixture into an 8-cup measuring cup or large bowl. Let it cool slightly and then add the heavy cream and vanilla extract. Whisk well.
Chill. Cover the liquid mixture with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least four hours before churning. The mixture should be VERY COLD!
Churn ice cream. Start your 2-quart ice cream maker (I use a KitchenAid Attachment – linked below.) and pour the chilled ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker bowl (the attachment) while it’s running. Let the mixer churn until the ice cream sets.
You’ll see the ice cream start to thicken and rise toward the top of the bowl. The mixer may slow down slightly. (This should take 25-30 minutes or so.)
Add caramel sauce. Transfer half of the churned ice cream to an airtight container or pan (any shallow container works well) and drizzle a few tablespoons of caramel sauce over the ice cream. Then add the remaining ice cream and repeat with additional caramel. Reserve a little bit of caramel for serving.
Freeze. Transfer churned ice cream to an airtight container (any shallow container works well). Place container in the freezer to set up further. Initially, the ice cream will have the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, so freezing it will firm it up.

Notes

Tips for the caramel sauce:

Use a heavy bottom pan that has a little extra surface area. This is a small recipe but having a larger pan than you need is important for proper cooking.
Use ROOM TEMPERATURE ingredients. You can even warm up the heavy cream a bit if you’re short on time.
Make sure you let the sugar and water turn amber (see photos above) before removing from heat and adding remaining ingredients. DON’T STIR during this process.
Add the heavy cream in SLOWLY and whisk or stir constantly.
If the sugar starts to clump up, add a bit more water and continue stirring.
If you sugar clumps and you can’t get it all to dissolve, it’s ok. Simply discard that clump and use the remaining caramel. It’s happened to me and it’s still delicious!

** You may not need to use all of the caramel sauce. I like to save some for serving the ice cream.

See blog post for tips regarding the KitchenAid Attachment.

NOTE: You can use this recipe in another 2-quart machine. If you have a different size machine, you'll need to adjust the quantity of the liquid mixture.

Nutrition