Roasted almond ice cream with salted caramel swirls | Cakes by Cliff

TIMINGS

Day One:

• Put KitchenAid ice cream bowl attachment in the freezer
• Make the salted caramel
• Make the roasted almonds
• Make the custard base for the ice cream
  
  

Day Two:

• Make the ice cream
• Leave in freezer overnight
  
  

Day Three:

• Ice cream is ready to be served
  
  

INGREDIENTS

Ice cream:

• 250g  sugar
• 500g  whole milk
• 500g  heavy cream or thickened cream
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 200g raw whole almonds
  
  

Salted Caramel:

• 250g of castor sugar (refined sugar)
• 100g of chilled water
• 250g of heavy or thickened cream
• 125g of unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
  
  

METHOD:

1. Place your Kitchen Aid Ice Cream bowl in the freezer for at least 18 hours prior to making the ice cream.
2. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees. Spread your almonds onto a baking tray and pop in the oven until they brown and a smoky scent fills kitchen(allow approximately 10-12 minutes, keeping an eye on them and turning them around so they don’t burn). Take out and allow to cool and roughly chop into small pieces and store in air tight container.
3. To make the ice cream mixture, heat the sugar, milk, salt and 250g of heavy cream in a pot over medium heat. Stirring it constantly, allow it to simmer until the cream bubbles softly. Take the pot off the heat once the cream is heated.
4. Separate your eggs, putting whites and yolks in separate bowls. In a medium bowl, whisk in the egg yolks. Continuously whisking the egg yolks, slowly stream a cup of the hot cream mixture to ‘temper’ the egg yolks. You want to pour in a slow stream so the egg yolks do not become scrambled.
5. Pour back egg mixture into the pot and continue to heat it until it thickens slightly.
6. Add the remaining 250g of cream into a medium bowl and pour the heated custard through a sieve / mesh strainer over the cream and stir until fully combined.
7. Add the vanilla and almond extract and stir to combine. Then cover the custard and chill in refrigerator overnight.
8. While the custard is in the fridge, make your salted caramel by heating the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. (Do not stir sugar and water while it is heating up otherwise you may crystallise your sugar)
9. In a microwave safe jug, heat the cream in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it bubbles around the edges.
10. Keeping your eyes on the sugar mixture, continue to heat until it caramelise and the sugar turns into a nice golden colour. Careful not to leave it on the heat for too long or your caramel will burn.
11. As soon as the sugar mixture has turned a golden colour, remove from heat and slowly add the warm cream into the caramel, whisking it continuously.
12. Whisk the butter, salt and vanilla bean into the caramel cream mixture until combined.
13. Pour your caramel into an airtight container and allow it to cool in the fridge overnight.
14. Once your ice cream attachment bowl, custard and salted caramel are all chilled it’s time to churn the ice cream. Attach the bowl into your KitchenAid and fit the device. Be sure to set mixer to the lowest setting and affix the attachment before you start pouring the custard into the chilled bowl.
15. On the lowest speed, slowly pour the custard into the bowl. This process can take up to 10-15 minutes. The custard will eventually churn into a soft serve, doubling in size. Add ⅔ of the chopped roasted nuts.
16. Once the soft serve ice cream mixture is done, pour half the mixture into an ice cream container. Then pour half of your salted caramel on top. Using a knife, make swirly patterns to mix the caramel into the ice cream.
17. Add remaining soft serve ice cream and top off with remaining salted caramel and chopped almonds.
18. Place ice cream into the freezer overnight so it sets, ready for serving.
    
    

TIP - Please note that you’ll need to allow at least two days for the whole cooking and freezing process as you need to factor in time for your custard to chill in fridge overnight, and your ice cream to set in the freezer.

This recipe makes approximately one 1 litre of ice cream.