Despite my proud ownership of an ice cream machine I am a little in love with no churn ice creams because of how accessible they are. They take minimal work and thanks to condensed milk still yield a dish that is rich and creamy. This Caramel Crunch ice cream uses Dulce de Leche as it’s base. Dulce de leche is essentially caramelized milk. It is readily available in stores now, either where your condensed milk is or where the nut spreads are. Dulce de Leche is also a cinch to make. You can boil or bake a whole can of condensed milk (unopened), but since stuff like that freaks me out I don’t. Instead I preheat my oven to 425, pour 400ml condensed milk into a dish, and cover it in foil. Then I place the dish in a water bath. Water bath is fancy for put 1.5" of water in a roasting pan large enough for the dish. I let it cook there for about 75-90 minutes until it looked thick and darkly delicious caramelly. Then I energetically whisked the lumps out of it and voila, some irresistible Dulce de Leche.
How irresistible you may ask? Well I am fairly confident that I should have gotten 400ml worth of the stuff. However, my little helpers were scampering around the kitchen and I wound up a little short. At some point I asked my older one if she could hold the whisk for me for a second. She candidly informed me “I can, but then I will just lick the whole thing” In case you’re wondering I didn’t reward her for her honesty by handing over the whisk. My dulce de leche shortfall made it clear she had rewarded herself enough. Instead I folded it into pillowy whipped cream and stirred in shards of caramel crunch. I was prepared for the result to be utterly delicious, but skeptical that it would match my expectations. As luck would have it, this delicious dreamy icecream is remarkably close to the icecream that redeemed many a wedding for me. Back in the day weddings would have the standard qorma biryani menu (yawn), but if they topped it off with caramel crunch ice cream all was forgiven. If they made fresh jalebis then well… that’s another discussion for another time. Enough from me, you go be fancy and make some phenomenal caramel crunch icecream. Make it for yourself to enjoy on a lazy summer afternoon or to wow those guests you’re having this weekend. Just make it.
Other No Churn Ice Creams to dig into this summer:
No Churn Coffee Toffee Ice Cream
