Soy Sauce Caramel Ice Cream

Just like KitKat, you can find an astonishing array of ice cream flavors in Japan. From matcha green tea to black sesame to Azuki sweet red bean, the choices are distinctively unique and Japanese. So why not flavor the summer treat with our most important pantry staple—soy sauce? Yes! Soy sauce. It is yet a mainstream flavor that you can find everywhere in Japan, but soy sauce makers and specialty shops have been surprising their visitors with the intriguing combo. I was introduced to Soy Sauce Soft Serve when my family visited the Kikkoman factory in Japan. It was unexpectedly delightful that I knew I wanted to recreate the flavor when I returned home. Now that the weather is on our side, this couldn’t be a perfect time. In this recipe, I combined my homemade vanilla ice cream with soy sauce caramel sauce. It’s so good that we almost cry tears of joy after taking the first bite!

Why You’ll Love This Ice Cream

The combination of vanilla ice cream and soy sauce caramel feels completely indulgent and unbelievably delicious. It’s melt-in-your-mouth creamy, savory, and perfectly sweet all at once. The umami punch and salty notes of soy sauce cut through all the sweetness of caramel and electrify the palate. It would remind you of salted caramel, only so much better.

Delicious Soy Sauce Caramel Sauce

You’ll need 4 simple ingredients to make this amazing sauce.

Gluten Soy Sauce

I used Kikkoman gluten-free soy sauce in this recipe. Made from rice, soybeans, and salt and brewed with the same traditional method as its original soy sauce, the gluten-free option is just as delicate and aromatic. Beyond savory dishes, soy sauce can really work its magic and transform sweets and desserts, drawing out their best quality. That’s the multifaceted role of this Japanese condiment. When pairing it with caramel, soy sauce adds complexity and bumps up the overall buttery characteristic of the sauce. Give it a try! It’s going to change the way you look at many kitchen condiments and the science of flavorings, just like Miso Butter Cookies!

5 Tips to Read Before Making This Recipe

1. Use 2:1 Ratio for heavy cream and whole milk.

After testing a few ratios, we concluded that the two to one ratio for heavy cream and whole milk to be the best. It’s important to use WHOLE milk, not reduced-fat or non-fat milk. The result gives just the right amount of richness and creaminess.

2. Use egg yolks.

I’ve made egg-free ice cream recipes in the past, but for this recipe, I included egg yolks as they act as the emulsifier, to “glue” all the ingredients together and give the ice cream its smoothness and rich flavor.

3. Use the gelatine (sheet).

Gelatin acts as a stabilizer, to prevent ice crystals from forming, which improves texture and extends the life of the ice cream. The more water in your recipe (e.g. strawberry), the more gelatin needed. But don’t exceed a teaspoon (if using powder) in a quart of ice cream. Instead of gelatine powder such as Knox, we love using GOLD gelatine sheets. They don’t have any smell so it works great for any recipes that require gelatine. If you prefer not to use gelatin as a stabilizer, try Agar or Xanthan Gum as an alternative.

4. Scald milk and heavy cream.

It is important to first scald the milk and heavy cream in order to shorten the cooking time before you add in the eggs. If heating cold milk and heavy cream with eggs, there is a higher chance the eggs will curdle and your ice cream will be ruined.

5. Get a cooking thermometer.

You need to scald the milk and heavy cream to 83 °C (181 °F) and cook the custard to 71 °C (160 °F). With a cooking thermometer, there is no guessing involved, and your ice cream making will be stress-free. I frequently use the Thermapen® Mk4 for cooking Japanese Pork Roast, deep frying Karaage, and making desserts like Matcha Tiramisu that count on accurate temperatures. And I cannot emphasize how important it is to have a reliable thermometer to achieve perfect results. It is literally a life-changer!

Your New Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Due to the amount of air whipped into ice cream, and a few other factors, store-bought ice cream will generally remain soft when frozen, while homemade ice cream tends to freeze hard for scooping. An easy solution is to take the homemade ice cream out of the freezer 5-10 minutes before serving, so it’s soft enough to scoop. Homemade vanilla ice cream is truly satisfactory. But if you don’t have an ice maker, you want to do yourself a favor by getting good quality vanilla ice cream. You can choose to swirl the soy sauce caramel into the ice cream, drizzle over, or do both as I did in this recipe. Sophisticated and fun, this Soy Sauce Caramel Ice Cream is definitely a standout treat for the summer. Serve it as a dessert for your Japanese-theme BBQ cookout. Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.