Sunday, August 9, 2009

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream - OMG!

I made this the other day, I'm a diabetic and this ice cream is dangerous. It's also one of the tastiest ice creams I have ever eaten. It's creator is David Lebovitz, the dessert genius and one time Chez Panisse pastry chef.

Not only is he a brilliant chef, but he is a very charming writer. He has moved to Paris and his site includes not only recipes, but wonderful commentary on his life in Paris, not to mention the occasional food tour opportunity.

My comments:

1. Make the praline in a cast iron pan. It is much more forgiving, I find, to other kind of metal, cast iron is very even. When ever I make it in stainless steel I have trouble.

2. Praline is not a clear perfect thing, mine had flecks of things I couldn't identify, so I made it again, same experience. My scientist boyfriend explained this, telling me that sea salt has impurities in it and that things crystallize a bit differently around different compounds, in other words: Flecks happen.

3. After the ice cream is made and you've added the praline, make sure you stir it in well.

4. Before you serve it, after it has been sitting in the freezer and has reached the desirable texture, be sure to stir the ice cream again. I realized (as I was scooping spoonfuls into my mouth late one night) that the bottom of the ice cream container was a thick layer of melted and partially melted salty praline that had mysteriously settled to the bottom - so be warned, don't let all the good stuff sink to the bottom!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big cake, cookie, pie, ice cream person, but this sounds tasteeeee!

I fear I may have to not stop by your blog for the next several days, as I'm beginning my Master Cleanse fast. Your recipes are too tempting.

Wish me luck. I'll be blogging about my experience (the good and bad) on the Cleanse on a daily basis.

Stay tuned...

Urban Food Guy said...

Good Luck! I'd like to know more about what kind of cleanse you are doing, write in and let us know what the regiment is and any specifics you want to share.

Kurt Brown said...

I had the lucky opportunity to have Mark's ice cream recently, and I can only describe it as...

ECSTASY!

And I'm not a big ice cream guy!

I also witnessed 3 different groups of people go completely silent and into a sort of food trance while eating it.

caTruly an amazing concoction.

Thank you Mark!

 
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