When my daughter was in high school, she blew out her knee in a snowboarding competition in Park City. I didn’t even get to see her compete, as she tore her ACL on her training run before I got to the slopes. After her surgery to repair the knee, a friend’s mom brought her a dozen pints of Ben & Jerry’s to recover. At the time, she didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, so my husband and I made our way through pints of Phish Food, Karamel Sutra, American Dreamcone, and more. Although I liked ice cream before, I became hooked on the really rich stuff.Turns out it really isn’t hard to make these gourmet flavor combos at home. You start with a rich ice cream base – in this case coffee custard ice cream – ……then you start adding things. Put about half of your ice cream into the container to start. My ice cream base wasn’t quite as firm as I wanted it to be thanks to a 95 degree day, so if yours looks a little runny, freeze it for a short time before adding components. My caramel was also too warm and actually melted into the ice cream instead of being cut in to form ribbons of caramel in the sauce. Still tastes great – just wasn’t what I was going for.Some food blogger (Liebowitz?) blogged about homemade marshmallows this past week. I’ve made them before at On Rue Tatin cooking school in France, and they certainly melt in your mouth. But for adding into ice cream, the miniatures in the bag work fine. Sprinkle half of the additions over the carmel / ice cream layer. Then add the rest of the ice cream and layer one more time with all of the remaining ingredients. Stir gently to incorporate the add-ins to make sure they are distributed evenly, but don’t overstir!This recipe rivals any pint of Ben & Jerry’s I’ve ever had. And the recipe makes about 3 pints of premium ice cream for less money. Just in time for summer!
- 2 cups milk (see note)
- 4-6 egg yolks (see note)
- ½-3/4 cups sugar, per desired level of sweetness (I used ½ cup)
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee (regular or decaf as desired)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup caramel sauce
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- Combine milk, egg yolks, sugar and coffee in the top of a double boiler and whisk together. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract and heavy cream. Stir together and refrigerate until chilled.
- Make ice cream in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Spoon ½ of soft set ice cream into a wide container and drizzle with half of the caramel sauce. Cut into ice cream slightly with a knife, then top with half the marshmallows and half the chips. Spoon remaining ice cream on top, drizzle with remaining caramel and top with remaining marshmallows and chips. Sitr gently to mix in ingredients, but do not stir too much. Freeze until firm.