Irish Whiskey Caramel

Next week is St. Patrick’s Day, so in usual fashion, we thought we would make a celebratory ice cream flavor. We make a lot of caramel’s for swirling into our ice creams. A good amount of those caramels have booze in them. And of those boozy caramels, the majority have Irish whiskey in them; it’s a favorite. One thing that we don’t make a lot of is caramel ice cream though. So this week, that’s just what we’re going to do. In celebration of the upcoming holiday, we’re going to spike it with one of our favorites, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey. This week’s flavor – Irish Whiskey Caramel

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start our ice cream, we are going to caramelize sugar (just as if we were going to make a caramel) to swirl into the ice cream. A small amount of water is added to the sugar and it’s brought to a boil. During the boiling process, the sugar begins to caramelize. When the sugar becomes a deep amber color, we add the cream.

 

 

 

 

After the cream, we add our milk, eggs, salt, and pasteurize the entire thing. The caramel ice cream base is cooled and a wee bit of whiskey is added; not to much, as too much alcohol will keep the ice cream from freezing properly. At this point, the ice cream is ready to churn, but first we are going to make a whiskey caramel to incorporate into the ice cream just before packaging. Because the caramel is so concentrated with sugar, we will be able to incorporate enough whiskey to give this flavor the boozy kick it needs. The caramel is made in the same style as our caramel ice cream, but instead of adding milk and eggs after the cream, we just add salt. Once cooled, whiskey is added. The caramel is swirled into the ice cream just before packaging.

 

 

 

 

A rich bite of caramel ice cream infused with 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey. Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with us!

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Whiskey Caramel

ice cream:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar, white granulated
2 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey

caramel:
1 cup sugar, white granulated
2 Tablespoons water
3/4-1 cup heavy cream
2-3 Tablespoons 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey

Instructions:

1. Prepare the ice cream base: In a heavy bottomed pan, with sides at least 4 inches high, add sugar and water and bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar turns an amber color, remove from heat immediately. Add heavy cream and whisk vigorously until incorporated. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, crack eggs into bowl and whisk fully. Add milk and salt, and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Now, start whisking the caramel that you set aside, and slowly add the egg/milk mixture to the caramel as you whisk vigorously. Once incorporated, heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Stir in teaspoon of whiskey, place in a container, and cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Prepare the caramel: In a heavy bottomed pan, with sides at least 4 inches high, add sugar and water and bring to boil. Do NOT STIR at this point or the caramel will become grainy.  As soon as the sugar turns an amber color, remove from heat immediately. Add heavy cream and whisk vigorously until incorporated. Stir in sea salt and cool. Once cool, stir in whiskey. Reserve for ice cream.

4. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Empty ice cream into an air tight container and pour some of the caramel over the top. Lightly stir the caramel into the ice cream. You can eat immediately as soft serve, but we would recommend freezing in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait.  The flavors will continue to develop and change over the next few days.  Enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

 

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/13/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!