This is a recipe I’ve had rolling around in my brain for awhile now.  I recently realized I had all the right ingredients floating around my apartment, and since it’s still summery enough to whip up some ice cream, I got right on it!

Back before I was drinking plain ‘ole joe on a daily basis, the caramel macchiato was my sugar-filled coffee-like drink of choice.  After discovering that mochas were getting a little too sweet for me, I fancied I was developing a more refined palate by selecting a drink that was more coffee and less pure refined sugar.  Ah, the naivete (and strong, cavity-free teeth) of youth!

Now I’ve weened myself off the insane sugary drinks (both for health and wallet-related reasons), and tend to stick with a little cream’n’sugar with my daily mugs.  But even so I still love an occasional caramel macchiato (or anything with caramel in it), especially when it starts getting cooler and Starbucks starts whipping out all its fall flavors.  Caramel brûlée latte?  Yes please.

This recipe isn’t terribly more complicated than any other ice cream you’ve made, especially if you cheat and buy the caramel sauce from the store instead of making it yourself (a totally acceptable solution, IMO).  For the record, don’t be afraid to be liberal with your caramel!  I wish I’d been freer with mine…it’s tough to see any of it ribboned through the ice cream in my pictures.

If you’re unsure as to whether this ice cream is for you, be forewarned: it tastes like SO MUCH COFFEE.  It’s a flavor I love so it suits me just fine, but it may not be for the faint of heart coffee-wise.  Maybe it was mostly because I used Colombian beans, but that in conjunction with brown sugar gave it a very sweet and dark flavor.  Just a word of warning!

I added just a single egg yolk to this recipe and it gave the ice cream the absolute perfect texture.  You could totally be fine without it, but if you have the opportunity I always recommend adding a yolk to your ice cream.  PRO TIP: egg yolks make all ice cream better.

And that’s it!  I love this recipe and look forward to trying it with different varieties of beans, or maybe with some chocolate flakes or ribbons in it for a mocha!  Also, maybe next time I can get a better picture.  It’s tough, though, when you’ve already eaten most of it before you get around to photographing it. >.>

Enjoy!

Caramel Macchiato Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk (recommend 2% or whole; I use 2%)
• 2 cup heavy cream
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup coffee beans (I used Eight O’Clock’s Colombian)
• 1 batch caramel from My Baking Addiction (you can make this while the pre-churned mixture chills), or store-bought caramel sauce if you don’t feel like making your own.

Instructions:

1. Mix the milk, cream, and brown sugar, and salt in a saucepan and steam it (do not boil).
2. Take the mixture off the heat and mix in the vanilla and coffee beans.  Cover and steep for 30 minutes.
3. Strain out the coffee beans and re-warm the mixture.
4. Beat the yolk in a small bowl and slowly temper by adding some of the milk mixture (~1/2 cup), continuing to stir to keep the yolk from cooking.
5. Stir the milk-yolk mixture back in with the rest of the milk mixture and cook over low heat until it thickens slightly (don’t cook too long or the mixture will begin to separate).
6. Refrigerate until chilled, ~2 hours.
7. Make caramel while the mixture cools.
8. Churn the ice mixture by your churn’s instructions.
9. Just before completely churned, drizzle in as much caramel as you like, forming ribbons in the ice cream as it turns.
10. CONSUME!