Dana's Caramel Frozen Custard

My version of two of my favorite frozen desserts, Nielson's Frozen Custard's Caramel Cashew and Häagen-Dazs dulce de leche.


Serving: Makes approximately 5 quarts.

Recipe:

½ teaspoon agar agar
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups sugar
8 egg yolks (try up to 15)
21 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup dry powdered milk
3½ cups whole milk
5½ cups whipping cream (try 4 1/2 & 4 1/2)

Mix agar agar with the salt and 1 tablespoon of the sugar in a small bowl.

Mix the egg yolks, condensed milk and vanilla together in a bowl. Measure powdered milk.

Measure milk and pour into a large sauce pan or small stock pot. Measure heavy cream and set aside.

Place the rest of the sugar in a wide, heavy-bottomed sauce pan over med-low heat. Shake the pan to have an even layer. Let the sugar begin to liquefy without stirring. When you see it beginning to liquefy anywhere (about 15-20 minutes), turn it down to low and carefully start to push it around slightly in spots to make sure it's not burning but don't overdo the stirring. Let the sugar liquefy completely, carefully pulling sugar to the center as little as possible. Warm the cream and have it standing by. After the sugar has mostly liquefied, stir until it is completely dissolved and is a deep brown color and smells divine (Do not allow it to boil or burn--it's best at or just after smoke point but will continue to burn if you don't begin to add the cream immediately). Slowly stir the warm cream into the caramelized sugar. If the caramel hardens, keep it over low heat, continuing to stir, until it dissolves.

Heat milk between low and med-low heat while whisking vigorously. At 77°F, whisk in the powdered milk mixture. At 95°F, whisk in the caramel mixture. Turn the heat to med-low.
At 113°F, whisk in the agar agar mixture.

Turn the heat to between med-low and medium. While it's heating, slowly whisk about ¼ C of the hot mixture into the yolk mixture and stir well.  Repeat 2-3 more times. Then whisk all of the yolk mixture into the hot milk mixture and continue to heat to 180°F, stirring constantly. (You don't want to add hot liquid to the yolks too fast or they will cook in lumps). Remove from the heat and put the pan in the sink filled with ice and cold water just about half way up the pan, stirring occasionally until it's cold.

It's best to refrigerate the batter 12 or more hours, but it's okay to process immediately. Process in ice-cream maker, adding mix-ins in the last couple of minutes, and put in a bucket. Leave in freezer for at least 4 hours.

Either add roasted, salted cashews as a mix-in OR drizzle with Caramel Sauce between layers of ice-cream when putting it in a container after the processing. Adjust the Caramel Sauce by decreasing the butter to 2 tablespoon, adding a little bit of vanilla, and using the higher amount or more of the cream, and make sure the sauce is cool of course before you drizzle it on the ice-cream.

Caramel Praline Mix-in: Reduce sugar in the ice-cream by ½ cup.  Liquefy ½ cup sugar, according to the directions above. Without hesitation, sprinkle in ¾ teaspoon sea salt without stirring, then pour the caramel onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and lift up the baking sheet immediately, tilting and swirling it almost vertically to encourage the caramel to form as thin a layer as possible. Set aside to harden and cool.  Break into ½ inch pieces and mix in the churned ice-cream before putting in the freezer.



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