Salted Caramel Gelato
Salted Caramel Gelato
This salted caramel gelato uses a caramel powder to ramp up the flavour and give the gelato an amazing colour. It has a salty sweet taste with a hint of that burnt caramel flavour.
The gelato uses a combination of sugar and glucose to balance both the sweetness and achieve the ideal texture, with the addition of skimmed milk powder to help as well. The glucose can be swapped for just regular white sugar but it will result in a sweeter gelato that is firmer in texture.
A high end gelato/ice cream machine is really important here too, as the built-in chiller will maintain a constant cold temperature to ensure small ice crystal formation while the mixture churns. I use the Musso Lussino 4080 and I love it!
The gelato is best churned and eaten on the same day as the longer you freeze it, the more the texture will deteriorate as ice crystals form.
Ingredients
Method
Into a medium saucepan, sprinkle over about 1/5 of the 125g of caster sugar into an even layer. Place it onto a medium heat and without stirring, allow the mixture to caramelise.
Once the sugar has melted, tip in the next 1/5 of sugar and just gently shake the pan the disperse the sugar and allow it to melt. Once melted the sugar should be lightly caramelised at this point.
Keep adding the sugar in intervals - at this point you can use a spatula to stir it through. Once all the sugar has melted, continue to cook it to a deep caramel...almost burnt (!)
Remove it from the heat and immediately pour it onto a silicon mat, then tip the sea salt flakes on top. Allow it to set for 30 minutes.
In the mean time, prep all your other ingredients. Add the remaining sugar (20g) and ice cream stabiliser into a small dish and stir it together to combine. I use Locust Bean Gum as my ice cream stabiliser but you can buy a generic ice cream stabiliser online and this will work just as well. They really help to improve the texture and prevent the gelato from melting too quickly.
Once the caramel has set, add it into a blender and blend to a fine powder. Don't worry if there are are few bigger chunks they will dissolve when we cook it.
Add the caramel powder, glucose syrup and skimmed milk powder to a medium saucepan. Pour the milk and cream over the top and place it one a medium heat.
Whisk it until it reaches a temperature of 45C/113F on a digital thermometer. Tip in the ice cream stabiliser/sugar mixture and continue to whisk until it reaches 85C/185F on a digital thermometer.
Immediately remove it from the heat and pour it into a bowl. Blend it with a hand blender to emulsify for 1 minute.
Add the bowl into the sink filled with ice water - the gelato books will say you need to chill this as quickly as possible to 4C/39F but realistically at home this is difficult. So I leave it in the ice water for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will get it to around 12-15C!
Once chilled, cover the surface of the gelato and refrigerate it overnight to mature the gelato base. This will improve the taste and texture.
The next day, if you are using an ice cream/gelato machine with a chilling unit, turn it on about 15 minutes ahead of time to get the bowl cold. If you are using a stand mixer freezer bowl there is no need to do this - although note you will not get the best texture with one of these as they cannot chill the gelato to the correct temperature.
Blend the salted caramel gelato base one more time and then pour it into your machine to churn. It will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on your machine.
The gelato should be a scoop-able texture but depending on your machine, may need to go back into the freezer for a few hours to firm up. Scoop it into a container and freeze it. Ideally this needs to be churned and served on the same day so up to 6 hours in the freezer is long enough. As the gelato freezes, the sugars begin to re-crystallise which makes the gelato go icy. As the recipe has a stabiliser in it along with skimmed milk powder, we are doing everything we can to trap as much water too, but eventually the texture will deteriorate.
Note - if you are using a different fat percentage of cream, say 36%, there is no need to adjust the recipe. It will just have slightly more fat in compared to 32% so will be a slight difference in texture/mouthfeel.
Ingredients
Directions
Into a medium saucepan, sprinkle over about 1/5 of the 125g of caster sugar into an even layer. Place it onto a medium heat and without stirring, allow the mixture to caramelise.
Once the sugar has melted, tip in the next 1/5 of sugar and just gently shake the pan the disperse the sugar and allow it to melt. Once melted the sugar should be lightly caramelised at this point.
Keep adding the sugar in intervals - at this point you can use a spatula to stir it through. Once all the sugar has melted, continue to cook it to a deep caramel...almost burnt (!)
Remove it from the heat and immediately pour it onto a silicon mat, then tip the sea salt flakes on top. Allow it to set for 30 minutes.
In the mean time, prep all your other ingredients. Add the remaining sugar (20g) and ice cream stabiliser into a small dish and stir it together to combine. I use Locust Bean Gum as my ice cream stabiliser but you can buy a generic ice cream stabiliser online and this will work just as well. They really help to improve the texture and prevent the gelato from melting too quickly.
Once the caramel has set, add it into a blender and blend to a fine powder. Don't worry if there are are few bigger chunks they will dissolve when we cook it.
Add the caramel powder, glucose syrup and skimmed milk powder to a medium saucepan. Pour the milk and cream over the top and place it one a medium heat.
Whisk it until it reaches a temperature of 45C/113F on a digital thermometer. Tip in the ice cream stabiliser/sugar mixture and continue to whisk until it reaches 85C/185F on a digital thermometer.
Immediately remove it from the heat and pour it into a bowl. Blend it with a hand blender to emulsify for 1 minute.
Add the bowl into the sink filled with ice water - the gelato books will say you need to chill this as quickly as possible to 4C/39F but realistically at home this is difficult. So I leave it in the ice water for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will get it to around 12-15C!
Once chilled, cover the surface of the gelato and refrigerate it overnight to mature the gelato base. This will improve the taste and texture.
The next day, if you are using an ice cream/gelato machine with a chilling unit, turn it on about 15 minutes ahead of time to get the bowl cold. If you are using a stand mixer freezer bowl there is no need to do this - although note you will not get the best texture with one of these as they cannot chill the gelato to the correct temperature.
Blend the salted caramel gelato base one more time and then pour it into your machine to churn. It will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on your machine.
The gelato should be a scoop-able texture but depending on your machine, may need to go back into the freezer for a few hours to firm up. Scoop it into a container and freeze it. Ideally this needs to be churned and served on the same day so up to 6 hours in the freezer is long enough. As the gelato freezes, the sugars begin to re-crystallise which makes the gelato go icy. As the recipe has a stabiliser in it along with skimmed milk powder, we are doing everything we can to trap as much water too, but eventually the texture will deteriorate.
Note - if you are using a different fat percentage of cream, say 36%, there is no need to adjust the recipe. It will just have slightly more fat in compared to 32% so will be a slight difference in texture/mouthfeel.
I’ve had this icecream machine for 23 years and I love it! It travelled with my across the globe. Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Also thanks for the tip to use a stabiliser- I’ve never done that before
Hope it’s delish!
Hi Matt! I have the Kitchen-Aid ice cream bowl (which I freeze overnight). You mentioned this device doesn’t chill to the right temp.
Since this is the equipment I currently have, is it worth the effort? any other steps I could do to make the best of the equip I have?
Thanks!
I think it’s worth a go yeh!
Hi Matt!
Thank you so much for sharing your art.
I just wondering what is different between 125 gr Caster/White Sugar (A) and 20 gr Caster/White Sugar (B)?
Best
Melody
Just splitting it into two separate quantities 🙂 the second part (B) just goes with the stabiliser
Hi, Matt. Thank you. I have a question. When do you use cream 32% fat and when you don’t? And, also, why in some recipes do you use dextrose and why glucose syrup in others?
They are just different recipes based on the ingredients and textures. So higher fat recipes like pistachio only need milk as there is lots of fat from pistachio. The blend of glucose or dextrose is just to achieve my preference in texture!
Hi Matt, is it possible to leave out the ice cream stabilizer and substitute the glucose syrup for something more widely available like corn syrup?
I’m afraid not. They are both key ingredients for the texture/taste
If I want a base of vanilla flavor can I just leave the Carmel and put sugar?
Use the mint choc chip gelato recipe and just swap fresh vanilla in, instead of mint 🙂