CARAMEL ICE CREAM WITH FLEUR DE SEL GUÉRANDE

Absolutely delectable with vanilla poached pears! Salt from Guérande comes from a process that has remained unchanged for over thousand years. The beach fields around Guérande are nature reserves nowadays. Several of them have been used since the 1800s. It is a unique white salt with fine crystals that are excellent to add to ice cream.

Caramelization is a thermal decomposition of the sugar that occurs when a sugar solution is heated to 212ºF and above. The degree of caramelization increases with the rising temperature and particularly occurs at low pH values. Te sugar molecules disintegrate at first, and then the disintegrated particles react with each other and with the water and the sugar that hasn’t been broken down. Together they build a varied, brown colored and slightly sweet molecule. Caramel ice cream and sauce are based on caramelization.

Ingredients :

2 gelatin leaves (4 g)
500 g (2 cups) milk
500 g (2 cups) whipping cream
1 vanilla pod (unopened)
240 g (1 cup) egg yolks
50 g + 200 g (¼ cup + 1 cup) sugar
80 g (1/3 cup) water
50 g (2½ tbsp) glucose syrup
5 g (1 tsp) fleur de sel Guérande

Prepare :

1. Soak the gelatin leaves in water for at least 10 minutes.
2. Boil the milk, cream, the whole vanilla bean, and set the pot aside.
3. Whisk egg yolks with 50 g (¼ cup) of sugar until you get a foamy blend and set aside.
4. Boil the remaining sugar and water until you have a dark brown caramel sauce (it has a good color at 356ºF). Immediately pour it into the warm milk/cream blend (be cautious as a lot of bubbles will occur). Put the pot back on the stove and bring to a boil again and make sure that all the sugar is dissolved. Immediately pour it over the foamy yolk blend and mix well.
5. Pour everything back into the pot and heat to 185ºF, when it begins to thicken, or do a rose test or a ladle test (p. 25). Lift the gelatin leaves out of the water and add them to the ice cream blend. Stir until they dissolve. Add salt.
6. Remove the vanilla pod from the batter, rinse it and allow it to dry so you can reuse it.
7. Strain the ice cream mass through a strain it through a chinois or a fine meshed sieve into a stainless steel bowl. Rapidly cool mix to 39.2ºF, whisk occasionally so that it cools down quicker.
8. Continue as you would with the vanilla ice cream.

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