Decadent Sea Salt and Caramel Ice Cream

Set aside 1 cup of heavy cream in a metal bowl over a bed of ice water and lay a fine mesh strainer over top.

In a medium sauce pan, melt 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice. Continue adding 1/2 cup of sugar at a time, waiting for each batch of sugar to completely dissolve before adding the next 1/2 cup. Do this until all sugar is added.

Continue to cook sugar gradually until it turns a brown hue; this is the caramelization. The darker you cook the sugar, the richer the ice cream will be, so I leave this up to you to experiment.

Take the caramelized sugar off heat and stir in butter and salt until melted. Return to burner and slowly whisk in 2 cups cream. The caramel may seize at this time but that is okay, keep heating until it melts again.

Once melted and warm, add cream caramel mix to the egg yolks a ladle at a time, whisking furiously to avoid cooking the eggs. Once half the mixture has been whisked into the eggs, pour the egg-cream mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium low while slowly stirring, until the base thickens and can coat the back of a spoon. This is your custard base.

Take the custard base and pour through the mesh strainer into the 1 cup cream on the ice bath. Stir in vanilla extract and allow to cool to room temperature. Put mixture in the refrigerator and cool for 2 hours, up to overnight.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze overnight.

Makes about 1 quart.