Fall Flavor: Salted Caramel

   I have been around. I've seen some things and some stuff. This summer I did some coast-to-coast travel, and had the ability to taste some of the best ice cream in the country.
   I was in San Francisco, California for a day. Prior to my trip I throughly searched for the best spots in the NoCal area. I had only heard of two: Bi-Rite Creamery and the infamous Humphry Slocombe. I only had time to hit one, so I chose the legendary Bi-Rite, for its heralded Salted Caramel.
   When visiting my brother, Austin Shirey, in New York City, he knew all the places to hit. He's conquered ice cream in the City, leaving no shop untested. So, we did it. We went hard for 5 days, eating every ice cream we came across. But two stood out among the best ice creams I have ever eaten: Milkmade (see previous blog) and the new Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn. I had Salted Caramel from both, and, although Milkmade's was the best I've ever had, both were "out of this world".
 
   So, having tasted and tested the best in the country, I returned home with a mission: to match them. The first flavor I made was Salted Caramel. I knew what the best tasted like, and that set the bar at a lofty level. But I'm not out to just make mediocre ice cream. It has to equal or surpass anything I've tasted, or what's the point of making my own?

   I developed my own recipe, though recipes are hardly original these days, for the Salted Caramel, measuring out what I thought to be the appropriate proportions of each ingredient. I have seen many recipes that use more milk than cream, and I think that is a cop out. I go for the thick stuff. I have also enhanced my base with an exponential increase of egg yolk addition, which has rewarded me with a much thicker, creamier, not-icy-when-frozen-for-days ice cream.

   I started the base by making the caramel. Poured the sugar into the pan on high heat. It began to melt quickly in geysers of molten sugar sprouting from the field of whiteness. Once the white darkened to a deep amber, I removed the pan from the heat and added the butter and salt. It fizzed angrily at having the cool butter encroaching on its lava pit. Stirring to melt the butter, I then replaced it over a slightly lower heat.

   Next came the heavy cream. (CAUTION: caramel is easily angered, approach with vigil and wariness). With my sword and shield, I went into battle. The pan was a pit of boiling lava from the fires of Mordor, but it was not a ring I had to cast into its smoking bowels; it was heavy cream, a much mightier foe, one equipped with a cold outer defense and a thickness unlike any other ingredient to enter the pit that day. Caution to the wind I began to pour. In a hellish uproar the caramel vomited upon encountering the cold cream, a most defying defense mechanism. But I pressed on, attacking the lava caramel with pints and pints of cream. With a chilling scream it relinquished power and gave in...
   Ok, this might have gone too far.

   Once the cream had been incorporated into the melted sugar, butter, and salt, the caramel was complete (this is where I would normally stop for a caramel sauce). To complete the base I added the milk. Due to the addition of multiple items out of the refrigerator, the temperature of the caramel had drop dramatically. I stirred it over medium heat until it resumed its simmer.
   Meanwhile the eggs, that had been previously separated (I separate the eggs before anything else is done, so that when the time comes for their addition I can just whisk them in), I whisked, then slowly poured some of the hot caramel into the bowl of yolks, whisking vigorously. After tempering the yolks, I added everything back into the pan over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid my other dessert "salted eggs and caramel". Once it became even thicker, I set it in the fridge to chill before pouring it into my new ice cream maker.

   Ok, to keep up with demand and to improve efficiency at Shireshack, I purchased a Cuisinart ICE-50BC. Don't let the BC deter you or impede your thoughts of it. It was not before Christ. It is actually quite modern. What makes it so special is its ability to churn out batch after batch without the hindering freezer bowl. And it makes the best homemade ice cream to date. I renamed it Merlyn. It does that kind of magic.

   So here I am with my new found love Salted Caramel. When Kyle Weeks tasted it (Kyle was with me when I was in San Francisco to try Bi-Rite's famous Salted Caramel) he immediately let out a whale. Yes, a whale. Not a wail, for that would be most unmanly. And he said it was the best ice cream he has ever had. So did Jake Reynolds, and Brandon Lowe, and Phil Deaton, and...me. That's right. The guy who is on a mission to find gourmet ice creams that are truly inspiring and make one giddy like a Reynolds' boy. Well, my quest is not over, but I have found Arda.
   It was a perfect blend of saltiness with sweetness. And how often do I harp on how magical a combo these two things make? Often. It makes the world go round. Whoever decided that salt would be good in caramel was a genius, and a madman because it gets people hooked. Good.
   Caramel makes the creamiest base I have had yet in ice cream form. Every type I tried, from East to West coast, were all the creamiest flavors there. Mine was no exception. Creamiest yet. The addition of more eggs made a major impact on this, I am convinced. Texture is everything. But Taste is King. Work that out.
   Thick and creamy. Smooth and frozen. Sweet and salty. These are just a few of my favorite things...



   I will not abandon my quest for the best ice cream in the world, though I have made major progress. I may have found Arda, but Eden still awaits discovery. I hope all of you who tried it throughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed making it, and put a whole lot of passion into it.
   I am basing my flavors on seasonal themes this go around, beginning with Fall. So, more great flavors to come in the near, near future. Keep reading, keep eating, keep ice creaming.

-Reese O'Shirey, Esquire
 

                                              (homemade apple pie and salted caramel)