This Dulce de Leche Ice Cream is homemade version of the Latin American favorite! Creamy, smooth, sweet, and full of caramel…lots and lots of caramel!
What is dulce de leche?
A Latin American classic dessert, dulce de leche is a sauce made by cooking down milk and sugar until it reduces and thickens into a creamy, milky mixture that resembles caramel sauce.
A short cut recipe involves canned sweetened condensed milk, which reduces the amount of cooking time needed to achieve that creamy deliciousness that can (and should) be enjoyed on its own, in ice cream, or as a filling for pastries, cakes, and donuts.
Ingredients
Some ice cream recipes don’t require an ice cream maker, and only 3 ingredients. That’s a churned. custard-based recipe, so it will require a little more work and patience, but it’s so worth it!
- Heavy cream – also known as double cream in Europe, this is what gives this ice cream its rich, creamy flavor
- Whole milk – the fat content of whole milk works best here. You can use a lower fat % if you’d like, just expect a slightly less rich end result
- Dulce de leche – this can found in the coffee aisle at most grocery stores, next to the canned milks. homemade is also great if you’ve got some
- Eggs – only the yolks; you can save the whites for macarons!
- Granulated sugar – this is actually optional and up to your taste. The dulce de leche is plenty sweet on its own, so use your discretion
- Vanilla extract – you can substitute vanilla bean paste or fresh vanilla bean scrapings here
- Kosher or sea salt – just a pinch, or a bit more if you really love salted caramel
Instructions
- Warm the heavy cream, milk and 1 cup of of dulce de leche in a saucepan, stirring constantly until the mixture blended and steam begins to rise from the surface.
- In a large heatproof or metal mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar (if you’re adding it), vanilla, and salt.
- Slowly add the hot cream mixture to the bowl, whisking constantly until fully incorporated.
- Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan set over medium-low heat. Cook the mixture without allowing it to boil, stirring slowly and continuously with a wooden spoon or spatula, until the mixture thickens to a custard-like consistency.
- Pour the mixture though a fine-mesh sieve set over a clean bowl, and use a rubber spatula to press the custard through. Set the bowl in a larger one filled halfway with ice and water and cool the custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate 1 hours until chilled.
- Transfer the custard mixture to an ice cream maker or Kitchenaid mixer attachment and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. At the end of the freezing stage, add the remaining dulce de leche into the churning ice cream until it swirled throughout.
- Transfer the ice cream to a freezable container with a lid (like a loaf pan), cover and freeze until firm, 3-4 hours, or overnight.
