Salted Honey Ice Cream
This Salted Honey Ice Cream is a dreamy homemade custard thats silky, scoopable straight from the freezer, and full of rich, golden honey flavor. Sweetened with honey and flavored with vanilla bean, it’s perfectly balanced with a pinch of flaky sea salt.
Servings: 6 servings
Equipment
- heavy-bottomed, two-quart pot or saucepan
- metal sieve strainer
Ingredients
- 500 grams/ml heavy cream (32-35% butterfat)
- 500 grams/ml grams/ml whole milk (3.6% butterfat)
- 20 grams skim or nonfat milk powder
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt *more if needed
- 36 grams granulated sugar
- 110 grams egg yolks
- 226 grams natural honey
- 3 tablespoons bourbon, rum, or vodka *optional
Instructions
Salted Honey Ice Cream Base
- ***If you're ice cream machine has a bowl that needs to be frozen, place it in the freezer now!
- Place saucepan over medium heat and whisk together the milk, cream, skim milk powder, and salt.
- Heat mixture until it reads 113℉ (45℃) on instant thermometer, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the granulated sugar, followed by slowly drizzling in the beaten egg yolks, while constantly whisking. Since the liquid is not too hot at this point, it's easier to temper the eggs right after the sugar and directly into the base.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook the base until it reaches 180℉ (82℃) on the thermometer. Stir continuously with a whisk or silicone spatula to prevent over-cooking the custard at the bottom of the saucepan.
- The ice cream base is cooked when it reaches desired temperature, when it coats the back of a spoon and you can easily draw a line through the custard with your finger tip. **Remember it will be slightly thinner than other custard bases since the majority of the sugar will be added as honey in the following step.
- Immediately remove from heat and pour the custard through the mesh sieve into the large bowl.
- Stir in the honey, vanilla, and alcohol. Cool the base to room temperature, occasionally stirring to prevent a skin from forming. **I also take a handheld immersion blender and do a quick blend for smoothness.
- **You can place the bowl in an ice bath made using a larger bowl of water and ice to help cool it down faster.
- Once cooled, place a layer of plastic wrap directly onto the custard and refrigerate for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight. This "aging" step is important to create a cold ice cream base for churning.
Churn and Freeze
- Remove the cold ice cream base from the fridge and pour into your ice cream machine. Churn as directed for your machine, usually 28-30 minutes.
- The ice cream should look like soft serve when it's done.
- Transfer ice cream to a freezer safe container.
- Cover container with lid or plastic wrap and freeze for about 3-4 hours before serving. Scoop and serve with a little drizzle of honey and an extra sprinkle of sea salt.