I love ice cream. Hubby loves ice cream. Kids love ice cream. Hmm, sensing a pattern here? When I see an ice cream recipe I almost always save it. When I found this one, I wasn’t actually looking for an ice cream recipe, but there it was in all of its gloriousness. By the way, I wasn’t really sure if “gloriousness” was a word, but there’s no red dotted line under it in my blogger editor, so I guess it’s a winner. ;)
I’ve mentioned before that I give my library card a pretty good workout. One day while browsing through the cookbook section, I came upon Ina Garten’s book Barefoot Contessa Parties. I’ve already made some cookies from this book, and have several other pages earmarked. The food stylist in this book really knows their stuff, they had me drooling all over the pages.
This is an uber dangerous ice cream (dang uber’s not a word? Blogger’s red dotted line says it’s not. HA! it also says that “Blogger’s” is not a word! LMAO). Ok sorry. :-p Anyway, as I was saying, this is an uber dangerous ice cream. The flavor if miraculous, I would ask it to marry me if I weren’t already spoken for. In fact, I don’t know if I will ever make it again unless I omit the nuts so that my nut-phobic family will help me eat it! So, so, so yummy nummy. (Nummy isn’t a word either?)
You will love it. I swear.Â
Caramel Chocolate Nut Ice Cream
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups pecan halves (10 ounces)
6-7 ounces best quality sweet chocolate, diced (see note at end)
Place 1/2 cup water and the sugar in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, and cook over low heat, without stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to high and boil until the sugar turns a warm mahogany or caramel color, 3-5 minutes. Do not stir, but swirl the pan occasionally so the caramel cooks evenly.
Remove the caramel from the heat and carefully pour in the cream. The caramel is very hot, and the mixture will bubble up violently, then solidify. Don’t worry.
Return it to low heat and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the caramel dissolves, 5-7 minutes. Add the vanilla. Pour into a container and refrigerate until very cold.
[Amanda note] Something that is not suggested in the recipe is to strain the mixture first. Because the caramel solidifies and then you melt it down again, I definitely recommend this step. See that little bit of hard caramel I strained out? That could have broken a tooth in ice cream!
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roast the pecans on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes, until crisp. Cool, chop, mix with the diced chocolate, and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Freeze the caramel mixture in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s directions. (It may take several batches). When it is frozen, add the cold chopped pecans and chocolate and mix in completely. Transfer to quart containers and store in the freezer until ready to serve.
Note: Ina suggested Lindt Lindor Truffles (2 3.5 oz pkgs) because they don’t freeze hard. She says that Lindt Swiss milk chocolate or any good milk chocolate is fine too.
Well, I figured no problem, my grocer always has Lindor Truffles. Nope. None. Nada. So instead I used Hershey’s Bliss Milk Chocolate Meltaways and they worked beautifully.
More Ice Cream Recipes
- Chocolate Ice Cream
- Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream
- Chocolate Rum Raisin Ice Cream
- Root Beer Ice Cream
- Nutella Swirl Cheesecake Ice Cream
- Black Cow Ice Cream
- Mocha Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
- No Churn Ice Cream
Caramel Chocolate Nut Ice Cream
IMPORTANT - There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Print It Rate ItIngredients
- 2 ½ cups sugar
- 6 cups heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups pecan halves 10 ounces
- 6-7 ounces best quality sweet chocolate diced
Instructions
- Place 1/2 cup water and the sugar in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, and cook over low heat, without stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to high and boil until the sugar turns a warm mahogany or caramel color, 3-5 minutes. Do not stir, but swirl the pan occasionally so the caramel cooks evenly.
- Remove the caramel from the heat and carefully pour in the cream. The caramel is very hot, and the mixture will bubble up violently, then solidify. Don’t worry.
- Return it to low heat and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the caramel dissolves, 5-7 minutes. Add the vanilla. Pour into a container and refrigerate until very cold.
- Something that is not suggested in the recipe is to strain the mixture first. Because the caramel solidifies and then you melt it down again, I definitely recommend this step.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roast the pecans on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes, until crisp. Cool, chop, mix with the diced chocolate, and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Freeze the caramel mixture in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s directions. (It may take several batches). When it is frozen, add the cold chopped pecans and chocolate and mix in completely. Transfer to quart containers and store in the freezer until ready to serve.
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Amanda Davis
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Amanda says
Ingrid – hope to see you make it!
Memoria – thanks for visiting, I am going to make this again without the nuts, it was too good not to!
Memória says
Woah, this ice cream sounds good, too!! I would have to take out the nuts, though haha. Thanks for the process photos. :)
Ingrid says
I'm all over this! It looks and sounds insanely good. Ice cream is always welcomed in my house.
I guess since technically I'm not married it's fair game for me! :)
~ingrid
Amanda says
LOL – yeah I've all but given up on having a figure again any time soon. I vote for ice cream :)
Leslie says
Ooh that looks and sounds wonderful. I would love to make ice cream at home but it's too dangerous for my figure ;)
Patricia says
This sounds delicious. It's kind of funny, I didn't feel like making ice cream this summer but now that it is fall, I keep thinking of ice creams to make :)
Karine says
The combo of flavors of your recipe sounds amazing!
Ice cream is hard to resist isn't it?
Barbara Bakes says
Yum! I love the tip at the end about buying a chocolate that won't freeze hard!
Amanda says
I think I will definitely make this again, only this time without the nuts. Yummmmmmmyyyyyy
katrina says
I'm so glad you suggested the straining – and alerted people to the hunky mass of glop you get when you mix the hot caramel and the cream -I was terrified when it first happened to me. Sounds wonderful – and yet another reason to buy an ice cream maker.
Kevin says
…mmm…so good… I don't think you could pack in any more great flavours into that ice cream!
biz319 says
Yet another reason why I need an icecream maker!!
Katrina says
Oh my goodness, Amanda. This sounds like a heavenly ice cream! You are too funny about all the words in your post. I'm the same way. I'm also kind of annoyed that blog/blogger isn't a real word yet. And I totally think uber should be, as well as nummy! Who writes the dang dictionary anyway?
Frieda says
Oooohhh…this looks so good~ thanks for the recipe…I'll have to try it with cashews, which are my fave. You will have to try David Lebovitz' salted caramel ice cream sometime and compare it with this.
Tiffiny Felix says
Wow…this looks so good. I might leave the nuts so I could eat it all myself :) I don't have an ice cream maker and I wonder if it's a good thing (for my waist-size). I've seen so many awesome ice cream recipes since I joined the blogasphere! :)
Pam says
YUMM!
Bunny says
OMG your family is like mine they don't like nuts!!! It's enough to drive me nuts! I'm bookmarking this!! When you make it again, what are you going to put in place of the nuts??I made chocolate ice cream a while ago and put m&m's in it. My hubby said they were like little frozen bee bees hee hee. Won't do that again!
VeggieGirl says
HEAVENLY combination!!
No worries, go ahead and say "über," haha ;)
SavoringTime in the Kitchen says
This recipe sounds delicious – especially since I love caramel, nuts and chocolate!
pinkstripes says
This is my kind of ice cream. Sounds very dangerous and delicious.