Rhubarb Ice Cream With a Caramel Swirl
Updated May 2, 2024
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes plus chilling and freezing time
- Cook Time
- About 1 hour 30 minutes, plus overnight chill and freeze time
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1and ½ cups whole milk
- 1and ¾ cup plus 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 1vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 4large egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 1and ½ cups sour cream
- ¾pound rhubarb, cut into ½-inch dice
- ½cup heavy cream
Preparation
- Step 1
In a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, whisk together the milk, ¾ cup sugar, the salt, the vanilla bean seeds and its pod. Simmer gently until sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and steep 30 minutes. Discard the vanilla pod and return mixture to a bare simmer.
- Step 2
Place the yolks in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in hot milk mixture. Scrape the custard back into the pot and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Whisk in sour cream. Chill at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Step 3
In a saucepan, combine the rhubarb with 1 cup sugar. Simmer until rhubarb is just tender and has begun releasing its juices, but has not started to fall apart, 4 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer rhubarb to a bowl. Continue to simmer the juices until syrupy, 5 to 10 minutes more. Pour the syrup over the rhubarb. Cool completely.
- Step 4
In a clean, dry and preferably nonstick skillet, sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over medium heat. When it begins to melt and lightly color, sprinkle in 2 more tablespoons and start swirling pan to help evenly distribute sugar. Add the final 2 tablespoons and cook, swirling pan until all the sugar has melted. Let cook, swirling occasionally, until the sugar syrup caramelizes and turns dark brown. Pour in the heavy cream and 2 tablespoons water (stand back; it may splatter). Simmer, stirring with a heatproof rubber spatula until smooth. Cool completely.
- Step 5
Pour the custard base into an ice cream machine and churn. Add rhubarb compote for the last minute of churning.
- Step 6
Scrape a quarter of the caramel into the bottom of a freezer-proof quart container. Top with a quarter of the ice cream. Repeat layering until all of the caramel and ice cream has been used, ending with the ice cream. Freeze until firm for at least 2 hours and up to 1 week.
Private Notes
Comments
Rather than spend $18.99 for two sad little vanilla beans in a jar at the supermarket, I skipped the steeping in Step 1 and added 2 tsp. vanilla along with the sour cream in Step 2. I'm sure vanilla bean would add depth of flavor--but at the speed with which this ice cream disappeared at a hot 4th of July party, I'm not sure it made that much difference. Wonderful recipe.
I made this exactly as written, using sour cream. Best ice cream I have ever made, and one of the top I've ever eaten! Thanks again, Melissa.
This is absolutely delicious! I didn't add the caramel swirl because after tasting both the base and rhubarb compote, I thought it was plenty sweet enough (and I did scant cups in measuring the sugar for both). However, if the caramel was cooked until quite dark, I could see it adding a welcome hint of bitterness. An extra large pinch of salt in the base, or a small sprinkle of salt on top would be great too. All tasters have been impressed so far - will definitely be making this one again!
Tastes quite nice but the addition of the rhubarb compote makes the ice cream quite icy. Even when you wait until the very last few churns to add the compote, there is just still too much water in the rhubarb chunks and creates little ice chunks wherever there is fruit. The custard base is really good though.
Delicious! Haven’t tried it with the caramel yet, was making for a chef friend who gave me rhubarb from her garden and preferred to try without the caramel. She LOVED it. I cannot wait to to make this again and again, might try with some other fruits too like cherries or peaches (using less sugar). I did use less sugar with this recipe, 175 gm instead of 200 in the rhubarb, 130 gm instead of 150 gm in the base, and thought it was perfect. Stays a scoops le texture right from the freezer. Also with Lactaid milk and Lactaid sour cream this could be made lactose free for my friends who are lactose intolerant!
made a half batch without eggs and blended about 1/2 the rhubarb chunks/syrup in with the milk and sour cream. I sampled a little as I transferred it to the freezer to harden and I thought the sour cream flavor was a bit overpowering, we’ll see if that verdict remains the same. Making the caramel it turned fairly dark very quickly and the second splash of cream I added to the caramel made it split instead of continuing to mix. To fix this, I stirred aggressively for a few minutes and put it back on medium-low heat until it recombined. Added flaky salt to the caramel and think I’d add even more next time.