Strawberry Caramel Swirl Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream with a Soft Middle

Set out fresh strawberries hulled and diced, whole milk, and granulated sugar before you start Strawberry Caramel Swirl Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream with a Soft Middle. The batch is written for 4 people.

Count on 25 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of cooking, 4 hours of resting, about 4 hours from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

For the Ice Cream

• 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries hulled and diced
• ¾ cup whole milk
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup crushed chocolate cookies I use Moravian cookies because I’m hoity-toity, but Oreos will work!

For the Caramel

• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

How the cooking goes

1. Pre-freeze your freezer bowl at least 24 hours in advance!
2. Set the strawberries in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse until the berries are your desired consistency. You really didn’t want too many large chunks so mine was fairly smooth.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, salt and milk together with a whisk or a hand mixer on low speed until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla, mix until the mix looks even. Add the strawberry puree and mix until the mix looks even. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours to overnight. Overnight is better.
4. Several hours in advance, or the night before, prepare your caramel. Heat sugar in heavy-gauge saucepan over a lively flame, swirling occasionally, until the sugar has melted and turned an amber color. Remove from the heat and pour in the cream while stirring the caramel. An oven mitt is super helpful here because the steam can burn and the caramel will sputter. If small clumps form, you can return the caramel to the heat and stir until it melts. Just know that the longer you cook it, the harder it will be in the freezer. You don’t need all the caramel so you could just remove the lumps. Stir in vanilla. Allow to cool until it is no longer warm before using.
5. Set the container that you are going to use to store the ice cream in the freezer.
6. Turn on the ice cream maker then pour the chilled mixture in the feed tube with the maker running. Let churn 15 minutes and then add the crushed cookies. Churn an additional 5 minutes or until the ice cream has thickened considerably. It should be slightly thicker than soft serve.
7. Lay 1/3 of the ice cream in the storage container. Drizzle some caramel over the surface; repeat with the remaining 2/3’s. You can further swirl the caramel with a knife if you desire, but it isn’t really necessary.
8. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap that touches the surface of the ice cream and doesn’t leave any space for air. Cover with an additional piece of plastic wrap and secure with a rubber band or you can use a lid if your container has one. Freeze for at least 2 hours prior to serving. It will harden substantially more after 4 hours or over night.

After it comes off the heat

Cool the sheet on a rack before the pieces are stacked. A covered tin keeps them for a few days.

If you want another plate from Ice cream, open Raspberry Sorbet for the Dessert Plate and Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie in a Pastry Shell.