Salty Caramel Ice Cream

I'm trying to remember when my love affair with salted caramel started -- I think it was at Splendido in the spring of 2010. I ordered their chocolate caramel tart for dessert, and it was sprinkled with what appeared to be Maldon salt. I was already full from a very decadent dinner but once I tasted that tart and its divine mingling of dark chocolate, rich buttery caramel, shortbread crust, and crunchy salt flakes, I was done for. Days later, I was still thinking about it. With all due respect to David Chang, THIS was crack pie.

And while I've had a ton of salted caramel goodies since then (my friend B's Salted Caramel Brownies with Bacon stand out), I'd never actually made anything myself. Well when I saw the recipe for Salty Caramel Ice Cream in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home by Jeni Britton Bauer of the famed Ohio artisan ice cream chain, I knew I had to try it. I mean, it's a no-brainer, right? I was also curious to try making caramel without added water. I don't have the best pots in the world, and the idea of cooking dry sugar until it melted and caramelized seemed a dubious proposition, but why the hell not? Besides, if I burned the pot I'd just have to buy a new.....set.

Guinness Gingerbread with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I've made this Guinness Gingerbread, from Nigella Lawson's latest cookbook Kitchen, twice in the past week and with good reason. It's fantastic! Sweet, but not too sweet, with lots of spice and a wonderfully moist texture. It's a perfect dessert for the holidays, but I've been having it with my morning coffee at work. Decadent, I suppose, but that's what the Christmas season is for, right?

It's also gloriously easy to make -- simply melt and mix the butter, sugar, Guinness, and spices on the stove, mix in the dry ingredients, then add some sour cream and eggs, pour into a 9-inch pan, and bake!

With my parents over for dinner this weekend, I knew I wanted to make the gingerbread, and I thought some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream would be a welcome addition. I pondered going out and buying a pint of Haagen-Dazs, but given that my sister bought me the ice cream maker attachment for my new stand mixer, why wait to make a batch of homemade?