Dulce de Leche Ice Cream, like in Buenos Aires

Summer is coming, and the hot weather calls for ice-cream, and while for many people ice cream means strawberry, vanilla, chocolate....for me, it means only one thing: dulce de leche !

Argentinians have a reputation for great ice-cream. All tourists that visit Buenos Aires learn these three words instantly: Freddo, Volta, Persicco....Italian pizzerias? No, the name of the three best ice-cream parlors in the city, with ice-cream of a unrivalled quality ...Just last week, when I was in New York, some American friends told me that..."Oh, we miss so much the dulce de leche ice-cream from Buenos Aires...", and so the idea came to me... if you like this recipe, thank Phyllis and Ken !

And while dulce de leche icecream can be plain, or with chocolate chips...the latest fad? with brownies or Oreo cookies.... I will post here its most traditional flavour, dulce de leche ice-cream with caramelised almonds

Here comes the recipe!

For the Caramelised Almonds you will need: 
 * whole almonds, 150gr
 * sugar, 75gr
 * water, 15gr

Put the sugar and water in a thick pan, over a medium heat. When the sugar reaches 110°C (5'), pour all the almonds at a time. Stir continously with a wooden spoon. There, you'll panic because the sugar will turn into something like sand ! this is because the water has evaporated. Don't worry, keep on stirring and little by little sugar will turn into caramel (it doesn't happen instantly; it takes 10' aprox.) 

When the almonds have a nice caramel colour and are well coated, remove the pan from the fire, scatter the almonds on a Silpat, with the help of two forks coated in oil. Let them cool.

Warning: these almonds are completely addictive !!!!   And by the way, the quantity here is more than what you need for this icecream, you can use the rest at coffee-time, or just eat them while you are watching a movie!


For the Dulce de Leche Icecream ( 800gr aprox), you will need:

 * unskimmed milk, 250gr
 * heavy cream, 250gr
 * dulce de leche, 400
 * egg yolks, 4
 * rhum, 5gr
 * food colouring (caramel colour) if your dulce de leche is not dark enough.

Whisk the yolks with the dulce de leche. Here I used maybe one of the best Argentinian dulces, dulce de leche Havanna !!!! Whoever has been to Argentina, has sure tasted the incredible "alfajores Havanna". If you don't have ready made dulce de leche, you can follow the recipe here. Check the colour. It should be really dark otherwise it won't look as dulce de leche...add some caramel food colouring if necessary.Then, put the milk and cream in a saucepan and take it to a boil. Then, proceed like for a "crème anglaise": pour a little bit of the cream/milk mixture on the yolks/dulce de leche, combine well, then pour the yolks mixture into the rest of the cream/milk in the pan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the cream coats the back of a spoon. Let it cool. Refrigerate overnight. Then, churn in  your ice-cream maker as indicated by manufacturer. Some minutes before it is ready, add in the caramelised almonds (you can cut them in halves if you want to). For extra indulgence, you can also fold in some teaspoonfuls of dulce de leche. Freeze.
Enjoy it!!!