Strawberry ice cream with caramel sauce and my new email

Before today’s recipe, there’s something I need to share with you: I’ve been having some problems with my email account and therefore I’ll use my Gmail from now on. Because I don’t know when I’ll be able to log in to the old account again, can I ask you guys something? If you have emailed me in the last couple of days, would you please resend me the email at patricia (dot) scarpin (at) gmail.com?
Thank you!

After all the trouble with my email, I needed something to cool off – nothing better than ice cream for that. And after spotting the gorgeous redder-than-red-strawberries Joao’d bought, I knew exactly which flavor to try. :D

This is not an overly sweet ice cream and goes perfectly with the caramel sauce.

Strawberry ice cream with caramel sauce
slightly adapted from Donna Hay magazine

½ cup (120ml) whole milk
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
½ vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
3 egg yolks
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (74g) caster sugar
500g strawberries, hulled
¼ cup (50g) caster sugar

Caramel sauce:
1/3 cup (80ml) water
¾ cup (150g) caster sugar
2/3 cup (160ml) heavy cream

Combine milk and cream in a 1- to 2-quart heavy saucepan. With tip of a knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture, then add pod. Heat the milk, cream and vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to boil. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 30 minutes.
Reheat cream mixture over medium heat, stirring, until hot. Place the egg yolks and sugar (74g) in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale. Slowly pour hot milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Return to the saucepan and stir over low heat for 4 minutes or until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, return vanilla pod to mixture, cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.
Place the strawberries and extra sugar (50g) in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the strawberry purée to the cooled custard, mix well, then pour into an ice cream maker (remove vanilla bean). Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Make the sauce: place the water and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to high and boil for 7 minutes or until golden in color – do not stir during this time, just swirl the pan around. Remove from the heat and allow the bubbles to subside. Carefully add the cream and stir – mixture will bubble. Set aside to cool.

Serves 6-8