Apple Ice Creams with Caramel

Posted on October 2, 2011

My favourite McDonalds ice cream sundae flavour was always caramel. Caramel sauce is delicious! I’ve had a recipe for it in my book for years.

I recently saw an idea for hollowing out apples and filling them with ice cream in a Martha Stewart magazine article.  They were served at a fairly typically Martha Stewart pumpkin carving party for children. Looked like a house in the Hamptons to me! I’ve never seen such colour co-ordination among children and leaves.

The apple sundaes looked so pretty and I thought this would be a delicious new use for caramel sauce. To make the sauce a bit thinner, a bit glossier and a bit more interesting, I added some brandy. Topped with chopped nuts …. amazing. And you can eat the bowl.

I think it looks like quite an impressive Sunday night pudding, but actually there’s almost nothing to it. You just make up the sauce and assemble the dessert. And the sauce can be refrigerated (and I’m 99% sure it can be frozen, tests are currently underway) so you can even do that in advance.

Apple Ice Creams with Brandy CaramelThe sauce would probably serve at least 8. If you don’t need that much, (try to) refrigerate or freeze the rest

25g butter
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup golden syrup
¼ cup cold water
pinch salt
1x tin (400g) sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
2 Tbsp fruit juice
apples (use nice round red ones that ‘stand up’ nicely)
ice cream
chopped nuts

Place the butter in a saucepan and melt it gently. Add the brown sugar, golden syrup, water and salt. Heat gently at first and stir constantly as the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, still stirring, until the mixture really bubbles like mad. Reduce the heat, and add the condensed milk, vanilla and fruit juice . Stir until it’s nicely combined and a good caramel colour, then take it off the heat.

Cut the top bit off the apple, and scoop out all the inside flesh. I used a melon baller which was handy, I’m sure a teaspoon would do the trick. If you want to do this more than 5 minutes before serving, squeeze lemon juice over the apple to stop it browning. Fill the apple with a scoop or two of ice cream, and drizzle with the warm caramel (if the caramel has thickened while you got the apples ready, just gently heat it again, or add one more dash of brandy). Top with chopped nuts and serve.