Easy Vanilla Caramel Ice Cream... and a Giveaway!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Sometimes a bowl of ice cream is just the thing. There's no getting past it - whatever 'diet' you're on, or whatever eating style you live by... we all love ice cream. This recipe is a celebration of that glorious, wonderful, magical concoction - minus the churning.
A friend of mine mentioned the (rough) recipe to me recently, and I was left thinking, "I have GOT to try that!"
And, of course, healthify it just a little. Enough so that you don't feel guilty. But not so much that it tastes healthy.

This ice cream is both sinfully easy and sinfully delicious - but so free of sin, you might just get sent straight to heaven with your first mouthful! ;)


This recipe is also a celebration of Homemade, Healthy, Happy's very first giveaway AND of my favourite dessert ingredient... VANILLA!


(I bet you all thought I was going to say chocolate, right? Okay, I fold - chocolate and vanilla tie.)

The wonderful people of Sunshine Vanilla have offered an amazing little treat for you guys - FIVE of you will win a little gift pack from Sunshine Vanilla, each one containing FOUR threesome packs (that's TWELVE vanilla beans!) AND 100g of vanilla powder. How super-generous is that?!

Those of you who have been following me on facebook for a while will know that I buy my vanilla in bulk from Sunshine Vanilla. Organic vanilla beans for less than $1 per bean - you just can't get that kind of price in the shops. And these vanilla beans are the plumpest, juiciest, most flavoursome vanilla beans I have found. I'm so excited to be able to share them with you - thank you, Sunshine Vanilla!


Read below for how to enter the giveaway. But for now, let's get back to ice cream! Here's a pretty picture to get you drooling...

Easy Vanilla Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients:
 400g naturally-sweetened vanilla condensed milk (see recipe below)
600ml pouring cream OR 200g thick, luscious Cleo's body cream (unpasteurised cream) plus 400g Cleo's bath milk (unpasteurised milk)
Method:
1) Place all ingredients in Thermomix bowl and mix for 10-15 secs on speed 5.
2) Pour into a container (stainless steel is great), and freeze overnight. No churning required; once it is frozen, you're good to go! AND it scoops easily with an ice cream scoop, straight from the freezer.

HOT TIPS:
Maybe make it in the morning and freeze all day instead of overnight - otherwise the risk of having ice cream for breakfast is rather high.
Mix your raw milk & cream & add kefir grains; let it sit in a sealed jar on the bench for 24 hours. Remove the kefir grains & use your cultured cream/milk mix to add a probiotic boost to your ice cream. (You can also do this with the 600ml pouring cream if that's what you're using.)



Vanilla Condensed Milk

Ingredients:
 1L full cream milk (preferably unhomogenised; you're going to cook this milk, so don't waste your expensive Cleo's bath milk in this part of the recipe!)
150-200g rapadura sugar
seeds of 1-2 vanilla beans
Method:
1) Place all ingredients in TM bowl. Place the lid on the TM, and place your rice basket on top of the lid instead of the MC (this allows the milk to reduce). Cook for 40-45 minutes on Varoma temperature, speed 5.
Notes: The high speed is absolutely necessary for condensed milk, as the fast movement of the blades cuts through the bubbles that the boiling milk makes. If you do it any lower than speed 5, the mixture may boil over. Speed 5 prevents that from happening.

This rapadura-sweetened condensed milk is just divine. It doesn't taste like boiled milk with bland sugar. It tastes rich and complex; like a gorgeous caramel. And those flecks of vanilla throughout... to die for.




So, how do you get your hands on one of those free gift packs from Sunshine Vanilla?
 Easy - simply comment below with your favourite use for vanilla, and 5 winners will be chosen at random. Entries close at 6pm (Sydney time) on Tuesday the 24th, and I will announce the lucky winners in the comments here and on Facebook on Wednesday the 25th. Share the competition on Facebook and get your friends involved - maybe you can share the gift pack if one of you win!

Happy commenting, and good luck! :)


Giveaway is for Australian residents only.