Healthy dinners

Over-the-Top Ice Cream Sundaes with Homemade Caramel

Fully loaded with creamy fudge, salty pretzels, crunchy toffee, and chewy, bittersweet candied lemon peel, this over-the-top sundae gets drenched in homemade caramel sauce for a grown-up take on a nostalgic childhood treat served at chef Dan Kluger's Loring Place in New York City. Mix up an extra-large batch for ready-made sundaes all summer long.

Ingredients

Ice Cream
  • 1 pint vanilla ice cream
  • 8 ounces fudge, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus more for serving
  • 4 large pretzel rods, crushed (about 1/2 cup), plus more for serving
  • ½ cup coarsely chopped chocolate-covered toffee candy bar (such as Heath), plus more for serving
  • 4 teaspoons chopped candied lemon peel, plus more for serving
Caramel Sauce
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3 ounces), cubed
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Step by step

Make the sundaes

  1. Scoop ice cream into a large bowl; stir ice cream until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in fudge, pretzels, toffee candy bar, and lemon peel until evenly combined. Cover and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours or up to 12 hours.

Make the caramel sauce
  1. Stir together sugar and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium, stirring constantly, just until sugar dissolves, about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Continue to cook, without stirring, until sugar mixture turns amber in color, 7 to 10 minutes. Gently swirl pan once, and carefully whisk in butter cubes. Remove from heat; gradually whisk in cream, vanilla, and salt. Let cool about 15 minutes.
  2. To serve, scoop ice cream evenly into 4 bowls. Drizzle each with about 2 tablespoons caramel sauce; reserve remaining sauce for another use. Garnish sundaes with additional fudge, pretzels, toffee candy bar, and lemon peel.

You May Also Like