Super Easy Caramel Ice-Cream (no ice-cream maker required)

I have a confession to make. I think I am becoming a Donna Hay addict. It started with her Chocolate Essentials cookbook - several years ago, browsing a bookstore, I was enthralled by the combination of luscious food styling and, well, chocolate. I still love this book - so much that I have given it as a gift. I think the next purchase was Seasons. It was on sale just before we moved to Wellington, and the carefree picnics in the summer section were too alluring to resist. Over the winter, when Milly from Gusty Gourmet tweeted about a wonderful cauliflower soup she'd just made I was convinced to buy the magazine - and now can't pass it by on the racks. And when I was watching Australian Masterchef yesterday and she started talking about "ultimate lickability" I pretty much swooned.

She is a magnificent food stylist - her photos do make you (well, me) want to lick the page - but puts emphasis on taste and (my favourite part) making things as easy as possible. Plenty of her recipes are complicated, multi-step affairs - but never more so than necessary - and they're interspersed with quicker, simpler ideas. In the most recent issue she has some quick ice-cream recipe (which technically aren't super quick as they still need to freeze) and though it's pretty hard to replicate the texture of true ice-cream without making a custard, sometimes something a little different is good.

This particular recipe is about as simple as they come - two ingredients (surely you couldn't have a recipe without at least two ingredients!), and it doesn't even require an ice-cream maker. It took me all of five minutes to put together, and the only potential screw-up I can imagine is possible would be if you beat the cream for a bit too long and made butter instead. And if you're really worried about that you could buy thickened cream (which is actually what the recipe in the mag called for). 

I can barely talk about making it - I whipped the cream to be reasonably firm, but still smooth, then mixed the caramel through. I decided to use our ice-cream maker to start the chilling process, and it was ultra creamy and getting thick by the time I put it in the freezer, but it was far from being ice-cream. The ice-cream maker step is unnecessary, though - just pop the mixture straight in the freezer (Donna says in a metal container; I always use old ice-cream containers. It's only about a litre so the container doesn't need to be huge).

We froze it overnight, though I confess to having a sneaky spoonful about an hour after I put it in, and the edges were freezing up nicely and it was delicious. This is the sort of ice-cream you have to exercise a lot of self control for - it's very rich but utterly delicious. I strongly recommend never risking eating this straight from the container, for you will struggle to put down the spoon!

So, quite possibly the easiest recipe ever - and definitely has ultimate lickability in terms of flavour - do you know of any recipes which beat this for delicious simplicity?

Easy Caramel Ice-Cream (from Donna Hay Magazine)
Ingredients
395g tin caramel (found next to sweetened condensed milk in the supermarket)
300ml cream 

Whip the cream until firm but still smooth. Mix in the caramel until well combined. Transfer into a 1 litre container and freeze overnight or until firm.