Almost redbeanpork Ice-Cream (Caramel Espresso)

Ingredients

Espresso gelato
400g water
250g espresso
225g sugar
60g dextrose
60g maltodextrin
5g stabaliser (of xanthan gum is what I used but I would recommend less, maybe 2.5g)

Caramel
100g sugar
165ml coconut milk
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract / paste

(If you want to do it properly, I stole the sorbet recipe from Nick Palumbo (of Gelato Messina fame) :https://www.cooked.com.au/Nick-Palumbo/Hardie-Grant-Books/Gelato-Messina/Sorbets/Espresso-sorbet-recipe?redirau=1, and the caramel is adapted from: https://jessicainthekitchen.com/vegan-caramel-sauce/)

Method
1. Combine the water and  espresso over low heat.

2. Mix all the powders together in a bowl so they're evenly mixed.

3. Add the powders to the coffee mix, and whisk to mix. Heat over medium heat until all the powders have dissolved. Do not allow to boil!

4. Put in the fridge to cool overnight.

5. To make the caramel, heat the sugar over low heat, until it starts to turn into a syrup. Very slowly add the coconut milk. This is important, because the temp difference of the milk will cause it to bubble up. And it'll also separate. Don't stir this with a spoon, just swirl the mixture in the pan to move it, but try to let it caramelise without moving it too much. Turn the heat to medium, and allow it to bubble and reduce until it becomes syrupy and smooth. Remove from heat and add the vanilla and salt. Swirl around to mix and then transfer to another container and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours to cool.

6. Make the espresso sorbet according to your ice-cream maker's instructions. You can either drizzle the caramel in towards the end, or after it's done, mix in the caramel in the ice-cream container. Freeze overnight.

7. Scoop out and enjoy!

I was surprised how creamy the ice-cream was, but too much xanthan gum made it far too gummy.

This is how it started in the ice-cream machine.

It turned from that dark brown colour to this pale brown after churning.

The final frozen product:

The flavour was named after redbeanpork, as he said caramel espresso is his flavour. The coffee flavour wasn't really strong enough, so I might try a doubly concentrated brew next time. The caramel was nicely soft and delicious.

The caramel itself was a journey of experimentation. There were 4 failed attempts before this one. I discovered that caramel should not be poured down the drain, so I had my own caramel box going (which is reminiscent of something from reddit's dark history). Some tips I picked up along the way:

• avoid stirring as much as possible. Stirring can cause crystalisation against the spoon, and can cause sugar to get stuck to the side of the pan. This results in the sugar burning faster than the caramel, and when he gets mixed in later, it ends up adding a bitter burnt flavour, which is what ruined my first two attempts.
• the temp difference of the milk and the heated sugar mix will cause it to bubble up like crazy and overflow over the pan. This also leaves caramel on the side of the pan, and you'll get that burnt side-effect as mentioned in the tip above.

It didn't quite work out, and isn't yet worthy of redbeanpork's name, so he said I can name this one after MrFodder until I get it right.