The Chocolate Caramel Swirl Ice Cream your cold brew needs
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Of all the ice creams I’ve made here, this chocolate caramel swirl ice cream, rich with luscious swirls of honey caramel sauce and full of soft chocolate flavor from Dutch process cocoa, might be my favorite.
You will love the contrast of the gooey caramel and it’s slightly bitter edge that comes from the caramelization process against the rich creamy chocolate ice cream. The chocolate ice cream seriously tastes like a Frosty, but with the better, ultra rich texture that comes from no-churn ice cream.
And given that I’m continually finding more and better ways to use my favorite caramel sauce, this was a great place to put it.
If you have some cold brew sitting in the fridge, waiting for ice and your good will, it will be made so much better by a scoop of this ice cream.
Your coffee deserves that much respect, so let’s make some chocolate caramel swirl!
Affiliate disclosure
bakingwithtradition.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to recommended products. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Chocolate Caramel Swirl Ice Cream



Why you’ll be obsessed with this ice cream
- Caramel: If bacon makes all savory food better, caramel might be the dessert equivalent. It’s so luscious and oozy in all the right ways plus it makes the chocolate tastes more chocolatey. I’m using the full dairy-version of my vegan caramel sauce.
- Good cocoa: If you’ve never used a really nice cocoa like Droste, treat yourself to a box. The extra fat in these premium cocoas makes for a richer taste.
- Swirly!: Making gorgeous caramel swirls is so so easy, yet it looks like $15 a pint ice cream. Everyone will be impressed by your luxury looking ice cream!
- Super easy: like all my no-churn ice creams, outside of the caramel, this one almost makes itself. Since you can make the caramel up to 2 weeks ahead of time, you can literally make this in 5 minutes before bed.
Pin this image below to your favorite Pinterest board and save this recipe for late night recipe inspiration!

Components and ingredients for chocolate caramel swirl ice cream

- Honey Caramel
- Sugar: what makes the caramel
- Water: helps the sugar from burning before it caramelizes
- Honey: for flavor and to make a more stable caramel
- Salt: flavor!
- Heavy cream: to smooth the caramel
- Sour cream: to balance the sweetness
- Butter: flavor and smoothness
- Chocolate No-churn ice cream
- Heavy cream: for a light whipped base
- Dutch process cocoa: for chocolate flavor
- Vanilla extract: for flavor
- Salt: to boost the flavor of the chocolate and caramel
- Sweetened condensed milk: for sweetness


Ways to enjoy this ice cream
- Iced coffee + ice cream: If it HAS to be 105 outside, at least you can have something cool to enjoy to make the heat a little more bearable.
- The ultimate ice cream sandwich: This ice cream plus my soft chocolate sandwich cookies is pretty much the perfect ice cream sandwich.
- Scoop up a cup: make a batch of pizzelle waffle cups and scoop up your dreamy caramel chocolate ice cream. It’s the perfect way to end a great family dinner.
- Eat it plain straight out of the freezer, don’t tell anyone you made a batch: I’m not here to judge!

Chocolate Caramel Swirl No-Churn Ice Cream
- Total Time: 10 hours 17 minutes
- Yield: 6 cups
Description
With luxurious soft chocolate flavor and the bitter sweet edge of caramel, there’s no wrong way to enjoy this ice cream. Your cold brew coffee just might need a scoop.
Ingredients
Honey Caramel
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 2 tablespoons water (30 mL)
- 1 tablespoon honey (21 grams)
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream (30 mL)
- 1 tablespoon sour cream (30 g)
- 1 tablespoon butter, cut in pieces (28 g)
Chocolate No-churn ice cream
- 2 cups heavy cream (473 mL)
- ¼ cup Dutch process cocoa (20g)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (414 mL)
Instructions
Make the caramel:
- Combine the sugar, water, honey, and salt in a small bowl just to moisten the sugar evenly.
- Pour the sugar into a heavy bottom saucepan. Turn the heat on medium.
- Whisk the heavy cream and the sour cream together, then place this and the butter near the stove.
- Cook the sugar until you start seeing color around the edges of the pan.
- If you notice that the color seems to be in one spot of the pan but not the rest, gently swirl the sugar in the pan. You may also turn the pan around 180 degrees on the burner to even out the heat.
- Do not stir with a spoon or whisk at this point as you can create sugar crystals and threads you will not be able to incorporate back into the caramel.
- Do not leave the stove. Once you start seeing color watch carefully. As the sugar begins to color, you’ll notice the bubbles start to slow down considerably.
- Caramel can go from pale amber to burnt in a few seconds. Start looking for more deep amber color form across the pan. Right at the end of cooking, you should smell just a hint of burnt sugar and you may see a puff of smoky steam. Once you see this, count to 5 and turn off the heat.
- Have a long whisk handy, then pour in the cream all at once. The caramel will bubble up furiously, so stay back from the steam and whisk furiously until it’s all incorporated.
- Carefully drop in the butter, then whisk to incorporate it.
- Pour the caramel into a glass jar or glass measuring cup to cool in the fridge at least 2 hours to cool.
Make the ice cream:
- Chill the bowl you’re using to whip your cream and the beaters for 20 minutes.
- Line the bottom of a 9″x5″ loaf pan with parchment.
- Beat the cream, vanilla, salt and cocoa in the chilled bowl until you get stiff peaks.
- Open up the can of sweetened condensed milk, then drizzle it down the side of the bowl.
- Use a baking spatula to scrape out all the sweetened condensed milk, then fold the cream and milk together into a smooth, consistent mixture.
- Warm the caramel to a movable but still thick consistency–about 10 seconds in the microwave.
- Smooth about half the ice cream into the prepared pan, then drizzle the caramel in loose lines across the top.
- Scrape the rest of the ice cream into the pan, then drizzle more of the caramel over the top.
- Drag a knife up and down and zigzagging through the pan to swirl the caramel into the ice cream.
- Smooth the top, then cover the pan with plastic.
- Pop the pan in the freezer and freeze overnight, or at least 8 hours.
- After freezing, you can transfer the ice cream to a freezable, lidded container like a Pyrex or one of the Tovolo tubs. Ice cream is best eaten within 2 weeks.
Notes
Easier: if you’re short on time or don’t want to make the caramel, substitute 1/2 cup of jarred caramel sauce.
- Prep Time: 7 minutes
- Additional Time: 10 hours
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Ice Cream
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 343
- Sugar: 35
- Sodium: 148
- Fat: 20
- Saturated Fat: 13
- Unsaturated Fat: 6
- Trans Fat: 1
- Carbohydrates: 36
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 5
- Cholesterol: 66
How will you enjoy your ice cream? Hit me up in the comments!
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