This is a two-part dessert built entirely out of butter and sugar. One part is a caramel ice cream where the caramel is cooked with Bordier demi-sel butter right in the pan, so the salt is in the sugar rather than sprinkled on afterward. The other is a batch of thin, brittle tuiles made with melted Bordier unsalted butter. You stack them alternately on the plate. The tuiles bake in 15 minutes, and the ice cream needs cooling and churning time, so start it well ahead.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Serves: 4
- Active time: Not stated by the source. Allow extra for the caramel base to cool and churn.
- Cook: 15 minutes for the tuiles at 180°C (350°F), plus the caramel on the stovetop
- Key ingredient: 200 g (7 oz) Bordier Salted Butter, the demi-sel
Why this works
Salted butter caramel is a Breton invention, and Bordier's demi-sel is the butter it was invented around. Semi-salted at 2.8% fine salt, it carries caramel and hazelnut notes of its own in the summer batches, which means you are not so much adding salt to caramel as compounding two versions of the same flavor. Cooking the butter, cream and sugar together to 170°C (340°F) is what produces the deep amber color and the slight bitterness that keeps the ice cream from being cloying. A pale caramel here would taste like sweetened milk.
The tuiles are a classic French tuile batter: egg whites, confectioners' sugar, flour and melted butter in roughly equal weight terms, spread paper thin. There is no leavening and almost no water, so the sugar simply caramelizes as the thin sheet bakes and sets into glass. Using the unsalted Bordier here rather than the demi-sel is deliberate. The tuile is meant to be a neutral crisp against a salty ice cream, and doubling the salt would flatten the contrast. Both butters are churned by hand in Brittany on a traditional wooden malaxeur.
Ingredients
Four servings. The first four ingredients make the caramel ice cream, the last four make the tuiles.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Liquid cream | 15 cl (150 ml) | About 2/3 cup |
| Bordier Semi-Salted Butter (demi-sel) | 200 g | 7 oz (about 14 tbsp) |
| Caster sugar | 250 g | 8.8 oz (about 1 1/4 cups superfine sugar) |
| Milk | 1 L | About 4 1/4 cups |
| Powdered sugar | 200 g | 7 oz (about 1 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar) |
| T45 flour | 100 g | 3.5 oz (about 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp) |
| Egg whites | 60 g (approx. 2 egg whites) | 2.1 oz (about 2 large egg whites) |
| Bordier Unsalted Butter, melted | 100 g | 3.5 oz (about 7 tbsp) |
Method
Step 1: Make the salted butter caramel ice cream base
In a saucepan over high heat, combine the cream, the Bordier demi-sel butter and the caster sugar. Bring the mixture to 170°C (340°F), which gives you a deep amber caramel. Take the pan off the heat and drizzle in the milk slowly, so the fumes and hot caramel do not catch you. Return it to the boil so all the caramel dissolves. Leave it to cool, then churn.
Step 2: Bake the crisp tuiles
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Mix all the tuile ingredients together into a smooth, homogeneous batter. Using a small offset spatula, spread it thinly on a non-stick baking sheet into squares about 10 cm (4 inches) across. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15 minutes.
Step 3: Build the plates
Stack the pieces on each plate, alternating ice cream and tuiles. Serve with chocolate sauce if you like.
Tips from our kitchen
- Use a thermometer for the caramel. 170°C (340°F) is a narrow target. At 160°C the caramel is still pale and the ice cream will taste flat, and by 180°C it turns acrid and there is no recovering it. A probe or candy thermometer is the difference between the two.
- Warm the milk before it goes in. Cold milk hitting caramel at 170°C erupts violently. The source is right to say off the heat and drizzle slowly, and warming the milk first cuts the reaction further. Use a deep pan, stand back, and keep your arm out of the steam.
- Cool the base fully before churning. A warm base churns into large ice crystals and the ice cream comes out grainy. Chill it in the fridge for several hours, ideally overnight, until it is genuinely cold to the touch.
- Spread the tuile batter thinner than feels right. You should be able to see the sheet through it. Too thick and the center stays chewy while the edges burn, which is the single most common tuile failure.
- Watch the tuiles from minute 10. They go from pale to golden to burnt fast, and ovens vary. Pull them when the edges are deep gold and the middle is still lighter, because they keep coloring on the hot sheet.
- Store the tuiles airtight, and only once cold. They pick up moisture from the air within an hour and go leathery. Bake them the same day you serve, cool them completely, then keep them in a sealed tin until the moment you plate.
How to serve it
Build it tall and build it at the table, or as close to it as you can manage. The tuiles start softening as soon as they meet the ice cream, so the contrast between brittle and cold is a short window. A little chocolate sauce, as Bordier suggests, gives the plate a third texture. If you want to understand why the demi-sel behaves the way it does in caramel, and which other Breton butters are worth keeping, our French churned butter collection is the place to compare them.
Where to buy Bordier Salted Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Salted Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): the demi-sel, semi-salted at 2.8% fine salt, with caramel and hazelnut notes in the summer batches.
The tuiles need Bordier unsalted butter as well. Browse the Maison Bordier collection for the unsalted block and the rest of the range.
Frequently asked questions
How much Bordier butter do I need for this recipe?
Two different butters. The caramel takes 200 g of demi-sel, and Bordier blocks are 125 g, or 4.4 oz, so you need two blocks of the salted. The tuiles take 100 g of unsalted, which is one block with a little left over. Three blocks total.
Can I substitute a different Bordier butter?
For the caramel, stay with the demi-sel. The salt level is doing structural work in the flavor, and the unsalted version makes a noticeably duller caramel. For the tuiles you can use the demi-sel if that is what you have, though the finished plate will read saltier overall.
Do I need an ice cream machine?
The recipe assumes one, since the base is churned after cooling. Without a machine you can freeze the base in a shallow tray and beat it thoroughly every 30 minutes for the first few hours to break up the crystals. The texture will be coarser than a churned version.
What is T45 flour and what do I use instead?
T45 is the finest, lowest-ash French white flour, used for pastry. Regular all-purpose flour is the practical stand-in for tuiles, and the difference in a batter this thin is small. Sift it so the batter stays lump free.
How should I store the butter?
Keep it wrapped and refrigerated, and use it within the date on the pack. Bordier butter freezes well if you have bought three blocks and only need them over time: wrap each one tightly, freeze whole, and thaw overnight in the fridge.
Does Bordier butter need to be refrigerated?
Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Refrigerate it as soon as you unpack it, then bring out only the amount the recipe calls for.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
- Madagascar Vanilla Butter Brioche
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.