Paris Take Aways

After two weeks in Paris, what to bring back?  It was a hard decision, luckily for the budget I had one small suitcase, so space was limited.  I really decided not to bring too much back, and just ended up with some take aways from the many chocolatiers we visited.

My take aways fell into a couple of categories; ginger, nuts, and orange and they were all housed in chocolate.

I had bars with peanuts, almonds, and ginger inside the chocolate bar.  The short sticks above are ginger and the long sticks are orange.  I really enjoy the ginger, but you really have to love ginger, as they are solid candied ginger slices.

In addition to the chocolates, I couldn't resist buying a jar of salted caramel from Jean Charles Rochoux.  He reeled me in quickly by providing me a taste of the caramel.

What to do with a jar of supremely smooth salted caramel?  How about some Caramel Swirl Ice Cream? 

This ice cream was sublime.  I made a high quality vanilla ice cream using cream and vanilla beans  After the ice cream was done in the ice cream maker, I layered it with the caramel in the freezer container.  The caramel swirled in nicely.  It stayed soft and suspended throughout the ice cream.

Will the rest of the caramel make it into a recipe or will I just eat it by the spoonful out of the fridge?   I'm not committing to either decision yet!