Jeni's Salty Caramel Ice Cream

Brand new ice cream maker? Check.
Brand new Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams Cookbook? Check.
Brand new reason to make (and eat) as much ice cream as humanly possibly? Double check.


For my first stab at emulating Jeni's goddess-like ice cream greatness, I thought I'd try the recipe that made her famous. I couldn't believe she put all her recipes right there in her cookbook, for all the prying eyes of the competition to see. I had a feeling she'd make it hard, or leave out the key ingredient, or sabotage the final product in some secret sneaky way. But, silly me, Jeni isn't sneaky. She's a goddess, duh. I followed her instructions to a tee and got Salty Caramel Ice Cream, to a tee.

Salty Caramel Ice Cream word for word from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 TB plus 1 tsp cornstarch
1-1/2 ounces (3 TB) cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1-1/4 cups heavy cream
2 TB light corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

I used her dry burn technique to melt and carmelize the sugar. I think I got mine slightly burnt, because my ice cream is a bit darker than hers, but it was still delicious!

After chilling the ice cream mixture, I popped it in the ice cream maker.

With my new handy dandy Cuisinart stainless steel 2 Qt. no-salt no-ice yogurt, sorbet and ice cream maker extravaganza, it was as easy as pie to whip up some ice cream. Actually pie is pretty hard to make... it was easier than pie. And more rewarding, in my opinion.

My new favorite person, er, machine.

All I had to do was mix up the ice cream (per Jeni's somewhat intense instructions), pour it into the ice cream maker, and flip a switch. Voila. Like I said, a lot easier than pie.

So needless to say, the canister will have a permanent home in my freezer because its going to have a lot of work to do... Ugandan Vanilla Bean? Yes. Sweet Corn and Blackberries? Please. Bangkok Peanut? Oh yes please. So many flavors, so little time. Stay tuned.