Carrot Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Cognac, Cardamon and Coconut Ice Cream

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream came, delivered to our doorstep one recent day after Christmas, packed in dry ice, hard as a rock still and one flavor more delicious than the next.  This ice cream company, based in Columbus, Ohio, has been around for some time, but has just hit the national scene in part due to Jeni Britton Bauer’s new cookbook, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home.

I saw, I bought and I had to try the recipes in her book.  The first interesting thing to note about her recipes is that many, if not all of them, do not use eggs in the custard.  The second is that many, if not all, use cream cheese, corn syrup and corn starch.  The cream cheese is, I suspect, for a lush mouth feel and the other two to absorb any free floating water that would turn a smooth, creamy ice cream into crumbly, icy unpleasantness.

The Carrot Banana Cake which you can see me making on 207, became the perfect foil for an experimentation.

Cognac, Cardamon and Coconut Ice Cream
Recipe inspired by Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream

If you are using an ice cream maker that requires the canister to be frozen, make sure that you allow a full 24 hours before making for it to fully freeze.

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon corn starch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons freshly ground cardamon
2 tablespoons Cognac
1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes

Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the corn starch in a small bowl to make a slurry.  Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.  Fill a large bowl with ice and set aside.

Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup and cardamon in a saucepan and bring to a roiling boil over medium-high heat.  Boil for 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.  Bring the mixture back to a boil for 1 minute or until thickened.

Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth.  Strain back into the saucepan to remove any lumps and any large bits of cardamon.  Add the Cognac.

Pour the mixture into a 1 gallon Ziplock bag and submerge in the ice until cold, about 30 minutes.

Pour the ice cream into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy.

Pack the ice cream into a storage container and layer with toasted coconut.  Press a sheet of parchment paper over the ice cream and seal with an airtight lid.  Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Makes 1 quart

Annie
One experiment down, many, many to go…