Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Roasted Cherries

Adam and Heather bought me these great recipe books for my birthday - one of cupcakes, and one of ice cream.  This was my first experiment from them!  Making ice cream is not the easiest thing - but there is nothing really difficult about it either.  You just have to take some time, follow directions, and then clean up while your ice cream maker is doing all the work!  I have an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid and I love using it (KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment.  This book is called Jenis Splendid Ice Creams At Home by Jeni Britton Bauer.

If you make this be careful about how long you roast your cherries for.  The recipe said 30-45 minutes and I left mine go for about 40, stirring every 15.  When they cooled they were really hard to separate to layer in the ice cream.  And to eat they tasted mostly either very hard and crunchy - or stuck to your teeth.  I think they should be kinda soft and chewy.  

On the whole, I thought this tasted like cream cheese ice cream (or cheesecake?), and I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese.  So Nick ended up eating most of it.  This ice cream had a cream cheese base.  Actually, a lot of the ice creams in this recipe book have a cream cheese base.  I think the cream cheese taste is so potent because of the double cheeses, but I'm curious if you'll be able to taste the cream cheese in the other recipes.  Oh well, I'll let you know next time.... onto the recipe!

Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Roasted Cherries

Makes a generous 1 quart

• 2 cups whole milk

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp. cornstarch

• 1/2 cup (about 4 oz.) fresh goat cheese

• 1 1/2 oz (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened

• 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream

• 2/3 cups sugar

• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

• Roasted cherries (recipe below)

Prep:

Make a slurry by mixing 2 Tbsp. whole milk with 1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. cornstarch.  

In a separate bowl whisk the goat cheese, cream cheese, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. 

Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Cook:

Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.  Bring the mixture back to a boil over med-high heat and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Chill:

Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a 1 gallon ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag into the ice bath.  Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Freeze:

Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy.  Pack the ice cream into a storage container, alternating it with layers of the cherries and ending with a spoonful of cherries; do not mix.  Press a sheet of parchment paper directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid.  Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Roasted Cherries

Makes about 1 1/4 cups

• 2 cups pitted fresh or frozen (not thawed) red or black cherries

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 2 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 400°.  Combine the cherries, sugar, and cornstarch in a 9-inch square baking dish, tossing to mix.  Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, until the juices are thickened and bubbly.  Stir every 15 minutes.  Let cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator.

Source:  Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home [Hardcover]