Don’t mock it until you’ve tried it.
I made that mistake when I first tried this flavor at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio. And I was pleasantly surprised. What I expected to be a train wreck of a flavor actually turned out to be a party on the palate. Especially if you love cheesecake. In fact…it tastes like cheesecake…only better. Yes. Better.
This recipe is from Jeni herself. It is included in her cookbook Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home. Thank God for her sharing these recipes with those of us who have tasted her amazing flavors and can’t get to a shop as there isn’t one near us. Even if you are unfamiliar with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams…this is worth the time to make.
The better quality goat cheese you find, the better flavor you will have. Goat cheese actually pairs with many fruits, but roasted cherries really work here.
Go ahead. Wrinkle up your nose and tell me that this won’t work. That ice cream and goat cheese should never be used together in the same phrase. Then…try it. And find out why the combination is pure cheesecake-y magic.
Recipe: Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Roasted Cherries
Servings: 6 – 8
Time: Prep 30 minutes; Cook/Chill 5 hours
Ingredients for Roasted Cherries:
- 2 cups pitted fresh or frozen (not thawed) red or black cherries
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Ingredients for Ice Cream:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch or tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces) fresh goat cheese
- 1-1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened (Microwave for 15 seconds.)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1-1/4 cups heavy cream
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup or tapioca syrup
- Roasted Cherries
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine the cherries, sugar and cornstarch in a 9-inch square baking dish, tossing to mix. (You can use any baking dish, as long as it’s big enough to hold the cherries and is several inches deep, since the cherry mixture bubbles up in the oven.)
Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, until the juices are thickened and bubbly, stirring every 15 minutes.
Let the cherry mixture cool completely, and then chill it in the refrigerator until ready to use.
In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry. Set aside.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk the goat cheese, cream cheese and salt until smooth. Set aside.
Make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water. Set aside.
Using a 4-quart saucepan, combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, and boil for exactly 4 minutes. (The mixture will rise as it boils, so keep an eye on it!) Remove from the heat.
Make sure your cornstarch slurry is still well mixed. Slowly drizzle the slurry into your hot milk mixture while whisking vigorously. (Otherwise, the slurry will form a film on the bottom of the pan.)
Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook, stirring vigorously, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
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 in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
Pour the ice cream base into your ice cream maker, and process according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Transfer the ice cream into a storage container, alternating it with layers of the Roasted Cherries and ending with a spoonful of cherries. DO NOT MIX.
Press a sheet of parchment paper directly on the surface of the ice cream, and cover with an airtight lid. Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.
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Lessons learned while making this: Place a pan underneath the cherries as you roast them in the oven. As noted above, they do tend to bubble up. If you don’t have something under them, oven cleaning commences. And I can promise you that cleaning up cherry juice that has cooked onto the bottom of the oven is not fun.
That being said, my roommate loves this flavor and gets it every time we go to Jeni’s in Ohio. So when I had her sample it straight from the ice cream maker, she said it tasted just like Jeni’s. And it should as it is from her cookbook.
So, if you are looking at expanding on your taste for ice cream and, like me, don’t live anywhere near a Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams…get her cookbook and try some of her recipes like I did. They are perfection to the very end. And this flavor…honestly…tastes like cheesecake. Really delicious, ice creamy cheesecake.
The Celiathlete 