Jeni’s At Home

[bryant]

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home is a pretty interesting contrast to my current ice cream bible, the David Lebovitz book. They’re both really good ice cream books. The latter is a slow foodie’s dream: all natural ingredients, slow preparation, real egg custard bases, and so on. The former is not molecular gastronomy or anything, but it’s definitely on the cooking as science side of the fence.

I did my first recipe from the Jeni’s book tonight; just a plain vanilla ice cream. The generic base uses cream cheese to get the richness that normally comes from egg yolks. It also incorporates cornstarch, which works to provide better texture by impeding crystal formation. And I guess the corn syrup helps with texture as well? So in general, more processed ingredients for the sake of better texture.

It came out pretty well. The flavor was right on target. The texture was awesome, and I assume it’ll freeze up nicely. On the whole I sort of prefer the traditional custard method cause I was indoctrinated in the ways of earthy-crunchy granola from a very early age, but I like this stuff too.

Mirrored from Population: One.

Comments

[roniliquidity.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this! Jeni's ice cream is one of the things I really miss about living in Columbus, OH. I loved going there when it was just a little cart in North Market. I have to pick this up.

[flit.livejournal.com]

Do the corn starch and syrup make up for not having a professional-grade ice cream mixer, then? Because their commercial recipes don't usually have corn in 'em.

You can sub other starches/syrups for them (such as tapioca), which I would if I were making recipes from this book, but I'd want to start with simpler recipes first when I start making ice cream. When! I live in hope. :)