Jeni's Ice Cream

If you’re not from Ohio, or haven’t made it to my Great State yet, I feel sorry for you. You haven’t seen some of the most culturally significant sites, like President Garfield’s hometown, or experienced the cultural diversity of Grandpa’s Cheesbarn and Gifts. Nor have you made it to the food Mecca that is Jungle Jim’s, spent the day at the Roller Coaster Capital of the World, visited Bruce Springsteen’s signature at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, or seen the world’s largest office building that resembles a wicker basket. You poor fools. But most importantly (unless you’ve shelled out $14 per pint a Dean & Deluca) you’ve never tasted Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. 

Jeni’s truly is splendid. With flavors like, Brown Butter Almond Brittle, Salty Carmel, Wildberry Lavender, and Rhubarb with Lime & Cardamom, why would you get some boring vanilla cone ever again?

Thankfully, it’s just the time of year to make one of my all-time favorite Jeni’s flavors: Goat Cheese with Red Cherries. Robbie and I signed up again this year for a local CSA box (small pitch here, for those of you that want to try it for a summer, there’s nothing better than getting fresh, organic vegetables, fruits, and eggs delivered to your doorstep every week and I would highly, highly recommend it). In the first fruit shipment this summer was a huge pint of tart cherries, perfect for Jeni’s Goat Cheese Ice Cream.  

 

Pitting them took over 30 minutes since you have to punch out each cherry pit using a device that looks like it came from Saw II. Surprisingly, I had one of these in my drawer from last summer. Among the kitchen supplies I was lacking – an ice cream maker. You know… nothing major – but more on that later. 

After pitting the cherries I roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees. The recipe actually doesn’t call for a specific amount but I ended up using about 1 ¼ cups for a quart of ice cream. I prepared the goat cheese mixture and simmered the sugars and cream together. When it boiled, it was time to add the corn starch and keep everything at a rolling boil (to thicken) before mixing it into the goat cheese. 

Then, it was time to make it into ice cream. What I really, really, really wanted was this (I mean how cool would to kick this things around Central Park a little and then have ice cream?!?!). But instead I had a giant mixing bowl filled with ice. I set the bowl containing the ice cream mixture on top of it and then mixed and mixed and mixed with the Big Lots Mixer. It was a labor of love. After about 15 minutes, and a couple of stops to drain out the water and add more ice, things started to thicken up and changed from the soup like mixture to a thick, cake batter consistency. 

Once it firmed up a little, I added the cherries layer by layer and then set the ice cream to freeze all the way. After 4 hours in the freezer it was time to enjoy my first bite, which tasted like the smug satisfaction of not having to shell out mad dollars to D&D for their overpriced ice cream – which is to say, it tasted splendid.