Too often homemade ice cream can be icy, flavorless or just plain boring. Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream scoop shops, set out to change that when she wrote her first cookbook, “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home” (Artisan Books, $23.95) in 2011.
“People get annoyed when they make ice cream at home because it doesn’t come out right. I developed these recipes to use great ingredients, but also to get the texture right,” she said.
Roasting fruit, adding small amounts of cream cheese and corn syrup, combining flavors like basil, honey and pine nuts, she developed a set of recipes for creamy, luscious ice creams that invite you to savor each spoonful.
Now she’s taken her recipes one step further in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” (Artisan Books, $23.95). There are more ice cream recipes, like her French Toast Frozen Custard, but she’s also included recipes for cakes, sauces, cookies, tart doughs and jams that offer the home cook countless ways to customize ice cream cakes, tarts, sundaes, cocktails and more.
The new book also features recipes for dairy-free ice “cream.”
“We got so many emails from people who needed a dairy-free option. I wanted to figure it out for home cooks. Our recipe has such good texture and flavor people really don’t know it doesn’t have cream in it. We haven’t been able to do it on a larger scale for the shops, but it definitely works at home,” she said.
We caught up with Bauer on the Atlanta leg of her recent Southern book tour, fresh from Charleston, S.C., where she opened Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream scoop shop number 16. “I hope people will look at the books as providing base recipes they can riff off of,” Bauer said.
She's so devoted to this idea which she calls "freestylin'" or "cooking between the pages" that she's devoted a portion of her website to mixing and matching recipes from the new book, http://jenis.com/freestylin/. There she offers ideas like a Salt Caramel and Rosemary Bar Nuts Tart that combines her Sugar Dough Tart Shell with Salty Caramel Sauce and Rosemary Bar Nuts to create a pastry chef-quality dessert.
“This is the way chefs think. The book has simple, doable for home techniques that let everyone be so creative,” she said.
Bauer has been making ice cream since the mid 1990s and opened her first scoop shop in Columbus, Ohio, in 2002. Now she has 16 shops in Ohio, Nashville, Chicago, Charleston and Atlanta. All the ice cream is made in Columbus and driven to the scoop shops. “Our kitchen is in an area surrounded by beautiful dairy farms. We kind of feel we’re in the perfect location to make ice cream,” she said.
Her business is also a Certified B Corporation. “We put people over profit,” she says, and suggests that ice cream is a great a way to do that.
When asked for an idea for a summer party centered around ice cream, she suggested hosting a sundae party. “Learn something about your neighbors and put together flavors that are inspired by them. Then make a few batches of ice cream, make some toppings and let everyone make their own sundaes and share what they made. Encourage them to give their sundae a name. And take donations for your local food bank or another charity. “
Topper:
Follow Jeni Britton Bauer’s lead and scoop up some delicious homemade ice cream or sorbet. Today’s electric ice cream makers – whether they’re modeled after old-fashioned crank machines and use ice and rock salt, or have removable coolant-lined canisters that wait in your freezer for inspiration to strike – make serving homemade ice cream a daily possibility.
Cream Biscuits with Peach Jam Ice Cream
Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes, plus cooling and hardening time
Makes: 1 quart
Bauer created this flavor in homage to Nashville’s Loveless Cafe, where biscuits and homemade jam are part of every meal. Using buttermilk creates a tangy ice cream. Whole or skim milk will give a more traditional sweet cream flavor.
Bauer offers a recipe for homemade peach jam in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts.” Use homemade or store-bought peach jam, or use another jam flavor if you prefer.
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 cups nonfat buttermilk, whole milk or 2% milk
1/2 cup crumbled Sweet Cream Shortcakes (see recipe)
1/4 cup peach jam
Honey Corn Bread Gravel (see recipe) for garnish
In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup cream with cornstarch. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together cream cheese and sea salt until smooth. Set aside.
Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
In a medium saucepan, combine remaining 1 cup cream with sugar and corn syrup over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and cook 4 minutes. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in cornstarch mixture. Put saucepan back on burner and bring back to a boil, cooking and stirring until slightly thickened, about 20 seconds. Remove from heat.
Whisk the hot cream mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Whisk in buttermilk. Pour mixture into a sealable plastic food storage bag and submerge bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice if necessary, until mixture is cold, about 30 minutes.
Following directions on your ice cream maker, process ice cream until thick and creamy. Pack ice cream into storage container swirling in shortcakes and jam. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface of the ice cream and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least four hours. Serve sprinkled with Honey Corn Bread Gravel.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per 1/2-cup serving: 342 calories (percent of calories from fat, 49), 5 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 19 grams fat (12 grams saturated), 71 milligrams cholesterol, 273 milligrams sodium.
Sweet Cream Shortcakes
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Makes: 12
These shortcakes are easy, quick and actually reheat beautifully so go ahead and make the whole batch. What you don’t need for the ice cream can serve as a base for strawberry or peach shortcake. Like many good Southern cooks, Bauer prefers White Lily self-rising flour in this recipe.
3 cups self-rising flour, plus more for work surface
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
2 2/3 cups heavy cream, or as needed
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and butter and pulse briefly until butter is in small bits. Add cream and pulse just until dough comes together in a shaggy mass.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press it together. Fold in half, then fold in half again two or three times until the dough is no longer clumpy. Spread dough evenly into prepared baking dish. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Cut into 12 pieces.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per serving: 326 calories (percent of calories from fat, 65), 4 grams protein, 25 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 24 grams fat (15 grams saturated), 83 milligrams cholesterol, 417 milligrams sodium.
Honey Corn Bread Gravel
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Makes: 2 cups
Freeze-dried corn is available online and at some Whole Foods Markets.
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup buttermilk powder
1/2 cup freeze-dried corn, optional
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, buttermilk powder, corn (if using), sugar and salt. Whisk together. Pour in butter and honey and stir until large lumps have formed and all the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. The mixture should resemble lumpy wet sand. Pour onto prepared baking sheet and spread evenly.
Bake 40 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes, until deep golden brown. Remove pan from oven, toss crumbs again and make sure all the mixture is broken into 1/8- to 1/4-inch pieces. Bake 10 additional minutes, then remove from oven and cool completely before storing. May be made up to 2 weeks ahead and refrigerated.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per 2-tablespoon serving: 65 calories (percent of calories from fat, 26), 1 gram protein, 12 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 2 grams fat (1 gram saturated), 5 milligrams cholesterol, 120 milligrams sodium.
Rouge Your Knees Cocktail
Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes
Serves: 1
Sorbets are a great base for cocktails.
1/2 cup Red Raspberry Sorbet (see recipe)
1/4 cup gin
Soda water
Mint, for garnish
Put sorbet into a tall glass. Pour gin over sorbet and add soda water to taste. Garnish with mint and serve immediately.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per serving: 517 calories (percent of calories from fat, 2), 1 gram protein, 87 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 1 gram fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 51 milligrams sodium.
Red Raspberry Sorbet
Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes plus cooling and hardening time
Makes: 1 quart
5 pints raspberries
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup vodka
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse raspberries until smooth. Strain pureed berries through a sieve to remove the seeds and put strained mixture into a medium saucepan. Discard seeds. Add sugar and corn syrup and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat, transfer to a medium bowl and allow to cool. Refrigerate cooled mixture at least 2 hours.
Stir vodka into refrigerated sorbet mixture. Following directions on your ice cream maker, process sorbet until it has the consistency of softly whipped cream. Pack sorbet into storage container, and press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface. Seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least four hours.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per 1/2-cup serving: 370 calories (percent of calories from fat, 2), 1 gram protein, 87 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 1 gram fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 50 milligrams sodium.
Hi Boy Sundae
Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes
Serves: 1
This nondairy treat is so delicious you won’t have to apologize for serving vegan ice “cream.”
1/2 cup Banilla Creme sans Lait (see recipe), divided
2 tablespoons Brrrr (sic) Sauce (see recipe)
1/2 banana, sliced
Mint, for garnish
In a parfait glass or bowl, layer Banilla Creme sans Lait, Brrrr Sauce and sliced banana and garnish with mint. Serve immediately.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per serving: 698 calories (percent of calories from fat, 59), 3 grams protein, 72 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 48 grams fat (32 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 192 milligrams sodium.
Banilla Creme sans Lait
Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes, plus cooling and hardening time
Makes: 1 quart
Leave out the bananas for a straight vanilla version. If the bowl of your food processor is not large enough to accommodate the whole batch for the final mixing step, process the cream cheese mixture with the hot almond milk mixture in batches and stir together before cooling.
2 3/4 cups almond milk, divided
2 tablespoons tapioca starch or corn starch
1/2 cup raw cashews
4 tablespoons vegan cream cheese, softened, optional
1 1/4 cups refined coconut oil, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean, split
2 ripe bananas, pureed
In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons almond milk with tapioca starch or cornstarch. Set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor, process cashews into a very fine paste. Add cream cheese (if using) and coconut oil and pulse just until smooth and creamy. Leave mixture in bowl of food processor and set aside.
Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
In a medium saucepan, combine remaining almond milk with sugar and corn syrup over medium-high heat. Scrape seeds of vanilla bean into mixture and add pods. Heat until bubbling. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in tapioca starch or cornstarch mixture. Put saucepan back on burner and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so mixture is simmering and simmer 30 seconds until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat and remove vanilla bean pod.
Pour the hot almond milk mixture into the cashew mixture in food processor bowl and process until smooth. Add pureed bananas. Process on high for 3 minutes then pour mixture into a sealable plastic food storage bag and submerge bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice if necessary, until mixture is cold, about 30 minutes.
Following directions on your ice cream maker, process ice cream until thick and creamy. Pack ice cream into storage container. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least four hours.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per 1/2-cup serving: 493 calories (percent of calories from fat, 68), 2 grams protein, 39 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 39 grams fat (30 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 80 milligrams sodium.
Brrrr Sauce
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes
Makes: 1 cup
Bauer says “the expression ‘buttery spread’ hurts my ears” but this combination of vegan ingredients yields a sauce as good as any made with butter and cream.
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup rice milk or almond milk
6 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Spread, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of fine sea salt
Sprinkle sugar evenly over bottom of a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Watch sugar carefully as a ring of melted darkening sugar surrounds the unmelted white sugar in the center. Use a wooden spoon to pull the hot melted sugar into the unmelted sugar. Continue to push the sugar together and stir until all is melted and evenly medium amber in color, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Very carefully, add rice or almond milk a little at a time and stir until incorporated. Mixture will sputter and pop. If you have any lumps of hardened sugar, return pan to heat and stir until sugar is completely melted.
Stir in Buttery Spread and vanilla and stir until well combined. Add salt. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator for up to 1 week. Sauce will separate as it cools. To serve, gently stir to smooth out mixture.
Adapted from a recipe in “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts” by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books, $23.95).
Per 2-tablespoon serving: 154 calories (percent of calories from fat, 51), trace protein, 19 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 9 grams fat (2 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 130 milligrams sodium.
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