Homemade Jeni's Salty Caramel Ice Cream with Raspberry Sauce
So my roommate, Rachel, has the best parents. They got me the coolest Christmas gift. Wooops. I mean they got her the coolest Christmas gift. I just get to benefit from it. They got her the ice cream maker attachment for her Kitchenaid Mixer and the Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home cookbook.
As she flipped through the cookbook looking for what she was going to make first, she pointed out to me that every ice cream recipe in the book included cream cheese. This was kind of surprising to me, but the more I think about it and the more Jeni's and Jeni's homemade ice cream I eat, the more it makes sense to me. Jeni's has a really unique texture, which I think might be explained by the inclusion of cream cheese.
Another cool thing about this recipe book is that includes little tidbits about how Jeni's actually makes their ice cream, tips to make ice cream at home, and just info about ice cream in general. I think I'm going to try to read bits of it to learn more about ice cream. I've been blogging long enough that I should actually make an effort to learn something about ice cream. Here's what I learned by reading today:
Jeni's texture: "It's that crunch between your teeth, that fine-grained grit between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. It's the way viscous, protein-rich butterfat feels inside your mouth. The texture of my ice cream? As smooth and as creamy as I can possibly make it or as chunky, bumpy, and full of nuts, fruits, or handmade goodies as it can be."
Jeni's consistency: "Consistency refers to the 'body' of the ice cream: heavy or light, chewy or weak and thin, hard- or soft-frozen. I strive for body that is dense without being heavy or cloying and just a bit chewy, with a clean, thin 'meltdown.' We serve our ice cream in a hard-frozen state so that you can eat it slowly from a cone and savor it without it melting quickly."
I will also share with you what I learned about butterfat. First, butterfat is the fat in milk. Butter is 87% butterfat. It is also what makes ice cream rich, lush, and creamy. It also absorbs flavors really well, which helps give ice cream its flavor. Butterfat melts at body temperature, so when you eat ice cream it releases all of the flavor it absorbed. The flavor of an ice cream low in butter fat doesn't linger on your tongue as long.
Well yay for learning.
Today Rachel tried out both of her new gifts for the first time. She made the classic Jeni's flavor, Salty Caramel, with a twist of Raspberry Sauce. At first I was a bit skeptical of the combo. Not that I thought it would be bad, but I had just never thought to pair salted caramel with a berry, especially a berry so tart.
However, the pairing was really great. The base flavor was really subtle, but a perfect balance of sweet and salty. I really like a mellower salted caramel, so this was the base for me. The raspberry sauce was very strong and tart. The combo of the salty, sweet, tart, was really nice. However, the tartness of the raspberry overpowered the salty sweetness of the base. A sweeter, less tart, sauce or swirl, maybe like a raspberry jam swirl, would have paired better with the base.
Now for the texture. I don't know if this was the fault of the recipe, the ice cream maker, our freezer or the containers we are keeping the ice cream in, but the ice cream was a bit icy. It was also not as dense and hard as Jeni's ice cream. And yes I bought a pint of their Dark Chocolate ice cream (review will be coming out soon) to make sure my comparison was as accurate as possible. Despite the iciness and lack of density, this ice cream did have Jeni's signature delicious stickiness that I think comes from the cream cheese. Now that I know there is cream cheese in the ice cream I noticed the stickiness more. Overall, this ice cream wasn't perfect, but that's just an excuse to make more!!
As she flipped through the cookbook looking for what she was going to make first, she pointed out to me that every ice cream recipe in the book included cream cheese. This was kind of surprising to me, but the more I think about it and the more Jeni's and Jeni's homemade ice cream I eat, the more it makes sense to me. Jeni's has a really unique texture, which I think might be explained by the inclusion of cream cheese.
The ice cream in the mixer!! Yum
Swirlyswirlyswirlyswirl
Another cool thing about this recipe book is that includes little tidbits about how Jeni's actually makes their ice cream, tips to make ice cream at home, and just info about ice cream in general. I think I'm going to try to read bits of it to learn more about ice cream. I've been blogging long enough that I should actually make an effort to learn something about ice cream. Here's what I learned by reading today:
Jeni's texture: "It's that crunch between your teeth, that fine-grained grit between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. It's the way viscous, protein-rich butterfat feels inside your mouth. The texture of my ice cream? As smooth and as creamy as I can possibly make it or as chunky, bumpy, and full of nuts, fruits, or handmade goodies as it can be."
Jeni's consistency: "Consistency refers to the 'body' of the ice cream: heavy or light, chewy or weak and thin, hard- or soft-frozen. I strive for body that is dense without being heavy or cloying and just a bit chewy, with a clean, thin 'meltdown.' We serve our ice cream in a hard-frozen state so that you can eat it slowly from a cone and savor it without it melting quickly."
I will also share with you what I learned about butterfat. First, butterfat is the fat in milk. Butter is 87% butterfat. It is also what makes ice cream rich, lush, and creamy. It also absorbs flavors really well, which helps give ice cream its flavor. Butterfat melts at body temperature, so when you eat ice cream it releases all of the flavor it absorbed. The flavor of an ice cream low in butter fat doesn't linger on your tongue as long.
Well yay for learning.
Today Rachel tried out both of her new gifts for the first time. She made the classic Jeni's flavor, Salty Caramel, with a twist of Raspberry Sauce. At first I was a bit skeptical of the combo. Not that I thought it would be bad, but I had just never thought to pair salted caramel with a berry, especially a berry so tart.
This ice cream is definitely pretty!
However, the pairing was really great. The base flavor was really subtle, but a perfect balance of sweet and salty. I really like a mellower salted caramel, so this was the base for me. The raspberry sauce was very strong and tart. The combo of the salty, sweet, tart, was really nice. However, the tartness of the raspberry overpowered the salty sweetness of the base. A sweeter, less tart, sauce or swirl, maybe like a raspberry jam swirl, would have paired better with the base.
Now for the texture. I don't know if this was the fault of the recipe, the ice cream maker, our freezer or the containers we are keeping the ice cream in, but the ice cream was a bit icy. It was also not as dense and hard as Jeni's ice cream. And yes I bought a pint of their Dark Chocolate ice cream (review will be coming out soon) to make sure my comparison was as accurate as possible. Despite the iciness and lack of density, this ice cream did have Jeni's signature delicious stickiness that I think comes from the cream cheese. Now that I know there is cream cheese in the ice cream I noticed the stickiness more. Overall, this ice cream wasn't perfect, but that's just an excuse to make more!!
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