Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Sweet Cream Ice Cream

My classic ice cream base. I also love it on its own.

This is your new and improved go-to ice cream base. I updated and tweaked it from the base recipe in my first book to accommodate new ice cream machines, but it also works just as well in the older or even vintage models. You will find that it is smooth and creamy with a beautifully scoopable body. This Sweet Cream Ice Cream is the base for many of the ice cream recipes in this book—it can be used to make any flavor you wish. It is wonderful by itself or in a sundae or with any sauce or jam layered throughout. You can customize this and other ice creams with the addition of essential oils and extracts, fruits, herbs, spices, nuts, crumbled cakes, cookies, and gravel, as well as jams and sauces. When using essential oils, go lightly and taste often—usually just 2 to 5 drops will do.

The simplest flavors are often the finest. One of our all-time biggest hits, and one of my personal favorites, is the variation presented here, where the Sweet Cream Ice Cream is swirled with Blackberry Jam.

Makes about 1 quart

• 2⅔ cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
• ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup light corn syrup

1. Prep Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
2. Cook Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
3. Chill Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese 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.
4. Freeze Remove the frozen canister from the freezer, assemble your ice cream machine, and turn it on. Pour the ice cream base into the canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a 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 4 hours.
5. To Add Variegates: For layering jams or sauces into ice cream, start by drizzling a spoonful into the bottom of the storage container and spreading a layer of ice cream over it. Add a few more spoonfuls into the nooks of the ice cream, and then add another ice cream layer. Continue the sauce and ice cream layering until all the ice cream is used. The sauce should not cover the whole layer. Note that you do not want to "swirl" in the sauce because it will get lost in the ice cream altogether; instead, try to keep it in small pockets throughout the ice cream for a more dramatic presentation and flavor. I also like to add a few final spoonfuls on the top for decoration, just before covering with parchment.