Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl

Fresh Sweet Corn Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream is my new favorite summer dessert.

My friend picked the corn out of his farm, Burn’s Produce Stand.

We picked the blueberries from Golden Bell Farm, located right next to us. We did not milk the cow, but we kept this ice cream as fresh and local as possible.

The result is a sweet, creamy, summer time favorite. I love this ice cream! 

When I first heard of sweet corn ice cream, I felt perplexed. Who would put corn in ice cream? But then I realized the corn I get to eat here in Nashville from my friend’s farm is so sweet and fresh, it would only make sense to incorporate into heavy cream.

I turned to my favorite ice cream recipe book, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream for inspiration. Her recipes are egg free, which I prefer, and she uses cream cheese and corn starch. It all sounds so odd, but you end up with very creamy ice cream that stays creamy when you freeze it. It’s everything I love in my favorite dessert.

The corn was so sweet, that I cut some of the sugar and corn syrup from the original recipe. Even then I found it a bit sweet, so you may need to make adjustments as you prefer.

I used my own blueberry sauce recipe from here, which you can use to make an amazing blueberry pie. You could skip the tapioca if you want, but I like how it thickens the sauce.

Picking blueberries is a summer tradition around here. We’ve had sweltering heat that is beyond beyond horrible. However, the day we picked, we got a brief weather break, and got into the high bushes which had just been rained on. It was the most comfortable picking day we ever experienced. Last year Marshall got stung by a bee, which cut our picking short and make his quite reluctant to return, but you can see by his smile (boy on right) that all worked out well this year.  The only problem we have in picking is that they are both (identical twins) slightly color blind and can’t tell red from blue. You don’t want those not yet ripe red berries, but somehow we managed to take home a bundle.

We got eight pounds for $24, feeling proud and satisfied. Check out my latest post, How to Make Blueberry Pie and Seven Variations,  and if you go blueberry picking, here are some great tips for picking, storing and freezing.

The next time I make the sweet corn ice cream, I’m going to pair it with the blackberries and readjust the sugar, because blackberries are more tart than blueberries, but that is such a great combination.

So tell me do you ever cook outside of the box? What’s the most interesting thing you ever made or ate? Does the sound of sweet corn ice cream sound good to you?

Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl

 

Author:

Angela Roberts

Recipe type: Ice Cream

Cuisine: American

Serves: 6

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 4 hours

Total time: 4 hours 20 mins

Print

 

Sweet Corn and blueberries come together for a fresh summer ice cream, adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home (Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry)

Ingredients

• 1 ear sweet corn, husked
• 4 teaspoons corn starch
• 2 cups whole milk, divided (using 2 tablespoons and then remaining)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1½ ounces cream cheese, softened (3 tablespoons)
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, (more for final touches)
• ½ cups sugar (original is ⅔ cups)
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (original is 2 tablespoons)

Blueberry Sauce (recipe here)

Equipment

• 4 quart sauce pan (or larger)
• whisk
• medium size stainless or heat proof bowl
• gallon size zip lock type bag
• large stainless steel bowl with ice (for ice bath)
• ice cream machine

Instructions

1. Slice kernels off cobb, squeeze the corn milk into a bowl. Reserve corn and liquid.
2. Whisk cream cheese and salt in medium bowl. Reserve.
3. Make slurry with corn starch and 2 tablespoons of the whole milk.
4. Combine remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn, corn juice, corn syrup in 4 quart pot.
5. Bring to boil. Boil four minutes.
6. Strain this liquid through a sieve, discarding the corn.
7. Bring back to a boil for one minute. Gradually whisk in the corn starch. Remove from heat.
8. Pour into the bowl with the cream cheese. Whisk until incorporated.
9. Pour ice cream liquid into a plastic zip lock bag.
10. Chill over an ice bath for 30 minutes. Get mixture very cold.
11. Take through your ice cream machine.
12. When it's time to freeze, layer the sweet corn ice cream with the blueberry sauce.
13. Freeze for a minimum of 4 hour.

Notes

I reduced the sugar and corn syrup from original recipe because my corn was very sweet and I'm not fond of super sweet ice cream. At first I reduced only the corn syrup by half, but it was still too sweet, so then I reduced the sugar by ⅓.

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