While I was on a food press tour of Columbus Ohio, I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the book, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream at Home, and this inspired me to give her ice cream base a try.  There are no eggs in the recipe. Corn starch and cream cheese are the thickening agents that help the cream and milk become the richest, creamiest ice cream ever.  While the book has recipes for buttermint and backyard mint, there was no recipe for peppermint. I used my original peppermint ice cream flavorings over the base recipe. Results are stunning, so rich, you only need a little bit to get satisfied, and that’s probably a good thing.

Based out of Columbus Ohio, Jeni’s in Nashville has some local elements.  Founder, Jeni Britton Bauer,  teamed up with  Tennessee farmers to procure  Tennessee fruit  which is taken back to Ohio and mixed with other fruits to make what some people call “the most delicious ice cream in the world.”

The magic behind Jeni’s Splendid ice cream comes from fresh ingredients, chosen with care, and then mixed in unusual ways.  Nashville is lucky enough to have a Jeni’s Ice Cream Store right here in East Nashville, which by the way is her busiest store. We think she should open another store in Williamson County very soon. In the meantime, when I’m not in East Nashville, I can pull out my cookbook and try some unusual flavors, like chamomile chardonnay, roasted strawberry and buttermilk, and her very famous salty caramel.

This might just be the Christmas ice cream that I use to make my traditional ice cream bombe, made for every Christmas Eve. Not sure yet, because I’m drumming up a red velvet ice cream and there is going to be some tough competition, unless I make two, which is beginning to sound like an even better idea!

Tell me, do you eat ice cream during the holidays? Do you have a certain sweets tradition beyond Christmas cookies?

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Christmas Ice Cream and Jeni's in East Nashville

Christmas Ice cream, made with candy canes, peppermint schnapps, adapted using base of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.

Course Ice Cream

Cuisine American

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup ground up candy canes
• 1 whole candy cane
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 1/2 ounces 3 tablespoons cream cheese softened
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2-4 drops of peppermint extract
• 2 teaspoons peppermint schnapps

Instructions

• Grind enough candy canes up in blender or magic bullet to make 1/4 cup.
• Whisk cream cheese in bowl until creamy.
• Set a large bowl with ice that this bowl will fit into to cool.
• Mix 2 tablespoons of milk with cornstarch to make a slurry.
• Cook remaining milk, cream, sugar corn syrup in heavy bottomed 4 quart pot, including one candy cane. Bring to rolling boil and boil for 4 minutes on medium heat.
• Remove from heat. Whisk in slurry of corn starch. Boil again until thickened, over med. high heat, about a minute.
• Pour into bowl that has the cream cheese. Place that bowl in ice bath. Cool.
• Place in refrigerator for 24 hours.
• Use your ice cream maker.
• Add in peppermint extract, peppermint schnapps and crushed candy canes during the last five minutes of ice cream churning.
• Put in plastic with lid. Cover first with parchment. Freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.

The post Christmas Ice Cream and Jeni’s in East Nashville appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Merry Christmas to everyone. If I could, I would do for you what I did for my husband. Make one of this favorite child hood memories…peppermint ice cream. He talks about it all the time and says that there is no ice cream today that comes close to the peppermint ice cream of yesteryear at Howard Johnson’s.

If you don’t know who or what Howard Johnson is, you missed the great icon roadside restaurant in America. Traveling from Maine to Florida, travelers could get the best hand-dipped ice cream in existence, a clam roll, or a hot dog on a buttered toasted roll or perhaps a fish fry.

Howard Johnson started as a drugstore which of course had a soda fountain. Remember those? He was the first to present America with a super premium ice cream. The recipe had a high butterfat content that perhaps came from his mother or from a local German immigrant. No one is sure, but it changed the way people regarded ice cream. We lived close to a Howard Johnson’s and we would go on Sunday nights and pick up a quart of hand-dipped coffee ice cream for my grandmother and then butter pecan or peach for us.

My husband has a love affair with Howard Johnson’s in general. Every time he went to New York City on business, he would have to stop at the old “times square” HoJo and get a clam roll and peppermint ice cream. It became one of those funny stories. Who goes to NYC to go to Howard Johnson’s when you are on an expense account?

In 2005, the times square location closed forever. He was crushed. So this Christmas, I tried to duplicate the famous peppermint ice cream. I had his taste bud memories to rely on, and he thinks Howard Johnson would be proud. I know that I ate it and loved and I don’t typically like anything with peppermint. Now, to duplicate the clam roll. That’s MY Howard Johnson memory.

Do you have a favorite food from child hood that you wish you could have today? Do any of you remember Howard Johnson’s ice cream, and did you have a favorite flavor?

R

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A Merry Christmas with Peppermint Ice Cream

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 candy cane
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 10 egg yolks
• few drops peppermint extract
• 1-2 tablespoons peppermint schnapps start with one, then add to your preference
• 3/4 cup candy canes crushes some are bigger pieces, some like powder

Instructions

• Heat milk, cream, salt (with a candy cane) over low heat just to simmering. Milk will turn a little pink. That’s okay. Beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy and light yellow. Temper eggs by adding 1/4 cup milk mixture to egg mixture.
• Transfer egg mixture into pan and cook on low for six minutes. Strain into a bowl and put into an ice bath. Cool in refrigerator overnight or several hours.
• Proceed with ice cream maker. At the end of cycle add, extract, peppermint schnapps and crushed candy. Ice cream is consistency of soft serve and must be frozen.
• Freeze for at least 3 hours prior to serving. The alcohol will prevent the ice cream from freezing rock hard, and even after freezing overnight, you will be able to scoop easily. If you choose to skip the peppermint schnapps and only use peppermint extract, your ice cream will freeze very hard and will require you to let it sit out 30 minutes prior to serving.

Notes

Substitute peppermint schnapps with 1-2 t of peppermint extract, tasting as you go.

The post A Merry Christmas with Peppermint Ice Cream appeared first on Spinach Tiger.