i scream, you scream

while i was in tennessee, my family took me to their new favorite spot, jeni's splendid ice cream. i was in love. deciding on a flavor was difficult because they all sounded amazing, but, luckily, they will give you as many samples as you want. in fact, they encourage you to try several before deciding. 

my daddy got the one night in bangkok sundae (please note the awesome waffle 'fortune cookie') and i got salted carmel on the top with rockmill golden ale & apricots on the bottom. so tasty!

my mom recently bought the cookbook and a new ice cream maker (the one jeni recommended) so we made some jeni's of our own. we decided to keep it simple and make the ugandan vanilla bean. ok, so it was partly in honor of michael(:

ugandan vanilla bean ice cream

from jeni's splendid ice creams at home

what you'll need:

2 c. whole milk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

1-1/2 ozs. cream cheese, softened

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1-1/4 cups heavy cream

2/3 c. sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out, seeds and beans reserved

what you'll do:

1: 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: combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. remove from the heat. stir the cornstarch slurry and gradually whisk into the milk mixture. 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. makes about 1 quart.

3: gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. pour the mixture into a heat-proof 4-cup glass measure or bowl and place in the ice bath. let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4: remove the vanilla bean pieces. pour the ice cream base into the frozen 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.