Vanilla doesn’t do it for me. But offer me Bangkok peanut ice cream fused with coconut milk, honey, peanut butter and cayenne pepper and you’ll have my attention. Do I have yours?
The start of summer is here and there’s no better time to break out your ice cream machine. Any variety is possible with this kitchen accoutrement. Leave the basic flavors to others and focus on imaginative creations.
There’s one book to invest in as a guide. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home is a step-by-step manual to making exotic ice cream right at home.
You may be familiar with Jeni Britton Bauer’s ice creams if you shop at area Whole Foods Markets, which sell Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. Flavors include brambleberry crisp, Riesling poached pear sorbet, backyard mint and goat cheese with red cherries. Bauer, who started making ice cream in 1996, has seven stores in Ohio and retail vendors across the country—yet still makes all of her creations by hand and in-house. (The name of the ice cream is still handwritten on each pint.)
And most notable–Bauer just earned a prestigious James Beard Award for this very cookbook in the Baking and Dessert category. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home shares this author’s specialty formulas and over 100 exact recipes of signature flavors, including those mentioned above.
The first varieties on my list to try? Salty caramel and Bangkok peanut. Both recipes resulted in indulgent, rich ice creams – some of the best that my machine has ever churned out. The Bangkok peanut was exactly as promised – a complex blend of hot, salty, savory and sweet. It’s just the ice cream to shake up your Memorial Day menu in a very, very good way.
Bangkok Peanut Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 C whole milk
- 1 T plus 2 tsp of cornstarch
- 3 T cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 C natural peanut butter
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 1/4 C heavy cream
- 3/4 C unsweetened coconut milk (not light)
- 2/3 C sugar
- 2 T light corn syrup
- 2 T honey
- 1/2 C unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
- 1/8 t cayenne pepper (more if you like it hot)
Directions
Take 2 tablespoons of the milk and mix the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a slurry, and set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream peanut butter and cream cheese and salt together and set aside.
Toast the coconut; be careful not to burn.
Combine the milk, cream, coconut milk, sugar, honey in a saucepan over medium high heat until it comes to a rolling boil, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the cornstarch mixture.
Return to medium high heat, for about one minute, until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Slowly whisk the hot milk mixture into the peanut butter mix, until smooth. Add the cayenne pepper and toasted shredded coconut.
Set mixture in the fridge until well-chilled – several hours or overnight. Free according to ice cream maker’s instruction, then store in freezer until firm, at least three hours.
