Buttermint Ice Cream with White Chocolate, From Jeni's Ice Cream

July 15th will be National Ice Cream Day, so I'm getting an early jump start. Truthfully, every day is a good day for ice cream-- rain or shine.   I have posted five egg custard style ice cream recipes, since I started my blog. I give credit to David Lebovitz's book, "The Perfect Scoop" for introducing me to egg custard style ice cream.  It's one of my favorites. This book remains one of my favorite places to find flavor inspirations.

But, wait! I have a new "favorite" reference book for ice cream-- Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home.   I've seen blog posts, that rave about Jeni's Ice Cream.  California is a long way from Ohio, so I've never had the pleasure of experiencing them myself.  My Reader's Digest Condensed cookbook review is this-- the majority of the ice cream flavors are completely out-of-the box!  To name a few: Chamomile Chardonnay, Sweet Corn & Black Raspberry, Olive Oil with Sea-Salted Pepitas, Gorgonzola Dolce with Candied Walnuts. and Goat Cheese and Roasted Cherry.  For those who don't find think these sound appealing (I do, I do!) there's salted caramel, milk chocolate, mint chocolate chip-- and lots more.  I rest my case.

I've been told that Jeni's ice creams are pricey.  I can understand why.  She uses organic, top-of-the-line quality ingredients.  It's a lovely book, with lovely photos of each ice cream recipe.

Each recipe has been created and tested specifically for a home ice cream maker. If you don't own an ice cream maker, or yours is gathering dust in a future garage sale box-- now is the time to dig it out!  I'm a fan of Haagen Dasz commercially made ice cream.  Making your own ice cream isn't as much hard work as you might think, especially if you buy an ice cream maker that doesn't require ice and salt..  Creating your very own flavors is even more gratifying-- as I've done with Lemon Curd Ice Cream, Pumpkin Pie Custard and Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream. 

Jeni's recipe doesn't include eggs.  Instead, she uses cream cheese, corn syrup and a cornstarch slurry. In her stores, she uses tapioca starch, but she says that cornstarch is a fine substitute and easier to find.  She says that this prevents crystallization when the ice cream freezes.

 Cream cheese, sea salt & turmeric, whisked together

I enjoyed reading about how Jeni arrived at her recipe, and I bookmarked several flavors.   The first one I made is this "Savannah Buttermint" flavor.  Whenever I see the packaged mints at restaurants, I grab a couple.

 I love that buttery mint flavor, and how they dissolve in my mouth.  That's what this ice cream tastes like.  I love white chocolate, so this would be the maiden voyage Jeni's Ice Cream recipe for me!

Right out of the gate, I ran into on stumbling block-- I didn't have "natural butter flavor" nor "pure peppermint essential oil".  I did, however, have Loranns Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor and pure peppermint extract.  That will have to do.

Tumeric is used to give the ice cream a soft, yellow color.  (I keep turmeric to make yellow rice, and it's a cheap substitute for saffron.)

The base uses whole milk, heavy cream, sugar and light corn syrup. (2 Tablespoons of the milk is whisked with cornstarch, and set aside.)

Bring the mixture to a rolling boil (and don't walk away, like I did-- the milk almost boiled over!) This is important-- boil for four minutes.  Then, remove from heat...

...and whisk in the cornstarch slurry.

Bring the mixture back to a boil, then stir with a heatproof spatula until slightly thickened; about one minute.

Gradually add the hot mixture to the cream cheese mixture...

...then carefully pour the mixture into a 1-Gallon ZipLoc Freezer Bag and submerge the bag into an ice bath.

It takes about 30 minutes for the mixture to cool, as long as you use plenty of ice.  I wonder if I could just put the hot mixture into the refrigerator?  I'm not sure.  I rarely stray from a recipe's directions, the first time.  I might test this, but today, I'm following directions.

I was disappointed to discover that in my vast collection of chocolates, I did not have a bar of white chocolate.  I had to use white chocolate chips, and I don't recommend that.  You see, chips have an additive that makes melting them not very easy to do.  Trust me, stick with chopping chocolate. I forged on, and did my best to melt it over a pot of simmering water.  While I struggled with that...

...I grabbed the ice cream bowl from my freezer (I no longer use the ice & salt method), but off the corner of the chilled mixture and squeezed it into the ice cream maker-- and let it churn.  I added 1 Tablespoon of the Buttery Sweet Dough Butter Flavor and 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract... tasting and adding more, until 1 teaspoon seemed just right.   (I didn't want the peppermint to overpower the butter flavor.)

When you slowly drizzle melted chocolate into churning ice cream, it will break off into flecks.  In my case, though, I got chunks.  Ah well, I love white chocolate, so chunks will have to do.

I took about 25 minutes, before I could hear the ice cream machine slowing down.  I took my first taste....

 ...and I did a Happy Dance!  Creamy. Rich. Buttery. Slightly Minty.  I got a taste of white chocolate.

I hid the ice cream way in the back of the freezer.  The wait for the ice cream to freeze had begun...

The next day... the ice cream needs to sit out for about 15 minutes.  It was firm, but not icy or rock hard.  Amen.    I loved the pretty light yellow color, too!

TASTING NOTES:   David Lebovitz, move over.  Jeni's in town!  You cannot distinguish the cream cheese flavor at all.  What you taste is creamy ice cream, that has a velvety mouth feel, and it's not super sweet.  This ice cream flavor tastes just like buttermint!  I love white chocolate.  If you don't, leave it out, and I think the flavor would still be great.

What perfect timing, when I spotted a recipe for "Funfetti Cookies".  I will post the recipe for these cookies, next, because you will want to make them.  I had this idea that the cookies would be a perfect complement to the ice cream.

My hunch was right.   Craig and I enjoyed our ice cream sandwich!

Would you like your own copy of this book?  If you love ice cream, and want to make your own, I'm giving away a copy to one lucky reader.  All you have to do is leave a comment, on my blog, and think up an ice cream flavor you would like to make.   That's right, I'm asking you for inspiration.  Sweet? Savory? Or something as simple as chocolate....or chocolate with....?  

I'll give you one more entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet my giveaway-- please leave a comment that you've done so.  If you aren't following me on my Facebook Fan Page, and you do so, please come back and let me know-- and there's one more entry.    You can earn a total of three entries, this way.

My giveaway will close on Friday, at 4pm.  I will randomly choose a winner.  I hate to do this, but I can only ship to the Continental United States.   GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. THE WINNER WILL BE POSTED WITH MY NEXT RECIPE.

Good luck!  I can't wait to hear our ice cream flavor ideas!

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post, so keep scrolling down; or click here to view it.