Jeni's Queen City Cayenne

Queen City Cayenne is a wonderful rich dark chocolate ice cream with hints of cinnamon and a kick of cayenne. This recipe comes from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. This is a great ice cream book with creative flavors that makes cream cheese bases instead of the typical custard base. Definitely a book to add to your collection!

This is the first recipe I chose to make and it was so good! I do have to give some of that credit to using Green & Black's Organic Dark Chocolate, 70% Cacoa.

Oh, make sure your ice cream maker’s freezer bowl has been in your freezer for at least 24 hours (or whatever the instructions advise for your ice cream maker) in advance or your ice cream base will not freeze properly.

Queen City Cayenne Ice Cream

Prepping!

The cream cheese and salt are in the bowl and I've measured out my milk in ml in the cup.

Chocolate chopped!

Chocolate paste made.

Hot milk mixture added.

Cinnamon and cayenne. Look at that color!

ICE BATH! Getting that base cooled.

Churned ice cream in the container and ready for the freezer. All that's left is the parchment paper and lid.

For the Chocolate Paste

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 55% to 70% cacao, chopped

For the Ice Cream Base

480ml (2 cups) whole milk

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened

300ml (1 1/4 cups) heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste (I used a 1/4 teaspoon)

For the chocolate paste:

Combine the cocoa, sugar, and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and boil for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, add the chocolate, and stir until smooth. Set aside.

For the Ice Cream Base:

1. Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.

2. Whisk the cream cheese, warm chocolate paste, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.

3. Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water.

4. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, while stirring, until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

5. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the chocolate and cream cheese mixture until smooth. Add the cinnamon and cayenne and stir well.

6. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes. So, here is where I veer off, you can use the Ziploc bag method which I used for this ice cream OR do what I do now that I've been making a lot of ice cream. I typically place the bowl with my mixture into the ice bath bowl and stir a bit to cool the mixture. You just need to make sure that the ice bath bowl isn’t too full because you don’t want water in the mix.

7. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Or just follow the instructions from your ice cream maker. I use the ice cream the 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker Stand Mixer Attachment for my kitchenaid.

8. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment paper directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.