Because there will be a scoop of goat cheese & roasted cherry in there. I simply couldn’t go to Jeni’s and pass up a boule. No way, no how. Whether we end up at Two Ten Jack so we can go to Jeni’s, or whether we plan to go to Jeni’s so we can go to Two Ten Jack, I’m not sure (though I will say that our local ramen is superior to Two Ten’s–surprise of the century–it’s still such an experience we associate with Nashville), but I miss both when we’re back home in Memphis. Luckily, I can buy pints of Jeni’s at home, and so we usually have a ohmygod-did-that-really-cost-$12 container of the goat cheese red cherry bliss in our freezer. And then I got pregnant, and Jeni’s got listeria. I don’t usually make the time to go back to the store for a refund whenever there’s a recall, but holy, Jeni’s is $12! So I begrudgingly dragged my pint back to the Fresh Market and exchanged my sadness for twelve bucks, all before realizing I have the Jeni’s cookbook back at home! I’d only made one recipe out of the book before–a frozen yogurt that took way too much time to be worth it–but I decided to crack it open again to get my Jeni’s fix in the meantime. And oh, mommy.. we can skip East Nashville altogether now! This ice cream was so good it almost shocked me. I was shocked by the richness of the flavor, the perfectly balanced tang of the goat cheese, the implausible creaminess of the base, the indulgence of the roasted cherries. Oh. Oh oh. Jeni knows what she’s doing, and this is evident in the cookbook notes. They use a cornstarch slurry instead of eggs to thicken the ice cream bases, which reduces the water content overall, leaving you with a much creamier, richer ice cream. She roasts most of her fruits before stirring them into the ice cream to further reduce the water content, keeping the solid-as-a-rock fruit piece experience out of your life for good. They stir in just a bit of cream cheese to seemingly every ice cream recipe, adding that je n’en sais quoi that only cream cheese can righteously claim. The most indulgent, creamiest, richest, most perfectly balanced ice cream you’ve ever tasted.. ever. Ever. EVER. I’m super serious about this. On top of that, you can make a quart for relatively cheap–less than the cost of a pint at the store, and it’s exponentially better, at that. Especially now that we’re still seeing fresh cherries at the store for decent prices, you pretty much owe it to yourself and to your loved ones to make this. I didn’t change anything about this recipe, so.. thank Jeni when you see her.
