Jeni Britton Bauer - Jenis Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Jeni Britton Bauer

Artisan New York

Copyright 2011 by Jenis Splendid Ice Creams, LLC
Unless indicated below, all photographs copyright 2011 by Stacy Newgent

Additional photography by Ely Brothers: ; and Maria Minnelli: this page. All used by permission photographers.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechianically electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written of the publisher.

Published by Artisan
A division of Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381
www.artisanbooks.com

Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son, Limited

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

eISBN 9781579654986

Artisan American ice cream is made with ingredients that shine. It has flavor thats full of personality and its sturdy enough to be scooped into a cone and savored on even the hottest days of the year. Its high in butterfat and low in air and, most important, it is delicious.

These recipes are as much about flavor and finish as they are about texture and consistency. I have never been a fan of homemade ice cream. Its usually icy, goopy, soupy, crumbly, eggy, gritty, and too buttery. So, a few years ago I set out to try to create a better ice cream recipe for home kitchens. And here it is.

Home cooks, the ice creams that you will create with this book (and readily available equipment) will make you the star of your dinner party, the talk of the neighborhood, and the hero at family holidays. Restaurant chefs, I know how difficult making ice cream in a hot kitchen is. My recipe is sturdy enough for you to create endless flavor variations that will last through more than one shift (and even more than one day). Need a small-batch of goat cheese ice cream to accompany your roasted sour cherries? Perhaps a splendid single-origin dark chocolate ice cream to serve with a satsuma orange souff? Or a caramelized white chocolate ice cream to go with your warm baby banana kataiti? Theyre all right here!

Every recipe in this book was created and tested over and over again using only home equipment. I have included specific information about equipment, ingredients, and technique so you will be armed with everything it takes to make the most splendid ice cream you have ever tasted.

I started making ice cream in 1996, when I was twenty-two years old and had pink hair and lots of ideas and enthusiasm, but little business acumen. I opened my first shop, called Scream, in the North Market, a 175-year-old public market located just north of downtown Columbus, Ohio. This wonderful old building with a rich community history provided endless inspirations for new flavors. The forty-plus merchants bustling below the enormous roof were selling local produce, exotic spices, and exquisite chocolates, cheeses, and winesthe best the world had to offerall of which went into my ice creams. I spent years perfecting my ice cream recipes in my North Market shop. Now we dish up our lovely ice creams every day in seven (and counting) scoop shops in the Columbus area, where we also serve sundaes, baked Alaska pies, cakes, and ice cream sandwichesall handmade, from cow to cone, in our ever-expanding production kitchen.

How did I arrive at ice cream? The more important question is, how did I discover flavor? It was that discoveryflavorthat led me to ice cream.

Throughout high school and into college, I worked in a rustic French bakery called La Chtelaine in Upper Arlington, Ohio. There, in accordance with Old World French tradition, everything was made from scratch. Everyone in the bustling kitchen spoke French, from the Lyonnaise and Parisian pastry chefs to the Senegalese prep cooks and dishwashers. It was there that I learned to enjoy honest flavor, in the pastries made with real ingredients such as fresh berries, real butter, and vanilla beansand less sugar than the American sweets I had grown up with.

As I peered over the shoulders of chefs filling clairs, napoleons, and tarts with pastry cream, or twisting fresh croissants into countless configurations, each day in the kitchen brought new adventures in flavor and technique. I learned many valuable lessons there over the years. I watched the owners tackle the myriad challenges associated with operating a successful business. I learned the importance of food safety and standards of employee safety, how to successfully manage a kitchen staff, and how to order ingredients and maintain a working inventory. Such details, unglamorous as they are, are the foundation of every business, which will either support it or cause it to crumble to the ground. You may have the most delicious and innovative product out there, but without a loyal and hardworking staff who knows the value of consistency and how to crank it out the same way day after day, your business will be doomed from the beginninga lesson I encountered more than once in my career.

I savored each moment in the bakery and I worked as much as I could through high school and in college. In time, inspired by what I saw in the kitchen and read about in cookbooks, and beginning to think about pastry school, I started to make my own sweets at home. A student of French art, I was obsessed with all things Gallic. But I also felt a strong desire to connect to my Midwestern roots. I loved the desserts from Trefzgers, a bakery in my first hometown, Peoria, Illinois. Their sweets had none of the sophistication of those lovely French tarts, but the extra-large thumbprint cookies with their sugar-bomb, pop-colored icing; Danishes with maple walnut frosting or starch-heavy fruit topping; pies of every variety; and sweetly decorated domed cakes had their own brand of deliciousness sliced out of the American Midwest. So, I thought, why not start my own American-style bakery using a few of the French techniques that I had been practicing? I began with cakes, pies, and puddings, experimenting in my small apartment kitchen. Yet I cant say that I was encouraged by the results. There just seemed to be something missing in the whole experience for me.

Then one day, I turned my attention to ice cream and something special happened. My first venture into ice cream making was the simple addition of essential oil of cayenne to store-bought chocolate ice cream. I served it at a party and my guests went crazy: Its cold! Its hot! They couldnt get enough.

After that, there was no turning back. I couldnt wait to make my first batch of homemade ice cream. From the French I had learned about salted caramel, the best and darkest chocolate, and French-style Plugra butter. From our farmers market and my own familys gardens came honey, herbs, and fruits at the peak of flavor. Everywhere I looked, there were glorious opportunities for flavor exploration, and I used them all to come up with exciting and bold ice cream flavors. I received encouragement from local chefs and from epicurean friends.

Six months after my first explorations, I jumped into business with a friend. It was August 1996. But boy, did I have a lot to learn. We called our shop Scream. I made our ice creams in a little two-gallon batch freezer in our tiny space in the North Market. I made every ice cream and served nearly every single customer myself, and there are some good things to be said about that. Many of my early customers have remained my most enthusiastic and loyal supporters and friends. Theyve been with me from the early years of experimentation, and have suffered my failures, mourned my first shops demise, and celebrated my return!