Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream
Nibbles and Bites Issue #46: Farmer's Market Haul & Chocolate Habaneros
Hi all,
Happy Sunday! This weekend I went on a rampage through the Grand Army Plaza Farmers market and came back with quite the haul. Shoulder seasons are the best because you can enjoy a few lingering summer items like pints of cherry tomatoes, plums, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, but you can also find heaps of winter squash, apples, pears, and cabbage to cook with at home.
I do not know what exactly came over me when I encountered a farm stand with at least thirty different varieties of chili peppers with entertaining names ranging from Chocolate Habanero, Black Puma, Spinning Top, Bitter ExLover, Death Spiral to the seemingly tame, Lemon Drop. I admittedly don’t cook very much with chilis and felt completely entranced and overwhelmed by the kaleidoscope of colorful options before me. It was nearly impossible to figure out which of these funny names signified where on the Scoville scale each pepper fell.
I walked off with a few Chocolate Habaneros, which I later found out are one of the hottest habanero peppers… how was I supposed to know! As of right now, my plan is to roast only half of one with the tomatillos that I gathered at the farm stand for a roasted green salsa, but if anyone has any ideas for using up the other three and a half that I have, please do share.
I don’t know what came over me this weekend, maybe it was the slightly chiller air and the jugs of apple cider about, but I bought myself a small sugar pumpkin that weighed about eight pounds. I have never made fresh pumpkin purée before and decided today was the day to try.
When I got home, I cut the pumpkin in half and roast it for about an hour until the flesh was soft. I then let it cool and ran it through my blender until smooth. I used half of the purée in my Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream recipe that I have shared with you all below and the other half will be fed to my puppy, Chip throughout the week.
The Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe below takes inspiration from one of Jeni Britton Bauer’s ice cream bases in that it uses both cream cheese, a signature of Jeni’s bases, and cornstarch to thicken the base into a thick pudding-like texture before churning. Jeni also uses a touch of corn syrup in her recipes because it doesn’t crystallize leaving a smooth mouth-feel and helps the ice cream remain pliable, soft and scoopable once frozen solid.
I have to say all of these techniques really do pay off! The ice cream was rich, buttery and delicious!
Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream
Ingredient List:
2 cups of canned or fresh pumpkin purée
½ cup, plus ⅔ cup of white sugar
1 ¾ cups of whole milk
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 oz cream cheese
1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream
⅛ pinch of fine sea salt
2 tbsp corn syrup
8 graham cracker cookies or biscoff cookies
Instructions:
Combine the pumpkin purée and ½ cup of sugar in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tbsp of whole milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry to thicken your ice cream base. Place the cream cheese in a large heat proof bowl and microwave for 20 seconds until slightly softened. Add the salt and sweetened pumpkin purée and mix to combine.
In a large pot, combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, and corn syrup. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil and allow to cook for about 1-2 minutes until slightly thickened. The base should just coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat.
Ladle the hot cream mixture into the bowl of pumpkin purée and cream cheese, whisking constantly. Add all of the cream mixture to the bowl. Immediately put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the ice cream base to prevent a skin from forming. Place the covered bowl in your fridge overnight to cool.
The next day, pour the ice cream mixture into the frozen canister of an electric ice cream maker and run according to manufacturer directions. While the ice cream is churring, put the cookies into a small plastic bag and crush with the back of a wooden spoon or your hands.
Pack the finished ice cream in storage containers and layer in cookie crumbs. Seal with an airtight lid or press a piece of parchment paper directly against the surface of the ice cream. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer (usually the back corners and away from the door) until firm, at least 4 hours.
As always, I hope everyone here had a wonderful fall weekend! My next project is making some puppy friendly pumpkin ice cream for the little guy to enjoy. I’ll probably just make a simple base of pumpkin purée, banana and a bit of peanut butter and spin it up for him to enjoy.
Please let me know if you try out this recipe and what you think of it! If anyone wants a pint of ice cream, we have an extra one in our freezer that we could be convinced to share with friends.
All the best,
Kristen