I am a big fan of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams’s base which uses cream cheese instead of egg. I have yet to go wrong with it. So when I had a pint of strawberries from the farmers market sitting in my refrigerator for a week, I immediately knew what to do with them. It was time to test out Jeni’s Splendid Roasted Strawberry and Buttermilk Ice Cream. I made a few modifications based on what I had around the kitchen and my own personal taste but there is nothing wrong with the original. You can check out more about Jeni’s here.

I paired this with the lemonade ice cream from last week and my small select group of taste testers preferred the strawberry. They preferred the creaminess of this ice cream. I will say the strawberry really was the star in this recipe with just a subtle taste of buttermilk.

Roasted Strawberry and Buttermilk Ice Cream

1 pint of strawberries

1⁄2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 1⁄2 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1⁄4 cups heavy cream

1⁄2 cup sugar

2 cups of light corn syrup

1⁄4 cup buttermilk

1 tbsp of vodka

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Hull strawberries and slice. Combine strawberries with sugar in an 8″ square glass or ceramic baking dish, stirring gently to mix well. Roast for 8 minutes, or until just soft. Let cool slightly. Puree in a food processor with lemon juice. Measure 3/4 cup of the pureed berries; refrigerate the rest of the puree for another use. Mix about 2 Tbls of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth. Combine the remaining milk, cream, 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 slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil until thicken. The mixture should have slight film on the back of the spoon. Remove from heat. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture in to the cream cheese until smooth.Add the buttermilk and reserved strawberry puree and blend well. Store and chill in an airtight container for at least 3 hours. Pour the ice cream mixture into the frozen canister of electric ice cream freezer and run according to directions of ice cream maker and add in vodka Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours in airtight container.