Jeni's ice cream with peaches and blackberry jam recipe

More summer fun cooking out! This time I repeated a favorite recipe and tried new variations as well. We had: Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos, corn on the cob, watermelon, and peach ice cream. I made blackberry jam the next day. I love making jam and try to do it every summer in honor of my sweet Granny, Viola, who used to send my Dad jam many summers from blackberries and raspberries my Granddaddy picked from their yard.

See my previous blog about the fish tacos if you want instructions.

My favorite way to cook corn is still to boil it. I always avoid adding salt to the water because I have read and tasted that this can toughen the corn kernels. Cover corn with cold water, bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then let stand for 10 minutes. This is my favorite type of corn, thanks to my Papa's influence, Silver Queen.

A sweet black watermelon. I am a weirdo and actually think that seeded watermelons tasted better than seedless. But it seems to be more and more difficult to actually find them, even at the farmers market, which is where we got all of these delicious fruits and veggies. Needless to say this is what we went home with and it was very good.

Peach Ice Cream, with Jeni's base from Saveur Ingredients: 2 C milk, 4 tsp cornstarch, 1 1/4 heavy cream, 2/3 C sugar, 2 Tbsp light corn syrup, 1/4 C kosher salt, 3 Tbsp cream cheese, peaches and more sugar. Make a slurry with 1/4 C milk and the cornstarch. Whisk milk, cream, sugar, syrup, and salt in a saucepan over med-high heat til boiling. Cook for 4 mins; stir in slurry. Return to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, stirring until thickened. Mix cream cheese and 1/4 hot milk mixture together until smooth, then blend together. Pour into plastic bag and cool down in ice water til room temperature.

Wash peaches, cut an x in the bottom, then blanch in boiling water for 15 seconds. Submerge in ice water to stop cooking process.

Peel skin off, separate from pit, and cut into small chunks. Mash with a potato masher then mix in 1/2 sugar and macerate peaches for a couple of hours. This will prevent peaches from hardening too much when frozen in the ice cream. This process can also be completed with alcohol such as vodka per my research. I really pieced together several recipes for this.


I mixed the peaches and milk mixture together then poured them into my ice cream maker. I followed the directions to make the ice cream by layering rock salt and ice  in the bucket. Once complete (about 40 mins) I hardened in the freezer. The cream cheese helped with the scoop-ability a lot as predicted by the recipe and Jeni's fanatics. Needless to say it was a big hit! I am not sure if I can go back to any of my sweetened condensed milk or egg recipes ever again.

 Blackberry Jam (Ball) Ingredients: 4 cups crushed berries, 6 cups sugar, 1 pkg fruit pectin, jars, unprocessed lids, and rims. Mash the berries with a potato masher. Bring berries and sugar to boil, until it can't be stirred down, stirring frequently. Add pectin and continue to hard boil for a minute, stirring. 

Meanwhile, process jars in boiling water to reduce risk of them bursting when the jam is ladled inside. Ladle jam inside and I prefer to use a funnel to reduce mess, making sure to leave a quarter inch head space. Place lids and rims on tightly and seal jars by processing again in boiling water 10 minutes, then standing in water for 5 minutes, and lastly allowing to sit on the counter for 24 hrs. Jars are sealed when the middle of the lid doesn't spring or pop back. Good for a year when stored in a cool, dry place unopened.