Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl

The recipe is ever so slightly adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home which is indeed a splendid book. There are a lot of unusual flavors but what I love is that she gives you a great base with which to work and many good ideas to come up with your own flavors and combos. Use good quality milk and cream- it really does make a difference. Give yourself two days for chilling time. This ice cream goes really well with Blueberry Pie (or any blueberry cake); it also goes well with Smitten Kitchen's Cherry Cornmeal Cake (in this case I leave out the blueberry swirl).

1 ear sweet corn, husked
2 cups whole milk
1 cup (half pint) heavy cream
1 T plus 1 t cornstarch
3 T cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 T Karo light corn syrup
1 T vodka
Blueberry Sauce (recipe follows)

Have ready a large stainless steel bowl of ice water.

Put the cream cheese in a medium stainless steel bowl.

In a small bowl, mix about 2 T of milk with the cornstarch and set aside. In a heavy saucepan, combine the cream, remaining milk, sugar, corn syrup and the corn kernels. Bring to a boil while stirring with a heat-proof spatula. Put in the corn cob and let the mixture boil for 4 minutes. Cover and steep for 20 minutes. Remove the corn cob and pour the mixture through a sieve into another pan so that you are left with a smooth mixture; whisk in the cornstarch slurry and bring back to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Pour this into the cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Set the bowl into the ice bath and whisk until it is cool. Let the ice cream base chill in the refrigerator, preferably overnight.

Right before churning, add the tablespoon of vodka. This lowers the freezing point so that you get a creamier ice cream. Freeze according to your Ice Cream Maker's instructions. I let mine spin for 25 minutes.

In a storage container (I bought pint size cartons)- you don't want to use one that's too big because the air will ruin the texture of the ice cream-- layer some ice cream with a couple of dollops of blueberry sauce. Cover with parchment if you have space between the lid and the ice cream and allow to freeze overnight.

Blueberry Sauce:
1 1/2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar

Combine in a small saucepan and bring to boil; cook over medium heat about 8 minutes until the sauce is thickened. You can puree it and force through a sieve if you want it to be smooth or leave it as is.