This lovely summer treat is inspired by a recipe from the Gramercy Tavern Cookbook, a collection of beautifully curated, seasonal, gorgeously photographed recipes (serious photo envy going on over here) from the eponymous New York City eatery. Their version is a sinfully delicious sundae made with sweet corn ice cream, a blueberry and corn compote and homemade toffee popcorn. Ridiculous, right? For our purposes, we wanted to pare down the recipe, making it accessible to the home chef while still touching on all of the flavors that make the original so spectacular.
One of the fantastic advantages of this recipe is that it utilizes a number of simple, fairly inexpensive ingredients and turns them into something that is the epitome of “the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.” This is most evident in the use of seasonal sweet corn, which is widely available–almost to the point of being ubiquitous–and cheap, cheap, cheap. This makes it a coveted, budget-friendly addition to a wide array of sweet and savory dishes. It also allows you to splurge on other ingredients without having to take out a loan. Fortunately, such splurging isn’t necessary in this case.
Corn, milk, cream, eggs, blueberries, lemon, salt and vanilla are the “parts,” and we’re betting you already have most of those on hand. If you’re anything like us, you’ll also have some rum sitting around, as well. If not, just add a little extra vanilla extract. All that you need now is a little not-so-hard work, and you’ll be in business.
The first step was to make corn “milk,” the technique for which you’ll find in the Corn Milk Ricotta post. It is weirdly simple. This eliminated the more complicated process of making the sweet corn ice cream, and the intensely corn-flavored liquid took the place of half of the dairy milk and cream in the original recipe. We suppose that makes it “healthier.” At least that’s what we’re telling ourselves.
We do know that it imparted a distinct, amplified corn note to the finished product, without any kernels or other solids detracting from the lushness and rich smoothness of the ice cream.
Keeping with our “streamlining” objective, the homemade toffee popcorn was completely eliminated. While it sounds amazing, ultimately it was too involved to be a part of a simple summer dessert. Don’t discount it entirely, though. It might show up in something later in the year. If you’re really married to the idea, you can throw some caramel popcorn or Cracker Jacks into the mix when serving.
We did want to preserve those intriguing caramel flavors, though, and achieved that by caramelizing the sugar for the sauce before adding the blueberries and lemon juice. Not only did this step impart that wonderful flavor, it also actually cut the sweetness of the sauce, letting the bright, fruity qualities of the berries and lemon shine through. This provided a nice counterpoint to the dense, delicious ice cream.
We are still maintaining that this is a slightly healthier alternative to full dairy ice cream, and it makes a fantastic addition not just to sundaes, but to milkshakes and gluten free Oatmeal Craisin ice cream sandwiches, as well. And not for nothin’, a scoop of this ice cream served atop a piece of hot, fresh blueberry pie or cobbler might just bring you to tears with its beauty and perfection. Grab a big box of Kleenex and an even bigger spoon and dig in.
As you can see, this bowl didn’t even survive the photo shoot…
Inspired by The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook.
- Ice Cream:
- 4 ears corn, husks removed
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch salt
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon light rum
- Caramelized Blueberry Sauce:
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 pint blueberries
- Juice of 1 lemon
- To make the ice cream: slice the kernels off the corn cobs and place in food processor. Puree for 5 minutes, until corn is well pureed. Strain through a fine mesh strainer- this should yield about 1 - 1 ¼ cups corn “milk.”
- In a medium, saucepan, bring corn milk, milk, and sugar to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then slowly stream in about a cup of the milk mixture, whisking constantly. Add the yolk mixture to the saucepan and return the saucepan to medium heat, stirring constantly. Heat until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Pour the custard through a fine mesh strainer, then add the cream and rum. Cool the custard to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours. Churn chilled custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- To make the caramelized blueberry sauce: heat the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts and begins to caramelize - it will turn amber in color and begin to smell slightly smoky - about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add blueberries and lemon juice- the sugar may form clumps, but they will eventually dissolve. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar has dissolved, the blueberries have released their juices, and the sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
- To serve, top a scoop or two of ice cream with a couple tablespoons of the cooled blueberry sauce.
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