Author Notes
“Peanut butter and jelly ritz cracker sandwich.” Years ago, when I saw this dessert listed on the menu, I knew how I would end the meal. My teenage self couldn’t get over the reverence this fancy restaurant had for a lunchroom standard. But this sandwich, which took the form of peanut butter mousse, macerated strawberries, and–most memorably—ritz cracker ice cream was better than anything I had ever tasted. I thought about trying to recreate that buttery ice cream studded with crisp pieces of ritz crackers, but it wasn’t until I used Jeni Britton Bauer’s Brown Butter Almond Brittle Ice Cream recipe as a base that I was successful. This ice cream captures the fun and tastiness of that memorable dessert.
Adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream at Home —fil_mishmish
Ingredients
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2 cups
whole milk
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1 tablespoon
cornstarch
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1 teaspoon
cornstarch
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3 tablespoons
cream cheese, softened
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1/4 teaspoon
sea salt
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1 1/4 cups
heavy cream
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2/3 cup
packed light brown sugar
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2 tablespoons
light corn syrup
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2 cups
ritz crackers
Directions
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Preheat oven to 350F oven. Toast ritz crackers for 5-10 minutes on a baking sheet.
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Break crackers into pieces. Reserve only larger pieces and discard crumbs.
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In a small bowl, mix about 2 tablespoons of milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry.
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In a medium bowl, add the salt and room-temperature cream cheese and whip all the bumps out.
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In a large bowl, make an ice bath (heavy on the ice) and set aside.
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Melt the butter over medium heat in a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil and let bubble until the foam starts to subside and the butter is a rich dark brown.
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Remove from heat and let stand until the butter solids settle to the bottom of the pan, about 5 mintues. Pour the clear yellow butter oil into a storage container. As you get closer to the butter solids in the bottom of the pan, use a spoon to remove as much liquid butter as you can. You should have about 1 tablespoon of brown butter solids and alittle bit of melted fat in the bottom of the pan (it is impossible to remove all the melted fat).
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Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
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Gradually whisk the hot cream mixture into cream cheese mixture until smooth. Do this a little bit at a time so that you can whip out any lumps of cream cheese.
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Pour the hot ice cream base into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag and seal. Submerge in the ice bath until very cold.
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Cut the corner off the bag, pour the chilled base into the ice cream machine, and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, folding in the ritz cracker pieces as you go. Freeze until firm, about 4 hours.
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