If you don’t already keep your homemade ice cream container in the freezer, please go put it there now and then continue reading. Yes, you read this correctly – a Mojito Ice Cream Sundae. All the flavors of a Mojito cocktail for dessert – mint ice cream, rum praline sauce, a squeeze of lime juice, some raw sugar and whipped cream.
The theme of our last Gourmet Dinner Club (GDC) gathering was the Big O as in foods that end in the letter ‘O.’ Oh, the fun we had preparing for this one. Texts and emails about Cheetos, Doritos, Spaghettios, Oreos, Jello and Pinot Grigio. None of these made it to dinner. We did have antipasto with prosciutto, carciofo and finocchio (Italian for artichoke and fennel), tacos with chorizo and mangoes, branzino, potatoes, citrus salad with pomelos, tangelos, sumo, Manchego and pistachios. Everything was delicious!
When I agreed to do dessert Ed suggested that I make gelato. And, from there I began looking through my Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream cookbooks. I happened upon her Ohito Sundae which was a nod to Jeni’s home state of Ohio. I stopped looking as this sundae was too good to pass up.
I’ve posted a few recipes for Jeni’s ice cream as her recipes are my go-to. Once I discovered them, I’ve never bothered with any other homemade ice cream recipes. They’re easy to follow and she has such creative flavor combinations. This is a take on her Vanilla Bean Ice Cream swapping a vanilla bean for fresh garden mint. It’s important that you allow enough time for the mint to steep in the ice cream base, so I’d recommend making the base at least a day in advance. All the mint flavor comes from the fresh mint – I was pleased with how minty it turned out. Hopefully you have some mint growing out in your garden like I do.
The recommended sugar for the rum praline sauce is dark muscovado. This is sugar that hasn’t had the molasses removed from it. I wasn’t able to find it at my local grocery store but did find it online. It reminded me of gingerbread cookie dough (the molasses part, not the ginger part!). I understand that you may not want to order sugar online, so use a combination of dark and light brown sugar instead. You can make the sauce a few days in advance. Due to its high sugar content it will likely separate, so you’ll need to gently heat it up before serving.
I made both the ice cream and rum praline sauce the weekend before our gathering on a Thursday night. To build your sundae, you start with a big scoop of mint ice cream, spoon some warm rum praline sauce over it, squeeze a bit of fresh lime juice all over, top with whipped cream, finish it off with a sprinkle of turbinado (raw) sugar and a mint sprig. Lime juice on ice cream may seem odd but it really ties the flavors together and cuts the sweetness just a bit. Serve and enjoy immediately.
Love mint chip ice cream? You could certainly add chocolate shavings or mini-chocolate chips to this mint ice cream, too.
| Mojito Ice Cream Sundae | Print |
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1-1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese (full fat) or crème fraiche, softened
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1-1/4 cups heavy cream
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- A large handful of fresh mint, leaves removed from stem and roughly torn
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups packed muscovado sugar (see Notes) or 1 cup each packed dark brown sugar and light brown sugar
- ½ vanilla bean split, seeds scraped out, seeds and bean reserved
- ¼ fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons white rum
- 1 lime, cut into 4 to 6 wedges
- Whipped cream (can or homemade)
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw)
- 4 to 6 fresh mint sprigs
- Prep: Mix with a fork about 2 tablespoons of milk with cornstarch in a small bowl to make smooth slurry. Whisk cream cheese or crème fraiche and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Don’t worry if mixture sticks to the whisk.
Fill a large bowl with ice and water. - Cook: Combine remaining milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup in a 4 or 5-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. (Watch the pan so mixture doesn’t boil over.)
Remove from heat and gradually whisk in cornstarch slurry.
Bring mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat.
Gradually whisk hot milk mixture into cream cheese mixture until smooth (it may be easier to transfer the hot milk mixture to a 4-cup measuring cup if your saucepan is heavy). Add the mint. - Chill: Pour mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath.
Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
Alternately, if you are not finishing the ice cream on the same day you can chill the mixture in refrigerator overnight.
You want the mint to steep for at least 4 to 12 hours. - Freeze: Strain out the mint. Pour the ice cream mixture into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy.
The ice cream is finished at the exact moment when the machine isn’t freezing the ice cream anymore; ice cream will begin to pull away from the side (about 20-25 minutes).
Pack ice cream into a freezer-safe storage container, press a sheet of parchment paper directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid.
Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours and up to a few weeks.
- In a medium sauce pan (at least 3 quarts) over medium-high heat, combine cream, sugar, vanilla seeds and bean, and salt. Bring to a boil stirring to dissolve sugar and boil for 7 minutes or until sauce thickens a bit.
- Remove from heat, remove vanilla bean and stir in vanilla extract and rum.
- Serve warm or cool and refrigerate for up to a week. Re-heat on low in the microwave for about a minute and stir.
- Place a large scoop of ice cream in a bowl. Top with warm praline sauce, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, a dollop of whipped cream, a sprinkle of turbinado (raw) sugar, and a mint sprig. Serve immediately.
* If you can’t find muscovado sugar in your grocery store, look online.
* You will likely have extra Rum Praline Sauce. You can freeze leftovers for up to six months.
Source: Variation of a recipe from Jeni Britton Bauer’s Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home (2011)
Ice cream always belongs at the top of the Food Pyramid!
Dad – I absolutely agree! Well said.