Recipe for success: Sweet Corn Ice Cream

When the end-of-summer harvest hands you sweet corn, you make...sweet corn ice cream. This was actually a request by my (pregnant) sister who was inspired by an episode of Iron Chef to eat the confection and I eagerly obliged. Running out to the store I found the very last of the sweet corn available for the season and snapped it up. I found a custard-based sweet corn ice cream recipe online and with just a small tweak the sweet corn ice cream became a reality.

1. Assemble the ingredients:
   

   6 ears of fresh sweet corn 2 cups milk (I used whole milk) 2 cups heavy cream 3/4 cup sugar 9 large egg yolks



2. Shuck and clean the corn, then cut the kernels off the cob. Break the cobs into halves or thirds.


3. Place the kernels and the cobs in a large saucepan. Add the milk, cream and 1/2 cup of the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring and then turn off the heat. Remove the cobs and puree the mixture (using an immersion mixer or a blender). Let sit for 1 hour.


4. Bring the mixture back to a simmer, then turn off the heat. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Temper the egg mix by slowly adding the cream mixture to the eggs, stir the entire time so the eggs don't scramble. Add the cream/eggs mixture back to the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat while stirring constantly until a custard forms. The custard should be think enough to coat a spoon (no drips when a line is made on the back of the spoon).
   
   
5. Pass the custard through a sieve - be sure to press down on the corn kernels to release the flavor - and then discard all the solids left in the sieve. Chill the custard in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
   
   
6. Freeze in your ice cream maker.
   
   
7. For garnish, top with a few kernels of the raw sweet corn. This is optional, of course.

SPOILER ALERT: In the end, my gifts of sweet corn ice cream were met with plastic smiles and empty thank-yous, for good reason. The Cliff's Notes version basically reads that this was little more than frozen creamed corn. So the success I mentioned in the title is more from an academic standpoint...as in, I successfully made sweet corn ice cream.