My neighbor and friend Assana is a huge fan of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio. She orders it online, and brought a bunch of flavors over for a taste test. It’s excellent – creamy texture, not overly fatty (a problem with many artisan ice creams) and clean, interesting flavors. My favorite was the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake: vanilla-honey ice cream with chunks of brown sugar-caramel-soaked St. Louis gooey butter cake.
I thought I might be able to replicate it. It was a lot of work, but it turned out pretty good – a little sweet, and my chunks of cake were a little big. But overall pretty good. I used Jeni’s actual vanilla base but added a quarter cup of honey, and found recipes for the cake and brown sugar caramel sauce from trusted sources.
The ice cream base is odd, not a traditional custard like I normally use. It’s got two odd ingredients, cornstarch and cream cheese. The cake has a yeasted cake base topped with a yummy mixture of butter, sugar and corn syrup. It’s really good on its own.
- Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (Food & Wine)
- St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake (New York Times, October 30, 2009)
- Brown Sugar Caramel Sauce (Baked, p. 179)
