The presence of free-roaming water molecules is what separates delicious ice cream from crappy, icy milk. Think of water molecules as wild Pokémon, waiting to jump out of the tall grass to attack you and ruin your ice cream. Your job as ice cream maker is similar to that of a Pokémon trainer: you must use the Pokémon/ingredients in your roster – in this case, sugar, starch and protein – to capture the wild roaming water molecules and put them to work for you.

When Rhys and I got married last summer, my lovely coworkers got us a 2 Quart Cuisinart ice cream maker, along with a copy of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home to help get me started. While Jeni’s recipes are delicious and inspiring, the true asset of the cookbook is its ice cream base recipe, which provides a solid foundation for experimenting with other flavor combinations as well.

In the place of egg yolks, Jeni uses cream cheese as the primary source of protein to “capture” the water molecules in the ice cream mixture, giving it that smooth, velvety texture once frozen. When heated, the casein in the cream cheese binds with the water molecules in the milk and cream, preventing them from sticking together and forming ice chunks once frozen. Since you only need about 3 tablespoons of the stuff, the cream cheese barely contributes any taste to the final product. Plus, there is no risk of leaving scrambled eggs in your ice cream (yuck).

Here, the base serves as a great conduit for the ginger and cardamom flavors.

Recipe

(adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home)

2 cups whole milk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 ounce fresh ginger, sliced thin

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces

Whisk the cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Set aside. Dissolve the corn starch in 2-3 tablespoons of the milk. Crush the ginger slices in a mortar and pestle. Mix the heavy cream, sugar, corn syrup, salt, cardamom and ginger with the rest of the milk in a saucepan. Set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Let boil for 4 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid scorching.

Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil for 1 minute to thicken. Remove the saucepan from the heat and strain the mixture into the cream cheese bowl (to remove the ginger chunks). Whisk until smooth. Pour the liquid ice cream into a ziplock bag (propping the bag open in a tall container like a blender jar first makes the job much easier) and submerge the bag in a big bowl of ice water until the liquid is completely cooled – about half an hour. Freeze the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to instructions. Stir in the crystallized ginger chunks, pack the ice cream and freeze for at least 4 hours or until set.

Makes about 1 quart.