"His ideal of dessert is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." She offered that as an explanation right after she said there would be no birthday cake.
"Maybe ice cream and cookies… something we can stick some candles in."
So I set out to make a special birthday dessert for someone who doesn't like cake, but likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and, apparently, ice cream and cookies. Easy, I thought, I'll make peanut butter cookies and grape ice cream sandwiches. As luck would have it, I had a concord grape puree in my freezer that would serve as the base for the ice cream. And I had a recipe for killer peanut butter cookies that I had refined over the years and recently tweaked to include miso. But you know what they say about the best laid plans…
Unpacking in the client's kitchen, I had a sudden vision of the grape ice cream… still sitting in my freezer at home! I wanted to panic but there was no time. My schedule was tight even before I was asked to move dinner up a half hour.
As I began preparing dinner, my attention turned to a replacement for the ice cream. With a kitchen full of professional appliances, but no cooks in the house, I knew there was little chance of finding an ice cream maker tucked away in a cupboard. I had plenty of cream, but nothing for a flavor base or sugar. A search through the kitchen produced neither, but I did find three jars of grape jelly. I assessed the situation: no equipment to churn— but I had cream and a sweetened flavor base. A plan was quickly put in place: melt the jelly, blend in the cream, freeze in a shallow tray, whisk often, hope for the best, and pray that I wasn't turning into Sandra Lee. I got the base in the freezer just as the first guests arrived. They were hungry. And impatient. And I had to focus on dinner.
It wasn't until dinner was on the table and I returned to the kitchen that I remembered the neglected ice cream base. I opened the freezer expecting to find a solid block of grape-flavored ice crystals. To my surprise (and relief) it yielded easily to a spoon and out came a scoop of creamy smooth ice cream!
Since then, I've made this ice cream several times with both commercial and homemade jellies. I've tried churning it in an ice cream machine to test the difference. It was slightly creamier, but not dramatically so. I've even kept it uncovered(!) in the freezer for 4 days with no loss of texture or ice crystal build up. I believe this works because jelly is largely invert sugar and pectin, a combination with a high freezing point that stabilizes texture by preventing it from freezing solid and forming ice crystals.
While it may not be the most refined of ice creams, it comes together with only two ingredients and minimal effort. That alone (and that it saved my ass) is worth adding it to my emergency food kit.
stupid-simple jelly ice cream
measure by weight:
7 parts jelly
10 parts heavy cream
Melt the jelly until it is completely fluid. Add the heavy cream, a little at a time, while whisking. Pass through sieve into a bowl or container. Freeze thoroughly.
Playing with Fire and Water 
You have no idea how important this is for me and others like me.
On New Year’s eve I made a good smooth dark chocolate ice-cream using liquid glucose and was trying to use that method to make an ice-cream for my daughter…but having to use oat milk with the oat cream I’m thinking it was going to make taste too oaty…and would destroy flavour.
The biggest challenge is how to make ice-cream taste like ice-cream when you have to use oat/soya/rice products.
You have just given me a way to use less of the oat milk I can have extra flavour through use of jelly plus adding extra flavour through the cream.
You have no idea how important this is for me, people with kids with multi-food allergies. Thank you.
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Hi 🙂 big fan; I want to try this but I am an Australian and grappling with your terminology. I assume that by jelly you don’t mean the gelatin-sugar-flavouring dessert, but rather jam? Is jelly different to jam at all in terms of sugar or pectin content/acidity? I assume this recipe would work with a very refined commercial jam?
Thank you!
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Brilliant! I imagine that when one is making homemade fruit preserves, one should be able to go directly to making ice cream this way before the preserves set.
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I’m glad if it helps… and you’re welcome.
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Hi Caitlin, sorry about the confusion. Jelly is the same as jam & marmalade. It’s made from fruit juice instead of whole fruit, so it is smooth, not chunky. Most commercial brands contain added pectin, while homemade jelly often uses the inherent pectin in the fruit. Both will work.
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I see no reason why that wouldn’t work.
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Great Discovery! In Good Eats Ice Cream Episode, Alton talks about this issue and has jelly in his recipe. He says to sub out some of the sugar whenever possible and replace w/ jelly. Makes a tasty icecream and stabilizes it at the same time.
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Brilliant.
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Such a simple recipe to remember! I think I might try use it for a marmalade ice cream to go with a (standard, no foie gras) sticky toffee pudding recipe I found elsewhere. Fingers crossed that the tastes work together.
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Fascinating! I’ve heard of course of using various gums to stabilize ice cream, but never using a quantity so large it didn’t need churning. Now I want to try it directly using pectin and another, non-gelatinous flavor ingredient. I wonder if it works equally well with LM pectin? If so, then basically if you made a standard flexible chocolate but froze it, where would you be?
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Michael, I think the main textural players here are fat and invert sugar, with the pectin supporting. As long as you keep these elements in proportion, you can have fun with it.
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I’m serving a variation tonight for guests: marmalade ice cream with sticky toffee pudding. Fingers crossed!
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I just found your blog, and can’t tear myself away.. this simple ice cream recipe looks absolutely divine, since I don’t have an ice cream maker.. just one question – for the non-Americans among us, does jelly in this recipe refer to jam?
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yes— same as jam but made with fruit juice, not whole fruit.
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Totally and completely brilliant. I would’ve maybe gotten as far as whipping the cream and making a fool with the jelly. But this is how great things are made: making due under pressure. You squeezed out a diamond!
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Linda I don’t subscribe to web sites. But I would for yours. Love it.
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