The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

If Lizzy and I ever opened an ice cream shop, we would be well-covered in terms of flavor variety.  Lizzy is a fan of the 'kid' flavors packed with mix-ins and chocolate ridiculousness, and I am a fan of the weirdest possible flavor combinations you can put into ice creams. We would definitely categorize Jeni's Goat Cheese with Red Cherries as a 'Madeline flavor.' While goat cheese and cherries isn't necessarily a weird flavor combination, it's certainly not often seen in ice cream form.  The pint has Mackenzie Creamery goat cheese and roasted, sweet-tart, bright-red cherries. Mouthwatering and rich, it's like a scoopable cherry cheesecake. Confession. Jeni's became popular just before the current ice cream boom (I think we're in an ice cream boom right now, come at me) and I didn't get it. There were only two flavors available at my grocery store, and I thought the one I tried, Darkest Chocolate, was dry and weird and way too expe...

While this is not my first experience with Jeni's, this is the first time I have purchased a pint of Jeni's because, fuck, they cost $10 a pop.  I'll gladly pay that much for a small, local brand (hipster alert), and I get that Jeni's whole schtick is being a Certified B Corporation, fair trade, and grass-fed cows, blah blah blah, but ten dollars still feels like a lot.  Oh, and about the whole grass-fed cows thing, I think it is wonderful, but seriously every. single. one. of their flavor descriptions in their scoop shops mentions it.  Like, we get it. Ugh, sorry, I'm in a stuck-on-a-math-problem mood and I'm taking it out on Jeni's. My local Whole Foods recently started carrying Jeni's and Brown Butter Almond Brittle was the most interesting sounding flavor so I picked up a pint.  This flavor is Brown-butter-almond candy crushed into a buttery cream scented with honey. Agghhhhhhh, why is an ice cream scented with honey, but not flavored wi...

Lizzy got back from Boston on Wednesday, so we obviously planned an ice cream outing for the next day.  We decided on Jeni's.  Lizzy has been to the scoop shop, but I have not.  In fact, I have never had Jeni's ice cream.  The flavors available in stores near me are just not that exciting, so I've never picked up a pint.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited to try this brand for the first time. Lizzy and I both went with their medium size, which allows you to try 3 flavors.  I chose Pistachio and Honey, Wildberry Lavender, Sweet Potato Pecan Praline.  I'll be honest.  I wasn't expecting to love these flavors as much as I did.  I've heard rumblings that Jeni's is good but overrated, but I thoroughly enjoyed the flavors I picked.  Maybe not enough to buy a $10 pint, but the point is moot since we went to the scoop shop! I'll review these in order of least loved to most loved.  First up, Sweet Potato Pecan Praline.  This is...

For Labor Day weekend, I travelled home to St. Louis to visit friends and family. Although the available options for frozen dessert in Iowa City are high quality, there aren't nearly as many as there are in St. Louis. Frankly because St. Louis is bigger than Iowa City. So, of course, I spent all four hours of my drive from Iowa City to St. Louis agonizing over where to go to get frozen dessert. Go for the classic with Ted Drewes? A new favorite with Ices Plain and Fancy?? The underrated, but fun I Scream Cakes??? The family friendly atmosphere of Serendipity???? Ahh what is a girl to do? Luckily, my friend Bronwyn reminded me the new Jeni's Scoop Shop in the Central West End was finally open after all of the listeria nonsense. She lives in the Central West End now, so after hanging out and studying with her for a while and one of her medical school friends, we decided to hit up Jeni's. Upon first entering the building I was shocked by how many flavors Jeni's off...

So it is kind of disappointing that Dierberg's only carries 2 flavors of Jeni's ice cream and that Dierberg's is the only grocery store around me that carries Jeni's. However, I really like making lists and crossing things off lists and crossing all of the things off a list. I like this so much so that sometimes I put things on lists that I've already done just so I can cross them off. So much satisfaction. So the task of trying all  the Jeni's ice cream flavors available to me was a great one to take on! And look at that, I'm already finished. :) On the pint, this ice cream is described as Mouth-filling, palate-gripping, intense chocolate flavor with a fudge-like texture. Pleasingly dry finish. Longer descriptions on the website read: Mouth-filling and palate-gripping with a pleasingly dry finish. The most amount of bittersweet chocolate and Direct- and Fair-Trade-Certified cocoa and the least amount of anything else. Like the inside of a super-rich cho...

So my roommate, Rachel, has the best parents. They got me the coolest Christmas gift. Wooops. I mean they got her  the coolest Christmas gift. I just get to benefit from it. They got her the ice cream maker attachment for her Kitchenaid Mixer and the Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home cookbook. As she flipped through the cookbook looking for what she was going to make first, she pointed out to me that every ice cream recipe in the book included cream cheese. This was kind of surprising to me, but the more I think about it and the more Jeni's and Jeni's homemade ice cream I eat, the more it makes sense to me. Jeni's has a really unique texture, which I think might be explained by the inclusion of cream cheese. The ice cream in the mixer!! Yum Swirlyswirlyswirlyswirl Another cool thing about this recipe book is that includes little tidbits about how Jeni's actually makes their ice cream, tips to make ice cream at home, and just info about ice cream...

Alright. I did it. I spent $9.99 on a pint of ice cream. My dearest reader you'd better appreciate this blog post. However, this is not actually the first time I've bought Jeni's ice cream. A way long time ago when I was a freshman in college, in reality inexperienced in the ways of ice cream and still having an unsophisticated palate. My friend Jess and I bought a pint of Queen City Cayenne and Salty Caramel at North Market. Back in the day, aka 2011, the spicy chocolate and salted caramel crazes that have hit desserts in the last few years, hadn't hit yet. One might even say that Jeni's helped start those trends, or at least they were on the cutting edge of ice cream. When I tried those two flavors, I was in love. I really truly hadn't tasted anything like either of these flavors before. The Queen City Cayenne was so rich and chocolatey and really spicy, too, and the Salty Caramel was ssaaallllty . Jeni's really did impress me back then. Now, I...