Cheesecake ice cream with plum jam

[First of several long-overdue posts. Most will have crappy pictures, sorry. Blog overload day!]

This is actually two entirely separate recipes in one post. The plum jam I made a quite a while ago but never posted, and has already gone into a batch of braided danish for Jon and Jen's potluck brunch wedding that I didn't post either but was pretty much what you'd expect. (Big happy congrats to Jon and Jen, and thanks to them and everyone else for a lovely weekend in Seattle!) The verdict on the jam: tart and delicious and great in danish if done correctly, tart and delicious and totally unspreadable if overcooked.

Hence, some ice cream to put the jam in, since Lester has had some luck stirring the overcooked half of the batch into yogurt. The ice cream is a very slight tweak to this base, which I'd noticed around the internet but not tried before today. The verdict on the ice cream: awesome. Thickens up like a charm without eggs, churns up nice and smooth, strong cheesecake flavor from the cream cheese that would play well with all sorts of different mix-ins. I'm looking forward to making this one again.

ice cream:
2 c milk (1 3/4 + 1/4)
4 t cornstarch
1 1/4 c cream
2/3 c sugar
2 T light corn syrup
1/4 t kosher salt
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 c overcooked plum jam

Stir together the cornstarch and 1/4 c milk in a small bowl until dissolved, and set aside. Put the cream cheese in a 4-c Pyrex and stir to loosen, and set aside.

Put the rest of the milk in a medium saucepan, along with the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and salt, and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat until foaming, then cook another 4 minutes, whisking occasionally. Add the cornstarch, and keep cooking and whisking for a couple minutes until thickened. Pour half of the hot cream into the cream cheese, whisk until smooth, then pour in the other half and whisk until smooth again. Put in the fridge until chilled.

Churn in the ice cream maker until almost done, then dollop in spoonfuls of jam and churn briefly until the jam is distributed. If your jam isn't rock-hard, then do the usual ripple thing.

jam:
~2 lb Flavor Rosa plums (enough for 4 c chopped, packed)
2.5 c sugar
1/3 c Meyer lemon juice
2 t lemon zest
1 oz bourbon

Rinse and drain the plums. Cut each plum into chunks by slicing the plum longitudinally into wedges while attached to the pit, slicing once around the equator, then pulling the chunks off the pit with your fingers. Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and let the fruit macerate in the sugar for an hour or so. When you're ready to start heating the jam, do the usual jam prep things (put a saucer of spoons in the freezer and a pan of jars in the oven at 230F). Turn the heat on to medium and cook the fruit until it breaks down, mashing it up with a potato masher periodically. Start testing the jam for doneness about 5 minutes after the fruit seems all broken down, then can it when it's ready as previously described.