The majority of my recipes are inspired by a sweet cream base published by Jeni Britton Bauer in the June 2008 issue of Food and Wine Magazine.  The recipe published was a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe, but if you take out the vanilla it leaves you with a nice base that you can use to experiment with any flavors.  The original recipe is below.  It can also be found here.

2 cups whole milk
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch
1 ½ oz. cream cheese, softened (3 Tbsp.)
2/3 cup cane sugar
1/8 cup light corn syrup
1/8 tsp kosher salt 

Fill a large bowl with ice water.  In a small bowl, mix 2 Tbsp of the milk with the cornstarch.  In another large bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth. 

Combine the remaining milk with heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan.  Bring milk mixture to a boil.  Cook over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves, 4 minutes (must be exact for correct consistency). 

Remove from heat and off the heat, gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture.  Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened (draw a line on a spoon), about 1 minute.  Gradually pour the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in salt.  Set the bowl in the ice water bath, and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cold, about 20 minutes (or you can do what I do and pour the mixture into a gallon bag, seal tightly, and set baggie in the ice water bath, cover with some ice, and let stand until cold, about 20 minutes or longer; the longer you let it sit the better).

Once chilled, pour ice cream base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Pack the ice cream into a plastic container.  Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ice cream (to prevent ice crystals) and close with an airtight lid.  Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Enjoy! Experiment!  And let me know how your experiments go!