Greedy Girl : Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-cream

Call me the Dairy Queen

This ice-cream will be the hit will all the cheesecake lovers out there. Unfortunately I am not one of them. I could never wrap my head around eating a large chunk of cheese and butter. I generally peel off the crust and eat that with a little strawberry topping. However as a cheesecake hater I will say this ice-cream is quite good. The consensus from everyone who has tasted it is that it tastes exactly like cheesecake. I think it taste better.

Here is my issue with traditional cheesecake. It’s just not that special. It’s a mushy sweet cheesy buttery filling. The proportion of filling to crust is grossly out of scale. The one thing that is has going for it (The strawberry topping) Its either omitted, portioned too small, or lacks any real strawberries all together. I know everyone has their favorite cheesecake spot but generally I hate them all. And I have several family members who are experts at making the dessert. If cheesecake were to appeal to me it would have to be layered crust->filling->berries->crust->filling-> berries and so on. Then we would have a dessert worth eating.

This ice-cream embodies the feeling and texture I would want the actual desert to have. In every bite is an equal portion of filling, to crust, to strawberry sauce, perfectly balanced and the best part; it’s cold! So the treat is exceptionally refreshing unlike the actual desert that can get really cloying after a few bites. So while I would never ever eat a slice of cheesecake I make have a few spoons of this icecream :)

Ingredients (printable recipe)

2 ½ cup Milk

1 ½ cup Cream

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoon Sugar

2 ½ tablespoon Corn syrup

6 table spoon Cream cheese

1 table spoon plus 1 teaspoon Corn starch
2 tablespoon milk

1 table spoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Strawberry sauce

1 pint Strawberries

3 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon butter

¼ teaspoon lemon zest

¼ cup water

Crust

10 digestives or graham crackers

5 tablespoon melted butter (salted)

2 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

For the Crust

In a food processor combine cookies, sugar, and cinnamon, blend to a fine crumble
While the machine is pulsing stream in the melted butter
Pour contents onto a parchment paper, press together to form a large disk place in the freezer to completely chill

For the strawberry sauce

Wash and slice the strawberries
In a saucepan melt butter, add sugar, strawberries and zest stir until the sugar is dissolved
Add the water and allow the sauce to cook down and reduce
Transfer the contents to a blender and make a smooth sauce
Allow the mixture to completely cool in the refrigerator/freezer before using (do not freeze to solid)

For the ice-cream

In a dish make the cornstarch slurry by combining the corn starch and 2 tablespoon milk
In a separate bowl lightly whisk the cream cheese
In a pot bring to boil the cream, milk, sugar and corn syrup for 4 minutes exactly
Once it’s been boiling for four minutes remove from the heat and stir in the cornstarch slurry
Place back on the heat and stir allowing it to slightly thicken for a minute
Pour the hot milk mixture into the bowl of cream cheese to dissolve it remove as much lumps as possible
Add the vanilla and nutmeg to the hot milk mixture
Pour contents into a zip lock bag
Prepare a bowl filled with ice
Place the zip lock bags in the ice bath and allow the mixture to completely cool
Churn the milk mixtures separately in an ice-cream maker
Layer in a baking pan, crust, strawberry sauce and ice cream
Press down parchment paper on the top surface of the ice-cream and allow it to harden for at least 4 hours in the freezer.