Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

We have been lusting over the ice cream attachment for our Kitchen Aid stand mixer since the day we opened the box. We had never made from-scratch ice cream before, but the idea of being able to create any flavor combination imaginable seemed completely irresistible. We received an early Christmas present from our friend Annie and when we opened the box and saw it was the KA ice cream maker attachment we shrieked like a little kid on Christmas morning. We couldn’t wait to make our first batch! We had been saving a myriad of ice cream recipes as we had come across them, but we already knew what recipe we wanted to make. Cheesecake is by far our favorite dessert and we had stumbled across a recipe for Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream quite some time ago and had promised myself it would be our first ice cream recipe when we finally got around to getting the attachment. This was absolutely fabulous ice cream and we are officially addicted to from-scratch ice cream, we can’t wait to make our next batch!

There are three parts to this ice cream, but it didn’t seem terribly burdensome to make, and you could easily make each part separately over the course of a day and then churn the ice cream. Although the recipe calls for layering the ice cream, graham crumbs, and blueberry sauce and swirling it together (which worked just fine), we think you could also just mix in both towards the end of the freezing cycle. Also, when making the blueberry sauce, we smashed up the blueberries so there wouldn’t be large chunks in the ice cream, but rather a thick sauce swirled in.

Stay tuned for what will likely be many more ice cream blog entries in the near future. We're thinking that our next batch will be something chocolate since we've already covered cheesecake in this batch!

Don’t forget! If you’re dying for from-scratch ice cream and cursing yourself for not having an ice cream maker, head straight to this tutorial on how to make from-scratch ice cream without an ice cream maker!

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Yield: 2 quarts From-scratch ice cream with the flavors of blueberry cheesecake

Blueberry Sauce:

• ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
• 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) cornstarch
• ¼ cup (62.5 ml) water
• ¾ cup (111 g) fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) lemon juice

Graham Cracker Mixture:

• 1 cup (84 g) graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ¼ cup (56.75 g) butter, melted

Ice Cream:

• ¾ cup (150 g) sugar
• ½ cup (48.15 g) instant cheesecake pudding mix, (3.4-ounce package )
• 2 cups (476 ml) heavy cream
• 1 cup (244 ml) milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in water until smooth. Stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
• 2. In a large bowl, combine the cracker crumbs and sugar. Stir in butter. Pat into an small ungreased baking pan. Bake at 350° F for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack.
• 3. In a large bowl, whisk the ice cream ingredients. Fill ice cream freezer cylinder two-thirds full; freeze according to manufacturer's directions.
• 4. Crumble the graham cracker mixture. In a large container, layer the ice cream, graham cracker mixture and blueberry sauce three times; swirl. Freeze.

Notes

Nutritional values are based on one serving

• Yield: 2 quarts
• Prep: 45 minutes
• Cook: 20 minutes
• Total: 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

Blueberry Sauce:

• ¼ cup ( 50 g ) sugar
• 1½ teaspoons ( 1.5 teaspoons ) cornstarch
• ¼ cup ( 62.5 ml ) water
• ¾ cup ( 111 g ) fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1½ teaspoons ( 1.5 teaspoons ) lemon juice

Graham Cracker Mixture:

• 1 cup ( 84 g ) graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ¼ cup ( 56.75 g ) butter, melted

Ice Cream:

• ¾ cup ( 150 g ) sugar
• ½ cup ( 48.15 g ) instant cheesecake pudding mix, (3.4-ounce package )
• 2 cups ( 476 ml ) heavy cream
• 1 cup ( 244 ml ) milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. 1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in water until smooth. Stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
2. 2. In a large bowl, combine the cracker crumbs and sugar. Stir in butter. Pat into an small ungreased baking pan. Bake at 350° F for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack.
3. 3. In a large bowl, whisk the ice cream ingredients. Fill ice cream freezer cylinder two-thirds full; freeze according to manufacturer's directions.
4. 4. Crumble the graham cracker mixture. In a large container, layer the ice cream, graham cracker mixture and blueberry sauce three times; swirl. Freeze.