Wild blueberry cheesecake ice cream

Fabulous fuss-free homemade ice cream!

A friend recently lamented that she had stopped making homemade ice cream due to a newly-diagnosed egg allergy in her family. She was rather skeptical when I told her it was possible to make rich, creamy, delicious ice cream without eggs, so I gladly accepted the challenge of convincing her. This new frozen treat recipe is one of the fastest I have made, since you don’t have to cook and thoroughly cool the ice cream base first – it goes straight from the blender right into the ice cream maker! I chose blueberries because they are in season (and I love them) but you could easily substitute cherries, strawberries or peaches. I used honey-graham teddy cookies as my ‘cheesecake crust’ element and they were a big hit, but any crisp cookies – including gluten free ones – that you like would work just as well.

Ingredients

Blueberry sauce

• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) fresh or frozen wild blueberries
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) cornstarch
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) water
• pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) freshly ground cardamom, or ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) fresh lemon juice

Ice cream

• 1 (250g / 8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup (250 mL) milk
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) heavy (35%) cream
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
• 1/4 (1.25 mL) teaspoon salt

Garnish

• 1 cup (250 mL) crumbled honey-graham, vanilla wafer or ginger cookies

Method

• Make the blueberry sauce by stirring together in a small saucepan the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, water, salt, cardamom and lemon juice over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries have begun to pop open and the juice has thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a glass measure or small bowl, uncovered. Refrigerate while the ice cream is churning.
• To make the ice cream, combine the cream cheese, milk, cream, brown sugar and salt in a blender (or food processor fitted with a blade attachment). Blend until smooth. Transfer the mixture to ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It will not be as firm as some homemade ice creams, but will firm up more in the freezer.
• When ice cream is done churning, quickly spoon it into a container with a tight lid, about a third of the mixture at a time. Add a third of the blueberry sauce after each layer of ice cream, swirling to combine.
• Allow ice cream to rest in the freezer for at least 4 hours.
• Serve with crumbled cookies on top.

Makes 1 litre (4 cups).