Blackberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

It has been a hawwt Vancouver Summer. We have had two big heat waves so far, and although I love the sunshine and warmth and wouldn’t dream of complaining about it after 9 months of cold Vancouver rain – I’ll admit I find myself unable to muster the will to turn on my oven for fear of making my place even hotter than it already is.

My solution? Ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m not even embarrassed to admit there were a couple days where this was my reality. I have been really enjoying my ice cream this year, and decided to remake one of my all time favourite homemade ice cream recipes with a little blackberry spin.

This Blackberry Cheesecake Ice Cream might just be my all time fav. I love a creamy vanilla ice cream with a fresh berry swirl. This is always my go to at ice cream shops, so a few years ago I decided to try my hand at a homemade version…

Best part about this recipe – you can make it with whichever is your favourite summer berry. Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries… You do you friends.

Too hot to type. Let’s make ice cream.

-KP

Blackberry Cheesecake Swirl Ice Cream 

Things you need… 

Ice Cream
3 cups Whipping Cream (You could also use 1 1/2 cups Whipping Cream and 1 1/2 cups Whole Milk)
2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
1 tsp Vanilla
1 (8oz) package of Cream Cheese, at room temperature

Graham Cracker Crumbs for swirling
1 cup Cheesecake Chunks for swirling
(leftover from a homemade cheesecake or store bought is good)

Blackberry Swirl
2 cups Fresh Blackberries (or raspberries/ blueberries / strawberries)
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp cornstarch

Almond Graham Cracker Crumble
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp butter, melted

How to make…

Blackberry Swirl
In a medium sauce pan, combine blackberries, cornstarch lemon juice and sugar. heat over medium-high heat until the berries begin to break down. Using a potato masher, crush the berries until they are completely broken down. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium low heat. Cook the sauce until it begins to thicken, stirring regularly for about 3-5 minutes. Remove the sauce from heat and stir in vanilla. Please plastic wrap directly on the surface of the sauce and refrigerate until completely chilled – this should take 1-2 hours.

Tip: I cooked my blackberry sauce the night before along with my ice cream so that it would have lots of time to chill, however if you are making it the same day as your ice cream and you want to hurry the process along, you can place the sauce into a water bath and this should speed up the process significantly.

Almond Graham Cracker Crumble
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, and mix together with your fingers until a crumbly mixture forms. Set aside.

Ice Cream
In a medium heat-proof glass bowl, beat the package of cream cheese until fluffy and there are no lumps.

In a medium heat proof glass bowl, whisk together the egg yolks; set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the cream and granulated sugar. Stir the mixture until it just starts to bubble around the edges and then reduce to a medium heat. 

Pour 1/4 of the hot cream into the beaten egg mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Slowly add another 1/4 cup of the hot cream to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture into the remaining hot cream in your sauce pan and place over medium heat.

Stir the egg & cream mixture with a heat proof spatula until it starts to thicken – this should take about 10 minutes. To test if your cream is thick enough, run your finger along the back of the spatula – if there is a trail left by your finger, the cream is ready to remove from the heat.

Pour the now custard mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the heat proof bowl with the cream cheese. Using a whisk, beat the mixture until it is smooth. Place the bowl into an ice water bath, stirring occasionally to cool. Once the custard has cooled to room temperature place in the refrigerator to chill over night or for at least 6 hours.

Once the custard has chilled, stir in the vanilla bean paste or vanilla. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and churn according to your manufacturers instructions. I have the Cuisinart Ice Cream maker and I churned my ice cream for 25 minutes and this created a nice consistency.

Assembly
Now to assemble that beautiful blackberry cheesecake swirl ….

Pour about 1/3 of the churned ice cream into a glass pie plate or glass tupper ware; using a flat spatula you can create some peaks in your ice cream layer. Next, sprinkle a light layer of prepared graham cracker crumbs on top of the ice cream. Pour a layer of the blackberry sauce on top of the crumbs.

Repeat this process again, pouring another 1/3 of the ice cream on top of the blackberry sauce. Sprinkle with the graham crumbs and top with another layer of the blackberry sauce.

Pour the remaining 1/3 of the ice cream on top and sprinkle again with graham cracker crumbs. You can gently use your spatula to swirl the top of the ice cream with the graham crumbs. Finally, dollop 3-4 small spoonfulls of the raspberry sauce sporadically on top of the ice cream and gently swirl through the top of the ice cream, being careful not to mix the sauce into the ice cream as this will take away from the swirl and just combine it into a blackberry ice cream. (still delicious – just no swirl)

Tip: Don’t overdo it, just run your spatula through your spoonfulls once or twice and this should be enough.

Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.

Finally, after you have waited those excruciating 4 hours, remove the entire tub from your freezer, grab a big spoon, sit on your deck in the sun, and dig in! This is will be impossible for you not to enjoy.