Cheesecake ice cream

[BeeZee]

Hubby's birthday is coming up and he loves cheesecake ice cream. I have one of th Cuisinart ICE units with the freezable canister. Most recipes basically have you mix cream cheese into the base. Any thoughts on how to get cheesecake-like chunks into the mix? Crust bits are easy.

Anyone who has eaten Dairy Queen "cheesequake" blizzard knows what I mean.

[Lisa Shock]

Make a cheesecake, chill, then cut into small cubes? Add to the ice cream (vanilla anglaise base) when it's at soft serve consistency, then freeze to harden?

I'm sorry, if I don't understand the question here. Real cheesecake is super-simple to make with just a few ingredients, and, once made can be kept frozen, so it doesn't have to be made the same day.

Good luck!

[Tri2Cook]

What Lisa said... and the part about making the cheesecake cubes ahead and freezing prior to making the ice cream is not only more convenient, it also makes them easier to fold in without worrying about crumbling or mashing.

[BeeZee]

I keep thinking that a "standard" cheesecake cube would kind of mush apart. The stuff in the DQ seems much denser in texture. Maybe I'm overthinking...the good news is that even if it isn't perfect, I'm sure it will be a tasty experiment!

[Tri2Cook]

You can always make a more dense cheesecake if that's what you need. Make a basic cheesecake recipe (cream cheese/sugar/egg/flavor) and either cook it a bit longer and omit using a water bath or add a little starch. The recipes that add sour cream, cream, etc. are at least in part there to give a more creamy result. Water baths and stopping the cooking when the center is still a bit jiggly serve the same purpose. Creamy wouldn't be an asset for using it as an inclusion, so cook it firm. If I were doing it, I would probably bake it on sheets and freeze before cubing. That way it's already the right thickness, you just have to cut it into squares to match the thickness and having it frozen will make it much easier to work with.

[Lisa Shock]

I like Tri2Cook's idea of baking it on a sheet pan, it will be a lot faster to process.

I'd make the crust part separately, also on a sheet pan, so it doesn't have a chance to get soggy.

Here's the ingredients in the cheesecake portion of the cherry cheesequake blizzard, from the Dairy Queen website:

"Cheesecake Pieces: Cream cheese (pasteurized cultured milk and cream, salt, stabilizers [xanthan, carob bean and/or guar gums]), graham cracker crumb (enriched wheat flour [niacin, reduced iron, thiamin, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], graham flour, sugar, palm oil, brown sugar, honey, salt, baking soda, and artificial flavor), sugar, egg, margarine (palm oil, soy bean oil, salt, vegetable mono & diglycerides, soy lecithin, sodium benzoate (a preservative), citric acid, natural and artificial flavor, beta carotene (color), vitamin A palmitate added), cream, powdered sugar, enriched bleached flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mono nitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, lime flavoring (freeze-dried key lime juice concentrate maltodextrin, silicon dioxide (prevents caking), lemon flavoring (ground lemon peel, sugar, lemon oil), xanthan gum, pure vanilla, release agent (contains soy lecithin). May contain: peanuts and tree nuts."

At any rate, it's a real chemical cocktail and I'll bet your home version will taste a LOT better.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Lisa Shock (log)

[JAZ]

I think what I would do as a first step is buy a Sara Lee Frozen cheesecake, cut it up while still frozen and mix it into the ice cream to see if the basic idea works. If it does, then go to the next step and make cheesecake (I think the idea of making it in a sheet pan is great), but if it doesn't, you won't have taken the time and effort to make a cheesecake for nothing.

[BeeZee]

JAZ, I had the exact same thought.

If I go into the next step of baking a batch, I'm definitely going to use a sheet pan to make it, I think that will work great.

[Tri2Cook]

I get where JAZ is coming from as far as testing purposes go and in most cases would agree completely but if this is a one-off thing for a family birthday it seems like overkill to me to do a test run. You already know the concept works because you can buy ice cream with cheesecake chunks in it so the only benefit here would be the convenience of not having to make the cheesecake. If convenience is a factor you could just temper some good store bought ice cream and work in the frozen store-bought cheesecake chunks and be done really quick ala Marble Slab... and it would be tasty.

[chiantiglace]

it will work. Freeze a mixing bowl, once the ice cream is finished fold in frozen pieces of cheese cake.

-or

You can bake cheesecake, freeze it, cut it up, dry it out,brown it in the oven, soak in milk and cream, freeze it, thaw it, strain it, mix with yolks and sugars, and churn it. emmmmmm, cheesecake flavored ice cream.

Edited June 6, 2009 by chiantiglace (log)