Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

It's been a busy past two months and I sadly haven't been able to work on my 30 by 30 List all that much last month.  In my defense, a lot of the items on my list do revolve around outdoor activities and the weather wasn't cooperating all that much in May.  I did, however, manage to tackle one item on my list - "#26.  Make homemade ice cream for the first time."

I originally was planning an ice cream making date with my friend Megan but when she passed along a recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream that doesn't require an ice cream making machine, I couldn't resist giving it a try.

First, I gathered my ingredients:

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries (from a 2-pint container)
• 3 graham crackers, preferably honey grahams, coarsely chopped or bashed into crumbs

Although the active preparation for this recipe is really easy, this does take twelve hours to make with two freezing periods.  I actually made this ice cream over the span of two days.

On the first day, I put the softened cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream and lemon zest in a food processor.  I cut up the cream cheese to help it break down easier in the food processor.  I pureed it until it became a smooth creamy mixture.

I poured the creamy mixture into a plastic container and put it in the freezer overnight.  The recipe actually only requires you to freeze it for four hours but I didn't have time to work on the rest of the recipe until the next day.  When I took the creamy mixture out the next day it had a nice custardy feel on the outside but the inside was definitely more of an ice cream texture.

I poured the creamy mixture into a large bowl and Bret helped me beat the mixture by hand until it was creamy.  Meanwhile, I pureed the strawberries in the food processor and bashed the graham crackers in a bag into coarse crumbs.

I hand mixed the strawberry puree and graham crackers into the creamy mixture.  I opted to evenly distribute the strawberries and graham crackers into the ice cream but you can also stir them in a little to create swirls.

When the ice cream was mixed thoroughly, I poured the ice cream batter into the same plastic container and put it in the fridge overnight.  It only needs to be in the freezer for about eight hours but I didn't get a chance to dig into the ice cream until the next day.

The strawberry cheesecake ice cream was definitely worth the wait.  Each bite was so creamy and each spoonful of ice cream tasted like a perfect bite of strawberry cheesecake.

Have you ever made ice cream?  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?