Local strawberries and cream, homemade sourdough graham crackers and the tang of cream cheese make this berry cheesecake ice cream the perfect farm to table dessert.
Earlier this week I decided to institute a “get it all done” day. It was Monday and the aftermath of the weekend were daunting at the house. The whole house needed a tidy, I needed to prepare the weeks food, and overall I just needed some order after a family filled weekend.
To start I wanted to hurry and get my errands done. The usual bank stop and groceries were the main items. We were running out of some of our bulk items but I had failed to order in bulk from the local health food store and we had plans to take a family member dinner later in the week so I had to make a trip to Wal-Mart. I knew I wanted to make ice cream for the dessert later this week and I had planned to check with a local strawberry farm to see if they had any jam berries, but when I logged in to check their Facebook, I saw that they were opening in 30 minutes for u-pick. Despite the long to do list, I wanted to take advantage of a local farm being open and the beautiful weather.
We went to this farm last year for the first time with Ila and loved it so I wanted to take her again this year and this was the perfect opportunity. The farm is just a few minutes down the road and we arrived right at opening time.
Ila loves anything garden so I knew she would be so excited to pick strawberries this year. She is just now getting old enough to understand. She picked strawberries until we had plenty and I had to carry her out of that field, crying the entire way. I wanted to share a few shots of our trip before her mean old mom ended her fun haha!
We brought the berries home and froze them immediately until I was ready to make the berry cheesecake ice cream. I used my usual vanilla ice cream recipe but added in a block of cream cheese. I made a strawberry sauce and whipped up a batch of sourdough graham crackers to mix in.
I want to work on the graham cracker recipe some more before sharing. It was delicious in the ice cream but alone they were not quite crispy enough and I want a stronger graham cracker taste. Nonetheless, they were the perfect addition and so easy to make!
Berry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Ingredients
For the ice cream:
2 cups milk
1 cup cream
1/2 cup sugar, honey or maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 block cream cheese
For the berry sauce:
2 lbs berries
1/2 cup sugar, honey or maple syrup
Graham crackers
Recipe
Ice Cream
In a blender, I added the cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and 1/2 of the block of cream cheese. Blend until smooth.
For the ice cream machine, I pour the ice cream mixture in and churn until it is thick and creamy. This is the easiest (and my favorite) way that I make ice cream. Unfortunately on this day my machine bucket was not frozen and I had to use a no churn method.
For the no churn ice cream, I pour the ice cream mixture into a cold 9×13 pan and put it in the freezer. As the edges of the ice cream freeze, I stir every few hours to incorporate the frozen parts into the cream until it is fully frozen.
Berry Sauce
While the ice cream is going, I make my berry sauce. I love that this could use whatever you have. We used local strawberries first, then I made it again with store bought frozen blueberries. You could do blueberry, blackberry, raspberry or even a combination.
To make the berry sauce, I added 2 lbs of frozen berries to a sauce pan and added in 1/2 cup of sugar. I like to replace this with honey or maple syrup sometimes as well. I just cook this on medium heat until it starts to boil and thicken. I immediately start to cool this down in the fridge or freezer.
I like to start my ice cream and then make the sauce at the same time so that both are getting nice and cold before putting together.
Last I made my sourdough graham crackers. I want to get this recipe up as well but I have a few tweaks to make before doing so. Store bought would work as well- or just leave it out.
Assemble
Once everything is frozen or cooled, I assembled the ice cream. My ice cream was already in a 9×13 pan but I would still do this if I used a machine. Then I just dolloped the berries/sauce all over the top. I added the remaining 1/2 block of cream cheese in chunks the same way as the strawberries and then crumbled my graham crackers on top. I took a knife and swirled it all in after this, then placed it back in the freezer.
Once it froze back, it was done and beautiful!
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Berry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Local strawberries and cream, homemade sourdough graham crackers and the tang of cream cheese make this berry cheesecake ice cream the perfect farm to table dessert.
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 cup sugar, honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 block cream cheese
- 2 lbs berries
- 1/2 cup sugar, honey or maple syrup
- Graham crackers
Instructions
Ice Cream
In a blender, I added the cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and 1/2 of the block of cream cheese. Blend until smooth.
For the ice cream machine, I pour the ice cream mixture in and churn until it is thick and creamy. This is the easiest (and my favorite) way that I make ice cream. Unfortunately on this day my machine bucket was not frozen and I had to use a no churn method.
For the no churn ice cream, I pour the ice cream mixture into a cold 9x13 pan and put it in the freezer. As the edges of the ice cream freeze, I stir every few hours to incorporate the frozen parts into the cream until it is fully frozen.
Berry Sauce
While the ice cream is going, I make my berry sauce. I love that this could use whatever you have. We used local strawberries first, then I made it again with store bought frozen blueberries. You could do blueberry, blackberry, raspberry or even a combination.
To make the berry sauce, I added 2 lbs of frozen berries to a sauce pan and added in 1/2 cup of sugar. I like to replace this with honey or maple syrup sometimes as well. I just cook this on medium heat until it starts to boil and thicken. I immediately start to cool this down in the fridge or freezer.
I like to start my ice cream and then make the sauce at the same time so that both are getting nice and cold before putting together.
Last I made my sourdough graham crackers. I want to get this recipe up as well but I have a few tweaks to make before doing so. Store bought would work as well- or just leave it out.
Assemble
Once everything is frozen or cooled, I assembled the ice cream. My ice cream was already in a 9x13 pan but I would still do this if I used a machine. Then I just dolloped the berries/sauce all over the top. I added the remaining 1/2 block of cream cheese in chunks the same way as the strawberries and then crumbled my graham crackers on top. I took a toothpick and swirled it all in after this, then placed it back in the freezer.
Once it froze back, it was done an