No-Churn Blueberry-Cheesecake Ice Cream

Blueberry-Cheesecake Ice Cream

     I thought today would be a good day to post a recipe for ice cream. Especially since it is suppose to get to 92 today in Minnesota. What better way to cool off than by eating some ice cream?

     This is recipe for Blueberry-Cheesecake ice cream was in the July/August  Food Networks magazine and it sounded so good that I just had to make it. My picture looks a little more blueberry then the one in the magazine but it still tastes amazing. I'm thinking I should have folded more into the ice cream mixture, but once you scoop it out it is just fine.
   
     You can definitely taste the cheesecake and blueberries with this recipe. It actually tastes like you are eating blueberry cheesecake that has been frozen. I wasn't sure how I would like having the graham cracker crust part in the ice cream, but believe me it is worth doing. Without the graham cracker crust I don't know if you'd get the feel of eating cheesecake.

     I pretty much followed the directions in the magazine with one minor slip up. I added extra sugar to the graham cracker mixture by mistake. Instead of 1 tablespoon of sugar I put in 3 tablespoons. Oops! But it was ok. No one even noticed. What's a little extra sugar?

     One other thing that I had a problem with is when I had to blend the ice cream mixture. The recipe told me to blend it in my food processor. Sounds simple right? Well, my new Hamilton Beach food processor leaked out the bottom all over the place. What a mess! I have no idea why it did that. It would have been better if I used my Ninja Blender. Still debating if I should bring my food processor back or what.

Look at all those blueberries!

     Well after trying this ice cream recipe it make me want to try making some more ice cream. Heck I might even take out the regular ice cream maker and try making ice cream that way. There is nothing better than homemade ice cream. I just tastes sooo good.

    Give this one a try. It is super easy to do it just takes time to freeze so plan ahead.

No-Churn Blueberry-Cheesecake Ice Cream

For the Cheesecake Bites
2/3 Cup graham cracker crumbs (from 4 sheets)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Blueberry Sauce
3 Cups fresh blueberries (about 1 1/2pints)
1/2 Cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 Cup water

For the Ice Cream
2 Cups heavy cream 9minus the 2 tablespoons you already used)
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
2/3 Cup sour cream
2/3 Cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon lemon juice
Pinch of salt

 Directions
Cheesecake bites
Toss the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and 1 tablespoon sugar in a medium bowl. Press mixture into a small brownie pan.  Put the cream cheese in the medium bowl; stir with a spatula. Add the heavy cream, lemon juice, vanilla and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar; mix until smooth. Spoon into the prepared bowls, cover and freeze until firm, about 2 hours. Remove the bowls from the freezer and run a knife around the edges and turn out onto a cutting board and roughly chop. Cover and keep frozen until ready to use.

Blueberry sauce
While cheesecake bites are freezing, make the blueberry sauce; Combine the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook, stirring occasionally, gently squashing the berries as they soften, until the mixture is thick and shiny, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate until cold.

Ice Cream
Put the heavy cream, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and salt in a food processor; process until very think and fluffy. Layer the ice cream mixture, blueberry sauce and cheesecake bites in a shallow 2 quart baking dish (aka cake pan). Put cake pan cover on and freeze at least 3 hours ( I froze mine over night). Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before scooping.

Adapted from Food Network Magazine

Mini Pretzel Ice Cream Sandwiches

With Memorial Weekend comes family get togethers and picnics. And traditionally these get togethers and picnics are all about grilling, summer salads and cold beverages. Of course we can't forget the dessert. It just has to be Ice Cream!

You can do ice cream in a variety of ways to please every age group. You can just simply buy an exotic flavor at the grocery store. You can get creative and make your own homemade ice cream, which is a lot of fun (see prior post for ice cream). You can also make ice cream sandwiches.

Now ice cream sandwiches can be as simple as getting cookies from the bakery and scooping some of your favorite ice cream and smooshing it in between two cookie. Some might even try making homemade ice cream sandwiches with the chocolate wafer (still want to try that). Or you could do what I did. Make mini pretzel ice cream sandwiches.

Now with these little ice cream sandwiches everybody can at least have a little taste. They are so small that if for some reason you're dieting or watching your weight you won't feel so awful if you just have one.

I kind of got the idea from my Simple and Delicious magazine. They had all these different ice cream sandwiches in it and I decided to try and make something that would be just as easy and taste just as great. Now that doesn't mean I'm not going to try some of those awesome recipes for ice cream sandwiches, because I am. I was just home alone last night and started messing around in the kitchen with what I had on hand.

I really think this treat could be easily made with children and I even think that the edges could be rolled or dipped into sprinkles to make them look even yummier. I just am low on sprinkles right now. I simple used the knot style pretzels, Wilton's chocolate candy melts and some vanilla ice cream (my chocolate chip ice cream mysteriously disappeared), but you can use any flavor ice cream. It doesn't take long for the chocolate to harden after dipping so these can be made asap.

So here's the recipe. Give them a try and let me know if you have any suggestions. Happy Memorial Day!

Tools I used to make them.

Mini Pretzel Ice Cream Sandwiches
60 -70 pretzels
1 bag of Wilton's chocolate candy melts
ice cream of your choice

1. Melt the candy melts in the microwave according to package directions.
2. Lay out a couple of sheets of wax paper or parchment paper.
3. Dip one side of pretzel into chocolate. Remove and place chocolate side up on paper. (I used a plastic fork with the middle tines removed to take pretzels out). Let the chocolate harden.
4. Take ice cream out of freezer and let it soften a little to make it easier to scoop and squish between the pretzels. Once it is softened use a small scoop and scoop out a ball of ice cream. Place on the uncoated pretzel side. Place another pretzel on top with chocolate side up. Squeeze gently together. Place on a cookie sheet to place in freezer to set up. Once they have set up place in a sealed container.

Chocolate Fudge Swirl Peanut Butter Ice Cream

My daughter and her boyfriend have an obsession for peanut butter, so it got me thinking about what I could make with peanut butter. I wanted a WOW! factor though, so it had to be good. Brandon had already made Peanut Butter and Jelly cookies this week and they were fabulous! He found the recipe on the Food network. I'm not quite sure what recipe he used, but if I find out I'll share it.

Since it's been extremely warm this past week I decided I would look for an ice cream recipe. A PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM RECIPE! Sound impossible? Well I did find several recipes, but I decide on a recipe I found on the Brown Eyed Baker.

This ice cream recipe is super easy to make. Last year I had a fiasco when making ice cream. It kind of turned me(and my family) off from making ice cream again. The Brown Eyed Baker had rave reviews for this ice cream so I thought I would give it a try. My family (and daughter's boyfriend, he's a foodie at heart) were excited about trying this yummy looking treat.

Well long story short, everyone loved, I mean loved this ice cream.The only thing that I would do differently when making this treat is to double the ice cream amount. The fudge sauce and the peanut butter patties are sufficient, but it lacks the ice cream. We all figured if the ice cream was double it would be perfect. So If you like peanut butter and chocolate give this a try. I think it tastes like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup.

Chocolate Fudge Swirl Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Yield: 1 quart
Prep Time: 30 minutes Chill Time: 8 hours Churn Time: 20 minutes
2 cups half-and-half
¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
½ cup smooth peanut butter
Fudge Ripple (recipe follows)
Peanut Butter Patties (recipe follows)
Fudge Ripple
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
½ cup water
6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble at the edges. Continue to whisk until it just comes to a low boil. Cook for 1 minute, whisking frequently. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and let cool. Chill in the refrigerator before using. (Fudge Ripple can be stored for up to 2 weeks, covered, in the refrigerator.)
Peanut Butter Patties
6 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Mix together the peanut butter and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Line a dinner plate with plastic wrap. Pinch off small pieces of the peanut butter mixture, about ½ teaspoon each, and drop them onto the dinner plate. Once you’ve used all of the mixture, freeze the patties. (The patties can be stored in the freezer, well wrapped, for up to 1 month.)
To Make the Ice Cream:
1. Whisk together the half-and-half, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter, stirring until thoroughly blended.
2. Chill mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Fold in the Peanut Butter Patties when it has finished churning. Just before you remove the ice cream from the machine, spoon some of the Fudge Ripple onto the bottom of the storage container. As you remove the ice cream from the machine, layer generous spoonfuls of the sauce between layers of ice cream. Avoid stirring the Fudge Ripple, as it will make the ice cream muddy.
*Note: A tip of sorts – after I made the ice cream mixture, I went ahead and made the Fudge Ripple and Peanut Butter Patties and got them into the refrigerator and freezer, respectively, so all of the “dirty work” was done at once and they would all be sufficiently chilled once I was ready to churn the ice cream. I just made the Fudge Ripple in the same pan as I made the ice cream mixture.
(Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)

Peach Sorbet

Well it's peach time! I love going to the little produce store by my house and seeing and smelling all those luscious peaches. What's even better is they have samples of peaches to taste. Now who can resist buying peaches after trying a sample. I guess that's the reason they have plenty of samples available for their customers. Right now the Colorado peaches are the peach of choice in my area. I like them because their skin is not super fuzzy and they have a wonderful sweet, juice peach flavor. Once you take a bite of these peaches you are going to want more. On my outing to the produce store I picked up 6 nice size Colorado peaches and had plans in mind of making peach sorbet. Now I've never made sorbet before, so I would have to tweak a recipe I had at home. I just replace the fruit in the recipe with peaches. I also had to remove the skins from the peaches in order to make the sorbet and this was something I've never done before. I figured it would be like when I remove the skins from tomatoes when I can them, so I followed the same procedure. So here's my recipe for Peach sorbet and the how to remove the skin part too. The recipe is easy as is removing the skin from the peach. Give it a try and enjoy this yummy treat on one of these hot August days. Everyone in my family gave it a thumbs up.
Removing the skins

1. Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil.
2. Once water comes to a boil turn off burner.
3. Prepare a bowl of ice water.
4. Using a slotted spoon put peach in boiling water for 45 seconds.
5. Using slotted spoon remove from water and put in ice water for 10-15 seconds.
6. Remove peach and skin should peel off easily.
7. Repeat for the rest of the peaches.

Peach Sorbet
3/4 C sugar 
1 1/2 C water
3 C peaches sliced
1/4 C lemon juice

In a small saucepan combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Set this aside an let cool. While this is cooling you can remove the skins from the peaches. Follow the instructions above.  Put peach slices in a food processor and puree them. Put puree in a bowl and add cooled sugar water and lemon juice. Stir until well combined. Pour this mixture into an 8x8 pan; cover and freeze for 45min to an hour. Stir and return to the freezer until frozen. Once mixture is frozen use ice cream scoop to scoop out servings. 

NOTE: We also thought that this would have been good in popsicle molds. Maybe we'll try this next time.