Cheesecake ice cream with blackberry lemon swirl

After very cold weeks we’ve been having 30°C (86°F) days here in Sao Paulo – not very wintery, I admit it, but perfect for ice cream. :)

I bookmarked this delicious recipe last year but never made it during summer – that’s what happens when one has too many recipes on their “to try” list: lots of wonderful ideas to try, but not enough time to do it. :)

I tweaked Natalie’s recipe just a little to use the blackberries and lemons I had around, but she did not mind at all. :)

Cheesecake ice cream with blackberry lemon swirl

Blackberry lemon swirl:
generous ½ cup blackberries, fresh or frozen – I used frozen, unthawed
½ cup (50g) caster sugar
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
finely grazed zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup (60ml) water
1 tablespoon corn starch

Cheesecake ice cream:
112g (4oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (180ml) whole milk
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 ½ cups (360ml) heavy cream

Start by making the blackberry lemon swirl: combine blackberries, sugar, lemon juice and zest in a small nonreactive saucepan. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and cornstarch and add to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil and thickens – while you stir, break the blackberries with a fork so they dissolve into the jam.
Let cool completely.

Now, the cheesecake ice cream: in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla, mix until creamy and set aside.
Bring the milk to a boil over medium-low heat. Remove from the heat and add ¼ cup of the milk to the cream cheese mixture and mix until combined and smooth. Continue with 2 more quarter cups of milk and then add the entire mixture back to the pan with the rest of the milk.
Stir over medium-low heat until thickened slightly (should take around 3 minutes). Remove from heat, strain mixture and cool for 10 minutes. Combine the zest, heavy cream and cream cheese mixture together then refrigerate for 1 hour. Pour into your ice cream machine and freeze according to manufactures instructions.
When ice cream is thickened and finished freezing, slowly pour in the blackberry lemon syrup and let ‘swirl’ a few times in the machine before turning off - you can also do this by creating layers of the ice cream to a container and adding the syrup between layers , then swirl with a knife a few times.

Serves 6-8