Jocelyn’s still wrapping up with relatives for Christmas, so you get me this week instead.  Luckily, Christmas itself gave me a recipe or two!  🙂

This year Christmas desserts for the family feast fell to me, and I found myself digging up old recipes I hadn’t touched in ages.  I didn’t have the time to take a shot at a GF graham cracker pie crust to make cheesecake in, but why not make cheesecake ice cream instead?  It wasn’t a hit with everyone — if what you really want is cheesecake, the ice cream texture won’t exactly have you singing its praises — but if you ever had cheesecake ice cream in an ice cream parlor and you miss it now, this is the recipe for you.  🙂

You do have to plan ahead a little to make this ice cream, because you really, really do want the cream cheese to be completely soft, but other than that, this recipe’s easy as pie (easier, really), especially if you have a stand mixer and an ice cream maker to do all the work for you.  I love to serve this ice cream with cherry pie filling, since we always top cheesecake with cherry pie filling at my house, but if you want, say, strawberry cheesecake flavor, or blueberry, or what have you, well, nothing stopping you from adding that to your bowl instead.  😀

Cheesecake Ice Cream

Yield:  Half a gallon or less, eyeballing it

Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sour cream (or light sour cream, if you want)
• 1 cup half-and-half (or heavy cream, for extra-creamy ice cream)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 3 T lemon juice
• whatever you want to top the finished ice cream with

Directions:

1.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment to whip together the cream cheese and sour cream, then add the sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice and mix again till combined.  Mix in the half-and-half or heavy cream last.  Whip in some air if you can get the mixture frothy without splashing, but don’t worry about it if you can’t.

2.  Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, and prepare according to the ice cream maker’s specifications.  (If you don’t have an ice cream maker, I go over how to make the ice cream without one in this post.)

3.  Once the ice cream maker’s done, the ice cream will have increased in volume considerably and be soft-serve.  I like it best at this consistency, but you can stick it in the freezer to harden overnight if you want, or if it’s not time to serve it yet.  Add cherry pie filling or other toppings once you serve it up, and tuck in.  🙂