Designing Domesticity: Red, White and Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

The other day I picked up a massive container of locally grown and picked blueberries. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but as the days wore on we weren't making the dent I had envisioned in our berries and I worried they would start to go bad.

Cue the search for all things blueberry recipes!

You may remember our family bbq from the other weekend featuring both blueberry cocktails and desserts, you can check them out here.

With 2 cups of blueberries giving me the stink eye every time I opened the refrigerator door, it was time to get crafty.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream anyone?

What started as an experiment and what I truly thought the girls wouldn't like, turned into a raging success.

Here's how it came together...

Start with a standard no-cook vanilla ice cream base, I have always used the recipe that came with my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker, here.

1 c milk

3/4 c granulated sugar

pinch of salt

2 c heavy cream

1 tbs vanilla extract

1. Combine the milk, sugar and salt in the bowl of a mixer/blender and blend until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla extract. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, combine:

2 c blueberries

1/8 c water

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 tsp corn starch

2. Simmer over low to medium heat until the berries pop and the juice/sauce begins to thicken, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Chop a 1/2 block of cold cream cheese into bite size pieces, or smaller if so desired.

My girls don't like cream cheese, so I made mine really small.

4. Add ice cream mixture to frozen ice cream maker tub, churn as directed, about 15 minutes. As the ice cream mixture begins to reach your desired consistency add in the cream cheese bites and half of the blueberry mixture. Churn until completely incorporated.

5. While the ice cream churns, crush 4 graham cracker bars into bite size pieces.

6. Remove ice cream mixture to freezer safe container and mix in (by hand) remaining blueberry sauce and graham cracker pieces.