Cheesecake Ice Cream Perfect Summer Treat

INTRODUCTION

This started off as something of a culinary conceit: I wanted to recreate the flavour of cheesecake in ice-cream form. I don't claim it's an original idea - I'd once eaten cheesecake ice cream in a restaurant in LA, scooped into a lozenge-shaped ball and served alongside a mini blueberry pie - but striving for originality is frankly a grievous culinary crime.

Anyway, this works exceptionally well, and is in some respects easier to make than regular cheesecake. I love to fold crushed digestive biscuits into the smooth, familiarly sharp-sweet mixture once it comes out of the ice-cream maker but isn't yet frozen solid, but you can leave the ice cream palely pure and sandwich it between two intact digestives as you eat.

INGREDIENTS

Serves: 6-8

• ¾ cup whole milk
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• ½ cup cream cheese
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• 3 sheets crumbled graham crackers (optional)

METHOD

1. Heat the milk in a pan, and while it's getting warm, beat together the sugar, Philadelphia, vanilla and egg in a bowl. Still whisking, pour the hot milk into the cream cheese mixture and pour this back into the cleaned-out pan and cook till a velvety custard. I don't bother with a double boiler, and actually don't even keep the heat very low, but you will need to stir it constantly, and if you think there's any trouble ahead, plunge the pan into a sink half filled with cold water and whisk like mad. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes, this way, for the custard to cook. And when it has thickened, take it off the heat, pour into a bowl and let it cool, at which time add the lemon juice and then the heavy cream, lightly whipped.
2. Freeze in an ice cream maker or place into a covered container, stick it in the freezer and whip it out every hour for 3 hours as it freezes and give it a good beating, folding in the crushed digestives - if using before the ice cream is set solid.

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