Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream

        I’m pretty pleased with myself about this particular ice cream I made.  Granted, the recipe for the base belongs to David Lebovitz, but the final outcome is a big winner. I scaled back the amount of lemon zest he calls for and added another pinch of salt, and I used Neufchatel cream cheese instead of the big whammy full-fat variety.   I think the 1/3-less-fat option is still very rich in flavor and it doesn’t compromise the ice cream texture when frozen. 

    For add-ins, I cut my potted cherries (from previous post) in half and crumbled chocolate wafer cookies into small pieces. I wanted a portion of these bits to break apart, so I added them while the ice cream was still spinning.  I only let that go about 20 seconds. If you let the particles spin too long, they basically “dissolve” into the ice cream and become homogenous. I also drizzled in some of the juice from the cherries.  Once I removed the spinner, I mixed in the other half of cherries and chocolate wafers by hand.  

    This ice cream is dense and rich and the tangy cream cheese is perfectly balanced by the sweetness of the cherries and chocolate.  The flavor is absolutely improved by the depth of the potted cherries, thanks to the cherry balsamic vinegar and tarragon they’re steeped in.  The wafer cookies soften but still maintain a gentle bite I enjoy.  What I really love is the texture even once the ice cream has hardened in the freezer.  It remains incredibly creamy and soft straight out of the container.  

    It has not escaped my notice that July is National Ice Cream month.  In fact, today is National Ice Cream Day! I am an all too willing participant in the celebration. I’m beginning to think that I should be creating ice cream professionally.  At least then I would have an outlet for my ice cream fervor.