Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

I had my mom and grandmother over for dinner on Mother's Day.  Two wonderful ladies deserved a special dessert...don't ya think?  Since I knew the weather was going to be warm I thought ice cream would be a great end to the meal.  I've made lots of lemon desserts lately and chocolate just seems more like a winter dessert so I decided to find an ice cream recipe with blueberries. I found this little gem on the All Recipes app on my phone.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Ingredients:

For the blueberry sauce:

1/2 c. sugar

1 T. cornstarch

1/2 c. water

1 1/4 c. blueberries
1 T. lemon juice

For the crumble:
2 1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter, melted

For the ice cream:
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 (3.5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 c. heavy whipping cream
2 c. milk
2 t. vanilla extract

To make the blueberry sauce:
Combine sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in water until smooth.  Stir in blueberries and lemon juice; bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low.  Simmer uncovered until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. 

To make the crumble:
Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl.  Stir in butter.  Press into ungreased baking pan.  (I used a glass pie plate but I think you could do a cookie sheet or a casserole dish too.)  Bake 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool completely on a wire rack, then crumble.

For ice cream:
Whisk sugar, pudding, whipping cream, milk, and vanilla.  Fill ice cream machine 2/3 full.  Refrigerate remaining mixture until ready to freeze.

Layer ice cream, crumble, and blueberry sauce three times in a bowl.  Swirl to combine.  Freeze until ready to serve.

In my test kitchen:

I will start by saying that this dessert was a big hit with everyone who tried it.  However, be prepared to dirty a million dishes while making this dessert. 

I did have a little trouble with my blueberry sauce.  I don't think it thickened nearly enough as it was supposed to.  I blame this on my oven (which I loathe.)  My oven takes a long time to get to the temp I want and then takes an even longer time to come down from that temperature.  So when it began to boil and I reduced it to low it continued to boil like crazy for a long time.  It almost boiled over several times.  I finally had to remove it from the heat entirely.  So I don't think it got the proper "simmer" time.  As a result, my sauce seemed a little runny and didn't spread as nicely when I was doing my layering.  I may try to add a little more cornstarch next time or try some creative work with two burners OR I might even try to use a blueberry pie filling instead.  We will see.

As I typed this recipe I noticed that it mentioned to transfer the graham cracker crumble to a wire rack to cool completely.  Um...didn't do this at all. I'm assuming it means to remove the crumble completely from the pan and transfer to the rack to cool?  I'm thinking maybe this will make it more crunchy?  My crumble was chewy...and I actually really liked it like that.  So try it whichever way you prefer.  I will try transferring it to a wire rack next time to see how different it may be.  I also thought the cinnamon was a little over powering so I will reduce it to 1/4 teaspoon next time as well.

The ice cream was great!  Who would've thought that instant pudding would be a great thing to freeze like this?  The thought sure didn't cross my mind!  Then again, I'm still an amateur at this stuff.  The only problem I had with this is that the recipe makes a LOT of ice cream.  And you really need it to get adequate layering of the three items.  But my ice cream machine isn't that big.  So it took several times to get it all done.  And of course, my machine takes 16 hours for the canister to re-freeze.  I ended up having to finish making the ice cream the following day.  If you plan to make this recipe, plan ahead and make it the day before.  That way you will have time to freeze and combine the remaining ice cream the next day.

I'm a little torn on when to serve this dessert.  When the ice cream is first finished freezing, it is way smooth and tastes amazing.  But it melts pretty easy so even though it is a great treat all combined with the other ingredients, it doesn't look super great.  I think it needs time to set up a little more.  After it's been frozen for a while, it looks a little prettier but just doesn't have that really creamy texture. 

Also, where the heck is the "cheesecake" part of this dessert?!? 

Still, it's a great treat that I definitely will make again! 

~Happy Cooking!