Fantabulous Food! Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Due to our overwhelming trip to pick blueberries last week, I decided to be adventurous in my baking with them :) So, I headed over to one of my favorite websites to find my muse:

Our Best Bites is a great cooking website with delicious recipes and step by step (pictured) instructions on how to make each one :) So, I typed in 'blueberry' and this recipe came up on the list. So, here is my experience with it :)

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh blueberries

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup water

2 cups sugar

6 oz light cream cheese, softened

4 egg yolks

3 cups 2% milk

1 cup half and half

optional: 1 prepared graham cracker crust

1. In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, powdered sugar, and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

Simmer for 10 minutes and then remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

2. In a large saucepan, combine milk and half and half. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.

3. While milk is heating, combine cream cheese, egg yolks, and sugar in a bowl and mix well.

4. After you have removed milk mixture from heat, very slowly pour half of the milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture while the beater is running.

This is called tempering the eggs, meaning that you're slowly acclimating them to heat so you can cook them without them curdling. Mix the egg mixture well and then add tempered egg mixture back into the hot milk mixture.

Over medium-low heat and stirring often, cook to 160 degrees (use a candy thermometer; 160 degrees is considered safe for most animal products, eggs included). Remove from heat.
5. Place pan in ice (I put the ice in the sink and poured the mixture into a metal bowl on top of the ice).

Allow to cool to a touchable temperature and then add those gorgeous blueberries and all of the liquid with them.

6. Combine completely and put in the fridge for several hours until well chilled.

7. Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. After churning it will be like soft-serve. Place in an air-tight container in the freezer to let it set up.

8. If you're adding graham cracker crust: While the ice cream maker is working its magic, go ahead and break up the graham cracker crust. Leave some bigger chunks - the ice cream maker will break them down and the texture in the frozen ice cream is awesome!

When the ice cream is very thick, add the pieces of crust and then stop the motor as soon as the crust pieces have been mixed in.

Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least three hours.

*It will still be fairly soft, but it definitely has a firmness to it. So, just put it in the freezer and let it work its magic. Since mine is still in the freezer, I do not have a final photo, but I will be sure to post one as soon as it is ready :)