Absolutely scrumptious, this strawberry cheesecake ice cream is perfect for a summer barbecue party or romantic dessert. This homemade ice cream features fresh strawberries and buttery shortbread cookies. The recipe offers both dairy and dairy-free choices, plus a frozen yogurt option. No ice cream machine needed!
This strawberry cheesecake ice cream is so fun to make and tastes absolutely delectable. It does take a bit of work off and on, but nothing too extreme. Most of the work is done by your freezer! This recipe includes just a few simple main ingredients.
Berries and Cream
This recipe offers both dairy and non-dairy ingredient options (heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk), plus a full-fat frozen yogurt option.
Fresh strawberries are recommended, but frozen strawberries work equally as well – or raspberries for that matter. You can also roast your strawberries beforehand to reduce the amount of liquid and improve the ice cream texture.
Fresh Cheese
There is, of course, a cheese component to this recipe (being that “cheesecake” is literally in the name). While the recipe calls for mascarpone cheese or cream cheese, you could substitute plain vegan cheese or full-fat coconut milk, no problem.
Fresh Jam
You can use a homemade jam, or a store bought jam, totally your choice! Strawberry might be a great choice, considering it is a strawberry recipe, but any type will do! Here’s are links for two of my recipes for strawberry reduction and cherry pie filling freezer jam.
Shortbread Cookies
The recipe also features homemade Scottish shortbread cookies that are layered throughout the ice cream. They are super buttery and just melt in your mouth, plus they pair perfectly with strawberries and cream.
Click here for the recipe for the recipe for Scottish shortbread cookies.
If you don’t want to use shortbread cookies, just pick another type you like best! Biscoff biscuits, gingersnaps, graham crackers, maple sugar cookies, plain sugar cookies, or oatmeal cookies would all work wonders in this ice cream.
Making ice cream does take some time (about 12 hours) but most of it is just the time it takes the ice cream to freeze, not active labour. In total, the labour involved doesn’t total more than about 1 hour or so, it’s just spread out over a period of time. This is a great activity for a night at home – let’s go over the steps.
Part One: The Whipping of the Cheese and Cream
You can’t have cheesecake ice cream without cream and cheese! The first step is to mix the mascarpone cheese with vanilla and sugar. You beat the whipping cream separately before folding it into the creamed cheese mixture. Then the whole mess goes in the bowl, in a bag, in the freezer for an hour. It’s best to use a metal mixing bowl for this.
Part Two: The Mix and Freeze
This part is a bit of a dance.
At this point, we’ve already frozen the cheese and cream for 1 hour, so it’s time to pull the bowl out and give it a good stir.
You’ll want to really scrape the sides of the bowl so that any icy bits that have formed are reincorporated back into the ice cream batter. This usually takes no more than a minute or two, plus you don’t want to languish too long on the mixing or it will melt again.
Then back into the freezer the bowl goes for another hour.
So we repeat this “mix and freeze” another 4 times over the next four hours – mix the ice cream for 1 minute, then freeze it for 1 hour, then repeat, repeat and repeat once more.
At this point the ice cream mixture should resemble stiff mashed potatoes – kind of fluffy and definitely not liquid.
Pro Tip: Give a final mix with an immersion blender.
If you want to make the ice cream super super smooth at this point, give it a good blend for a minute with an immersion blender.
If you don’t have one, don’t fret, just carry on! I didn’t use one this time and this turned out great. The immersion blender just decreases some of the risk for icy patches in the ice cream.
Part Three: Assemble and Chill
Now comes the most fun part. -the assembly!
Slice up your strawberries, open the jam jar, and make sure you’ve got your shortbread cookies crumbled and ready to go. These are your filling ingredients and toppings.
Before this, you’ll want to pre-chill a metal loaf pan in the freezer, so that it’s cold and ready to fill with ice cream. You can line the cold pan with baking parchment if desired – it doesn’t stick to the ice cream and contains a bit of the mess.
Pro Tip: Line the pan with baking parchment.
Lining your ice cream pan with baking parchment and also covering the top of assembled ice cream with more parchment can help prevent freezer burn. Store the ice cream container in a bag too, for convenience and to avoid contamination from other items in the freezer.
We are going to layer the ice cream with the toppings, like a parfait. Everybody loves parfaits!
First layer some ice cream in the pan, followed by jam, then strawberries and cookie crumbles. Then, just repeat this twice more so that there are 3 layers in total of ice cream and 3 layers of filling ingredients.
For the very top layer you can decorate it a bit more. Add some larger strawberry slices and some larger chunks of shortbread.
All that’s left is to freeze the ice cream a bit longer, so it sets properly. About 6 hours will do.
Serving the Ice Cream
This ice cream is best consumed in the 2-3 days right after its made, however you can safely keep it in the freezer for about a week or so.
If it is difficult to scoop because it’s a little frozen, just let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving. The toppings on top will be a little extra frozen, but they are partly to make it a little pretty!
Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
A cold and creamy homemade treat, this strawberry cheesecake ice cream is ready from start to finish in about 12 hours. This recipe makes about 6-8 servings.
Ingredients
Ice Cream Batter
- 2 cups (500 grams) heavy cream, full-fat coconut milk, or full-fat yogurt
- 1 cup (250-275 grams) mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tbsp tapioca starch
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
Filling Ingredients
- 2 tbsp jam
- 1 cup strawberries, finely diced*
- ½ cup shortbread cookies, finely crumbled
Toppings
- ½ cup sliced strawberries
- 6 shortbread cookies, broken in large pieces
*Pro Tip:
Fresh strawberries offer a chunky texture, which you’ll enjoy if you like frozen fruit. If you want less texture, , cook your strawberries first! You can turn them to a strawberry sauce on the stove, or roast them in the oven.
Check out my recipe for stovetop strawberry sauce here!
If you’d rather roast your strawberries instead, space them out in a baking dish and roast them at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes. You can drizzle them with maple syrup too, if you want!
Tools
- whisk
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- spoons or spatulas
- small mixing bowls
- large metal mixing bowl, chilled
- baking parchment (optional)
- metal loaf or cake pan, chilled – a freezer-safe plastic container will also work
- large ziplock or sealable freezer bag
- cutting board
- knife
Instructions
PART ONE – PREP
- Mix the mascarpone cheese, sugar, tapioca, salt, and vanilla together in a bowl, then set aside.
- Whip the heavy cream (or coconut milk, or yogurt) in a cold metal mixing bowl for 5-10 minutes. You can chill the metal mixing bowl in the freezer ahead of time, if desired.
- Fold the mascarpone cheese mixture into the whipped cream until well combined.
- Cover the metal bowl with plastic wrap. Place it in the coldest part of your freezer for 1 hour.
PART TWO – MIX & FREEZE FOR FIVE HOURS
- After 1 hour, remove the bowl from the freezer. Stir the mixture, scraping any frozen bits away from the sides of the bowl so they recombine with the cream. Stir until smooth, for 1-2 minutes.
- Re-cover the bowl and place it back in the freezer to chill for 1 hour.
- Repeat this process 4 more times over the next 4 hours – mix the ice cream batter for 1 minute, then freeze it for 1 hour. Scrape the sides of the bowl each time to recombine icy bits in the batter.
PART THREE – ASSEMBLE & CHILL
- Chill a metal pan ahead of time. You can line it with baking parchment, if desired.
- Add ⅓ of the ice cream batter to the pan.
- Swirl 1 tbsp of strawberry jam over the ice cream layer.
- Sprinkle ½ cup of strawberries (or strawberry sauce) and ¼ cup of crumbled cookies evenly over the ice cream.
- Add another layer of ice cream batter, then top it with another tbsp of jam, ½ cup diced strawberries, and ¼ cup crumbled cookies.
- Add the last layer of ice cream batter.
- Top the ice cream with larger strawberry slices and shortbread cookie chunks.
- Place the metal pan of assembled ice cream inside a large sealed bag or ziplock. Chill in the freezer for a minimum of 6 hours. Let sit on the counter for 15 minutes to soften before serving.
The Chemistry Behind The Dessert
This ice cream can be made just about any time of the year!
If you can’t get fresh strawberries, just use frozen ones, or a different fruit entirely – raspberries and cherries would also be really nice for this recipe. My same suggestion above for making a sauce or roasting the fruit first still applies.
So, do you know what makes a great ice cream? There’s a few things, actually.
First is the fat. No skimping on fat for ice cream, it’s gotta be heavy cream and cheese, or full-fat coconut milk, or full-fat yogurt.
The fat content has to be generally high for ice cream, and well blended throughout the mixture. This is why we mix the ice cream quite a few times, and use of an immersion blender is also suggested.
For commercial ice cream that are low-fat and so on, they replace the fat content with emulsifiers and stabilizers to keep the ice cream creamy. On that subject….
Ice cream needs stabilizers and emulsifiers!
Tapioca starch replaces the roll of eggs in this recipe, acting as a stabilizer. Its role to to prevent large ice chunks from forming, so make sure it’s very well mixed throughout the ice cream batter so it can properly do its job.
The addition of sugary and jammy substances also help make ice cream more scoop-able and cohesive. Jam helps a lot here, as do the strawberries if they are roasted or turned into strawberry sauce before they are used in the ice cream.
The shortbread cookies are also well-positioned for this recipe because…. they contain a lot of butter and sugar! Both these components help to cut down on the risk of over-freezing.
Did you make this homemade strawberry cheesecake ice cream? Let me know!
Simmering Starfruit 
Leave a comment