Saskatoon Berry Cheesecake Ice Cream
For quite some time I have been trying to perfect the “cheesecake” flavour in my berry ice creams. I’ve tried anything from using cream cheese, mascarpone, yogurt, and sour cream. Then one day mid-way through a sour cream ice cream recipe, I realized much to my dismay that I did not have any sour cream! The only thing that was even a dairy product (outside the cream and goat milk) was a half litre of all but forgotten buttermilk.
I decided to risk it and was I ever glad I did. It quite simply was the star of the show that day. And I’ve since created this Saskatoon Berry Cheesecake Ice Cream.
For the berry compote
3/4 Cup Saskatoon Berries
2-4 tablespoons of sugar (30 grams)
Juice of one fresh lemon (2-3 tablespoons)
For the Ice Cream
1.5 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons goat milk (cow will also work)
125 grams sugar (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
1/4 tsp sea salt
8 large egg yolks
1.5 cups buttermilk
DIRECTIONS
For the compote: combine the berries, sugar, and lemon juice and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cook the berries until they slump and the syrup thickens (5-8 mins). Remove from the heat and set aside to cool then transfer to airtight container and place in fridge.
For the ice cream: pour the cream and milk into a double boiler over boiling water. Whisk in 100 grams (1/2 cup) of the sugar and the salt and stir until they dissolve.
Meanwhile, prepare and ice bath in a large bowl and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 25 grams of sugar. Slowly add a splash of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks. to this bit by bit until you have added half the hot dairy mixture. Add the yolk mix to the remaining dairy in the pot. Set the heat to medium and cook the custard continuously with a wooden spoon Bring the custard up to 165 F.
Strain the custard into a bowl and stir in the buttermilk. Blend with a whisk until well incorporated. Or an immersion blender if you have one.
Place the bowl over the ice bath and stir for 5 minutes. Transfer the custard to a quart sized container, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours; preferably overnight.
Pour chilled custard into ice cream maker and process according to its directions. Churn until ice cream resembles a soft-serve ice cream.
Fold in the compote until it looks like a swirled ice cream. Transfer the chilled storage container to the freezer. freeze until hardened to your desired consistency.
