Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

This Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Should Win Awards

When the sun comes out, ice cream is on our minds. This ice cream machine is one of the best purchases we’ve made, and it gets a lot of use in our house during the spring and summer months. There’s something so special about homemade ice cream that you mix up right in your own house.

This recipe for Blue Bell blueberry cheesecake ice cream features all the flavors you know and love about blueberry cheesecake and incorporates it into a creamy, luscious homemade ice cream base.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Ingredients

A full recipe card, including exact ingredient amounts for our blueberry cheesecake ice cream recipe, appears at the bottom of this post.

• egg yolks – farm fresh yolks will give you the best color and flavor, but store-bought will work too.
• half-and-half – if you don’t have half-and-half laying around, you can mix half milk and half cream for the same effect. We suggest using 2% or whole milk if you’re going this route.
• honey – this recipe is naturally sweetened with honey. Not only does it add incredible flavor, but it is also in a semi-liquid state already, so you don’t have the potential issues with “gritty” ice cream that you can get with a sugar-based recipe.
• cream cheese – use full-fat cream cheese, and be sure to buy the kind sold in bricks, not in a tub.
• vanilla – you can use vanilla bean paste if you’d like to see flecks of vanilla bean in your homemade blueberry cheesecake ice cream, or pure vanilla extract works just as well. Stay away from imitation vanilla.
• ground cinnamon – just a little bit of cinnamon added to the cheese cake ice cream base really brings out the “graham cracker crust” flavor found in cheesecake.
• blueberries – fresh blueberries work best for this ice cream, but frozen are fine, too.
• graham cracker crumbs – add 4 whole graham crackers to a food processor and blitz them until they’re fine crumbs, and you should have about 1/2 cup. Store-bought graham cracker crumbs also work!

How To Make Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream At Home

1. MAKE THE ICE CREAM BASE. Start by whisking together the egg yolks, half and half and 2/3 cup of honey in a saucepan. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat, being sure to whisk it almost constantly.

As the mixture heats up, it will begin to thicken (this should take about 8 to 10 minutes).

Once the liquid has thickened, remove the pan from the heat. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and cinnamon and whisk until the cream cheese melts and the mixture is smooth.

2. STRAIN. Strain the cheesecake ice cream mixture through a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl. Don’t skip this step! It’s crucial to ensure the smoothest, creamiest final product.

3. CHILL. Cover the cream cheese ice cream mixture with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface of the custard. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill until completely cool.

4. FREEZE. After it is completely cool, pour the custard mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the instructions for the machine. Then, transfer the blueberry cheesecake ice cream to a storage container and freeze until firm (at least 8 hours).

5. ADD MIX-INS. While the cheese cake ice cream is churning, stir the blueberries and 2 tablespoons honey together in a small bowl.

When the churn is complete, the ice cream will be very soft. Quickly spread 1/3 of the ice cream into a freezer-safe storage container.

Layer in 1/3 of the blueberry mixture and 1/3 of the graham cracker crumbs.

Then, repeat the layers of ice cream, berries, and crumbs two more times. Cover the container and transfer to the freezer for at least 8 hours or until completely firm.

How To Store Homemade Ice Cream

Leftover homemade ice cream can be safely stored in the freezer in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks. If you want longer-term storage, it would be best to vacuum seal and then freeze to prevent any freezer-burn or quality loss.