Ice cream without eggs: blueberry cheesecake ice cream

Well, I took a bit of a hiatus, ragazzi. Recovering from a little fatigue, filled with worry about the storm that wasn't (at least for NYC), and also, a very big point here, which I make occasionally: if you try to live and eat seasonally, you will be repeating yourself. You develop dishes that you really like and, if you're only going to use things when they are local and in season , it's now or never. So, many of Annalena's cooking is already on this blog. I don't think any of you want a blog that says "tonight we ate the eggplant that I wrote about in 2008. Go look it up." Nah, you don't want that.

Anyway, we're at a transition phase, season wise. The apricots , in a puff, are gone. Just like that. One day there were plenty. The next day, there weren't that many and then, gone... Next year. Cherries are of course gone, and I'm told blueberries are about to make their final appearance. Peas have been gone for a while and shell beans are coming in. Cabbage has appeared, and cauliflower. Grapes. Plums are in ascendance and today, Annalena bought her first pears of the year. And so it goes. The wheels turn.

Running back to the blueberries, since it is almost time to say goodbye for another year, Annalena was looking at things to do with them. To me, blueberries are really two different fruits, depending on whether you eat them raw (sassy, spicy and very fresh tasting ) or cooked (dark, almost mysterious, and almost too intense). I have tried, often, to get blueberry flavoring into an ice cream, and have not done very well at it. Raw blueberries give you no taste in the finished product. COOKED blueberries do, but somehow, when used alone, they lose their "blueberriness." Trying to beef it up with vanilla or lemon, I got blue ice cream that tasted of vanilla or lemon.

Undaunted, Annalena turned to her ice cream god, David Lebovitz and found a WONDERFUL ice cream: blueberry cheesecake.

I have written, in the past, of how I consider cheesecake to be more of a light meal than a dessert. I have received nearly universal scorn over that, but stand pat on that. Now, ice cream? Another matter.

I looked at this recipe and found everything good about it, except for one thing: it originally called for sour cream. As I have written, we almost never have sour cream in the hosue. We DID have mascarpone, but with the other ingredients, it seemed to be way too much. But... YOGURT. And as it happened, Annalena had Greek yogurt in the fridge, which is richer than regular yogurt (even at 2%. Try it). And the ice cream - which is egg free - is absolutely rich and sinful.

Incidentally, there are more than a couple of recipes in Mr. Lebovitz' book that use the layering technique described here. Do it. It's well worth it.

Let's start with the blueberries, which are cooked. You need one pint container - those are the big ones you get at the farmers market. Put them in a pot with 1/4 cup of sugar and heat them gently. While you're doing that, mix half a tablespoon (which is 1.5 teaspoons) of cornstarch, with a tablespoon of cold water, and the juice of half a lemon. Stir this all together.

Combine the corn starch mix with the blueberries, and cook them just until they start to boil. Done.

To the ice cream. Oh, is this easy. You will SO thank me for this. Cut up 8 ounces of full fat cream cheese. Annalena does favor Philadelphia here. Put it in a food processor with the rind of one lemon. Use your zester. Then add a cup of yogurt, and half a cup of heavy cream, and 1/2-2/3 cup of sugar, depending on how sweet you like your cheesecake.

Turn on the processor and process until it's smooth.

Know what? That's your custard. Yes, indeed it is. Taste it. Tastes like cheesecake, huh? Hmmm? Yes it does.

You now have to wait until the blueberry sauce is nice and cold, because what you're going to do is freeze the ice cream base, as per normal. When it's done, get a container and alternate spoonfuls of the ice cream, and the blueberry sauce. You'll get this interesting, pretty pattern, and it WILL taste like blueberry cheesecake. There is no liquor in the fruit, so it will harden with the ice cream, but if you wanted to add cassis, or something like that , Annalena will not get in your way.

This is a very rich, and very rich tasting, ice cream. You may want to get some graham crackers, and make "pseudo cheesecake" by sandwiching it between the wafers. Or not. But make it while the berries are here. Of course, if you've been a good ant, and froze some, you can make it all year.