Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream—Zero Churning Required

We're partnering with California goat cheese maker Cypress Grove to show you all the ways you can enjoy goat cheese at every meal, including dessert! Here, our Absolute Best Tests columnist Ella Quittner shares her recipe for a no-churn strawberry ice cream with a secret ingredient that makes it sing.

Quarantine has made home cooks scrappier than ever.

For many, that’s meant stretching the odds and ends of groceries to limit visits to the store, and trying out kitchen projects like regrowing scallions from the stumps of used ones.

In my case, it’s also meant a lot of mix-and-match experiments between, say, the latest thing in my crisper drawer and a condiment from 1999. Consider, for example, the PB&B (that’s peanut butter with fresh blueberries, and it’s best consumed off a spoon), or last night’s dinner of a braised cabbage wedge finished with some yogurt I don’t recall stocking.

These experiments have led to a few misfires, to be sure, but they’ve also resulted in my best combination yet: strawberry ice cream with a ribbon of cheese.

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I know, ice cream and cheese sounds bizarre—but it’s delicious. Tangy and sweet, it could pass for a distant cousin of a jam and cream cheese sandwich, or an inside-out cheesecake holding court in the freezer.

The ice cream begins with a no-churn base, made from fresh strawberries mashed into sweetened condensed milk, into which whipped cream gets gently folded. As the ice cream gains some stability in the freezer, soft goat cheese is whipped with heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar, and a pinch of salt—you’ll know it’s ready when it reaches the consistency of icing.

The sweetened cheese mixture is ribboned into the strawberry base while it’s still soft, along with roughly smashed Nilla Wafers (why not?). The whole thing goes back into the freezer for another few hours until, like magic, it becomes ice cream.

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In the spirit of mix-and-match experiments, I should mention that it’s a formula rife for swaps. Here are a few of my favorite ways to riff on it:

• Try a new cheese: The recipe calls for Purple Haze, a fresh goat cheese with lavender and fennel pollen, but you could just as soon use a plain soft-ripened goat cheese. (Balance the flavor to taste with confectioners’ sugar, and the texture by adjusting the amount of cream you blend in—the drier the cheese, the more liquid you’ll need.)

• Swap the crumbs: In place of Nilla Wafers, you could use just about any cookie crumbs, or even graham cracker crumbs. Aim for a rough, sandy texture when crushing the cookies down to size.

• Amp up the base: Add a couple of teaspoons of freeze-dried strawberries, blitzed in a food processor, to the sweetened condensed milk for an extra-tangy hit.

• Swap out the berries: Instead of strawberries, use an equal weight of raspberries for a twist on the base flavor.

No-Churn Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

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Ingredients

1	pound ripe strawberries, hulled and quartered
1	tablespoon granulated sugar
1	(14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2	teaspoon kosher salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon
2 1/4	cups very cold heavy cream, plus 6 tablespoons
2	(4-ounce) packages of Cypress Grove Purple Haze goat cheese (note: Ms. Natural works really well here, too)
1/2	cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2	cup roughly smashed Nilla Wafer crumbs, or cookie crumbs of your choice

1	pound ripe strawberries, hulled and quartered
1	tablespoon granulated sugar
1	(14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2	teaspoon kosher salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon

2 1/4	cups very cold heavy cream, plus 6 tablespoons
2	(4-ounce) packages of Cypress Grove Purple Haze goat cheese (note: Ms. Natural works really well here, too)
1/2	cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2	cup roughly smashed Nilla Wafer crumbs, or cookie crumbs of your choice

Mary Keehn first launched Cypress Grove in 1983, after a fresh goat cheese she perfected over her stovetop quickly caught on in her Humboldt County, California community. She started out with just two goats (Esmeralda and Hazel) and zero experience, but today, Cypress Grove has over 1,000 goats and produces a lineup of award-winning goat cheeses—from their popular Humboldt Fog and Midnight Moon to the one-of-a-kind Danger Zone. In partnership with Cypress Grove, we're excited to share a totally churn-free strawberry ice cream (made with Purple Haze!) you'll want to scoop all summer long.