pistachio cheese ice cream

It has been a while since I last made ice cream. As such, I used the last remaining bar of Philadelphia cream cheese (250g) in our refrigerator to make pistachio cheese ice cream instead of baking a cheesecake using the cream cheese.

I must admit that I was so enthusiastic about making the ice cream that I went overboard and made the ice cream rather tangy in taste. In what way was the taste "tangy"? Well, I added sour cream, freshly squeezed lemon juice and mango essence. The end result was yummy ice cream that tastes like cheesecake.

If you prefer your ice cream to be less "tangy" in taste, you can omit the freshly squeezed lemon juice.

INGREDIENTS

250g Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)
3/4 cup icing sugar
300ml heavy cream
200ml sour cream
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/4 tsp mango essence
1/2 cup pistachio nuts (roughly chopped)

METHOD

1. Whisk the cream cheese in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until smooth.

2. Add the icing sugar and mix well.

3. Mix in the sour cream.

4. Add the heavy cream and mix well.

5. Add the lemon juice and mango essence and mix until thick and smooth.

6. Cover the mixing bowl with a cling wrap and place the bowl in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.

7. Transfer the chilled mixture into a blender and blend until creamy. Stir in the pistachio nuts.

8. Pour the mixture into a container and freeze for 1 hour.

9. Remove the container from the freezer and whisk the mixture using an electric mixer to break up the ice crystals.

10. Pour the whisked mixture back into the container and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

TIP

If you have an ice cream maker, you can omit steps 8 and 9 above. Instead, pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and mix for 30 minutes before you transfer the mixture into a container and freeze for 8 hours or overnight.