Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream (Recipe 109 of 150)

A weird and wonderful thing has been happening this summer. BFF is training for the Breast Cancer 3 day/60 mile walk. Her and one of her teammates walk on Wednesday afternoons. When she's done, she's been swinging by Dairy Queen and buying a Blizzard. Lucky me she buys one for me too. She calls and says she's out front. I come down, we chat a bit, and we both enjoy an ice cream on a hot summer day.

This isn't the best thing for my ever expanding waste line. But it now has me craving ice cream. Drats.

So I bought myself an ice cream maker and I've been experimenting with low carb ice creams. The first one I made was a chocolate and peanut butter. It was good, but made with coconut milk and so had a coconutty flavor - which doesn't go with peanut butter. 

This one has been good. I made it at lunch today and then had a sample of it around 3pm. I made a couple of modifications based on my little sister making it earlier this week and her feedback on it. Those modifications are below. 

Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream Recipe

Recipe from Sosimpleideas.com

Makes 8 servings

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar or sugar substitute for low-carb - I used about 3/4 c. Billie said it needed more sweetness.
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon lemon extract optional - didn't include either optional.
• 1 teaspoon cherry extract optional
• 1 tsp guar gum - I added this ingredient. It's used to keep the ice cream from hardening too much.

Beat cream cheese with sugar or sweetener until well blended. Add in the heavy cream, sour cream, and cocoa. Blend until smooth.

Blend in the flavor extract then cover. Set in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.  [JW Note: I did not do this step. Billie said it really didn't matter, so I scrapped it. It doesn't seem to have mattered at all. ]

Remove from the refrigerator and beat mixture until creamy. [JW Note: I beat it for a good 3 minutes to add a lot of air to the ice cream.] 

Transfer to an ice cream maker and process until desired consistency is reached.

Enjoy immediate as a soft serve or transfer to an airtight freezer container to harden for scoopable ice cream.