Maple Pecan Cheesecake

Mark texts me ice cream suggestions every once and a while. One of his recent suggestions was the following:

Maple pecan cheesecake.
Cheesecake base with maple syrup swirl and spiced pecans.

That sounded like a nice fall flavor and since it has finally turned cool here in the mornings and evenings, I decided to make that.

Rating: 5 scoops

This is one of those flavors that you try and it grows on you. Each of the flavors really comes through and they are a great combination together. I especially liked the smooth tang of the cheesecake punctuated by the sweet maple syrup. This remains one of the smoothest ice creams I've made. The pecans had a nice flavorful crunch that persisted in the freezer given that they had a coating that prevented the water in the ice cream from softening the pecans.

To make this ice cream, I started with making a cheesecake. One pound of cream cheese and 50 g of crème fraîche formed the base of this cheesecake. After everything was mixed together into a smooth custard, I baked the cheesecake until it was set. Last time I made cheesecake ice cream, I made the mistake of freezing the entire cheesecake and then pureeing it. While it ultimately turned out ok, the frozen cheesecake put some added stress on the food processor. This time, the room temperature cheesecake pureed quickly with enough leftover for me to freeze and munch on the next few days.

The pecans were very easy to put together. A warm mix of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves help provide a fragrant base, with some brown sugar for body and cayenne for a little spice. A short stint in the oven coated the pecans with this mixture. I tried one, and then another, and another until I had to force myself to stop to make sure there would be enough for the ice cream. Luckily, I had a few left after making the ice cream so I'll be able to put them to other use such as topping some yogurt.

With all the components now ready, it was time to make the ice cream base. I boiled some milk and sugars to make the base. Since the cheesecake has a lot of fat and protein from the cream cheese, no extra cream is required. Once cooled, I blended the cheesecake puree with the base and let that cure overnight so it could be churned.

As the base was curing overnight, I spent some time trying to figure out how to make a maple ripple. Since maple syrup is mostly sugar, it wouldn't freeze in the final ice cream. It's also high viscosity but I wasn't sure if it would be thick enough to form a noticeable layer in the ice cream. I searched for ways to thicken it up and while cornstarch was a consistent recommendation, I ultimately decided to just pour the maple syrup in. It's difficult to see in the final scoop of ice cream, but you can really taste it. If you look closely in the picture at the top, you'll see the syrup alongside the chunks of pecans.

Thanks for the suggestion Mark!