Pumpkin Cheesecake

Mel has been wanting a pumpkin cheesecake for a while now. It turns out this is one of the few pumpkin foods she likes (besides pumpkin spice lattes)! As we approach Thanksgiving, there's no time like the present to make her the pumpkin cheesecake in ice cream form.

Rating: 5 scoops

We've made cheesecake ice creams before, so we were going to follow the same pattern but start with a pumpkin cheesecake. Yes, to make this ice cream you need to start with a whole cheesecake, admire it for a little bit, and then puree it! Most commercial cheesecake ice creams use cheesecake flavoring but homemade cheesecake ice cream that is packed with cream cheese makes for a nice ice cream with a firm bite.

To get started, we made the pumpkin cheesecake from Cook's Illustrated. Matt has made this cheesecake before for gatherings and while this cheesecake takes some time, it is delicious by itself so would be great blended into ice cream!

Once we finished admiring the cheesecake (and tasting a small piece), we tossed it into the food processor and blended it into a puree (also delicious!). This puree would be added to the ice cream base to contribute the bulk of the flavor.

From here, we proceeded with the ice cream. Because there is plenty of fat and protein in the cheesecake itself, the base does not use cream. The milk and sugars were combined, cooled, and then blended with the cheesecake to ensure everything was emulsified. After an overnight cure, the ice cream was ready for churning!