Cafe Lula

I cannot believe it’s been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Did you miss me? Did you cry a bit? Did you even notice? You didn’t, did you? Hmph. I’ll just console myself with this ice cream and NOT GIVE YOU THE RECIPE.

I do have a few recipes to blog but I’ve been a bit disappointed with some of the photos and having a small tantrum about how early it gets dark at the moment. This recipe, though, was so good I had to share it immediately, even if it did mean taking photos under harsh, orange kitchen lights. I only finished eating it twenty minutes ago! See how much I love you? And you don’t even notice when I’m gone for two weeks. Pfft.

I have never made a cheesecake ice cream before, so when I came across a recipe for white chocolate cheesecake ice cream in Green and Black’s Ultimate Chocolate Recipes, I was pretty excited. Reading through the recipe, though, I decided to make some changes. Firstly, the chocolate in the original is grated. I decided it needed to be melted into the mixture. I also signifcantly increased the amount of cream cheese in the mixture, and altered the method slightly.

This ice cream is fairly rich, and the white chocolate and cheesecake flavours come through really nicely. It has a very creamy texture, it doesn’t freeze very hard but it also takes ages to melt, so it stays at the perfect level of meltiness for a very long time!

Giveaway note: Two weeks ago I did a giveaway and I can announce that the winner is… *X Factor style delay* Susan Martin! Yay, Hotel Chocolat Nibbly Noel coming your way 🙂 You will receive an email from me shortly to arrange delivery.

White chocolate cheesecake ice cream

A Cafe Lula recipe (with help from Green and Black’s Ultimate Chocolate Recipes and Chocolate by Linda Collister)

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 vanilla pod, split lengthways

75ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)

75ml double (heavy) cream

75g caster sugar

3 large egg yolks

150g cream cheese, at room temperature (I used Philadelphia)

75g white chocolate, broken into chunks

Put the vanilla pod in a small pan with the milk and cream. Heat until fairly hot but not boiling (around 60-70C), the remove from the heat and cover with foil or a clean tea towel for 15-20 minutes, to allow to infuse.

Put the egg yolks and sugar into a medium bowl and whisk for a couple of minutes until fluffy and pale. Pour in the hot milk and whisk together, then pour back into the warm pan. Set over a low heat and heat gently until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Don’t let the mixture boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

Put the white chocolate into a medium bowl and pour the milk mixture over it. Let stand for a minute or so and then stir until the chocolate has melted. Allow to cool for a further few minutes, then whisk in the cream cheese until the mixture is smooth. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put in the fridge to chill.

Once chilled, transfer the mixture to an ice cream mixture and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve!