Strawberry cheesecake ice cream with Graham cracker crumbs

Are you a fan of Ben and Jerry's strawberry cheesecake or any of the other flavours ? I've had it in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong (thanks to my dear uncle from Penang, Ku Zhang who was with us for dinner and treated my sister and I), and back here in Melb, with an ultra mini tub I indulged in, given for my birthday.

It is my all time favourite flavour, because
1. Strawberries are my favourite berries. Don't get me wrong, I love all kinds of blueberries and raspberries, but strawberries? It's on a whole new level. Plus, did you hear that strawberries can be used to give you pearly white teeth?
2. Cheesecake. I've told you my profound love for cheesecake, and I swoon over the thought of cream cheese.
3. When something combines my two favourites like cream cheese brownies, I fall head over heels.

This turned out better than expected. No egg yolk fuss, just milk and cream. The lemon adds a really nice touch to the cheesecake, and with those cracker crumbs? Glorious! I actually made my own  honey Graham crackers, and they were delightful. I've never had a Graham cracker before (since I live down under), and sure will use them in the future for cheesecake crusts, ice cream and s'mores! I'll be posting a recipe of the crackers soon, so keep an eye out.

 Looks like I won't be making a trip any time soon to the store to buy an expensive tub of Ben and Jerry's.

Strawberry cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crumbs
Cheesecake ice cream:
250 g (8 oz, or 1 block) cream cheese
1/4 cup (60ml) whole milk or 2% fat milk
1 and 1/4 cups (300 ml) heavy cream
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice *
2/3 cup (113g) sugar *
Pinch of salt

* I would increase the lemon to about 2 tablespoons, since I like a bit of tartness.
* The strawberries are quite sweet itself, so I put in about 90 g sugar. Next time, I'd actually put less, because the ice cream doesn't need to be very sweet for my liking.

Strawberry sauce:
250 g strawberries, hulled *
1 and 1/2 tbsp sugar, or to taste
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice *

* I found that this was a bit too much strawberry sauce, and only used about a quarter or half of it to swirl in the ice cream. But this depends, if you want strawberries, then feel free to use the whole quantity.
* Word of warning with the lemon juice! I accidentally squeezed too much, which made it sour. I had to put more sugar than the recipe calls, so next time I would just put a squeeze and put very little sugar.

Method
1. Cut cream cheese into cubes or small pieces, and place into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Add the milk, heavy cream, lemon zest and juice, sugar and salt and blend until smooth. Transfer to container and chill the mixture thoroughly, at least for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Make the strawberry sauce by blending the strawberries in a blender with the sugar and lemon juice, until smooth. Press the puree thorugh a fine strainer to remove seeds and chill in the fridge.
3. Churn the ice cream into your ice cream maker (make sure you chilled your ice cream maker so that it is very cold), following the manufacturer's instructions. I churned mine for about 20-25 minutes.
4. By the end of the churning time, add the strawberry sauce gradually to ice cream maker, to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle Graham cracker crumbs (home-made or use store-bought. You can also use digestive biscuits).Transfer to an air-tight container and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.
5. Leave it on the counter for a few minutes before scooping out as it will be quite icy and hard to scoop out.

Adapted from Technicolor Kitchen