Roasted Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Creamy vanilla cheesecake no churn ice cream swirled with homemade roasted strawberry jam and buttered graham cracker crumbs.

My love of strawberry cheesecake ice cream runs deep y’all. There’s this little ice cream shop in town – only open in the summer, tiny cute little walk-up-to-the-window kind of joint. And the first day it opens every year you bettaaaa believe I’m swingin’ through to get a scoop – or two – of strawberry cheesecake hard ice cream. It’s to-die-for.

And ever since I discovered the true culinary gem that is no churn ice cream, I’ve been dying to recreate my own version of my favorite summer treat, no ice cream maker required of course. ‘Cause honestly who’s got the storage space? Not meeee!

How to Make Roasted Strawberry Cheesecake No Churn Ice Cream

Make the Roasted Strawberry Jam

Well actually first, set out the cream cheese to get it coming to room temp. Then make the roasted strawberry jam. This sounds way harder than it actually is. Trust.

Preheat the oven to 375. Slice up a pint of strawberries – just in half is good! Stir the strawberries together with the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. Make sure all of the strawberries are coated then spread them out into an even layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

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While the strawberries are still warm, toss them into a food processor or blender. I used my Ninja Professional Blender. Blend until as smooth as possible. You can strain the jam if you want, but I kind of like the seeds in there. Feels more homemade to me. But if you use a different berry – like raspberries or blackberries for example, I’d recommend straining it since those berries have more noticeable seeds.

Add the pureed roasted strawberries into a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add a slurry of cornstarch and water. This will help to thicken the strawberries into more of a jam-like consistency. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon – about 3-5 minutes. Set the roasted strawberry jam aside to cool. It will thicken up even more as it cools.

Prepare the Buttered Graham Cracker Crumble

Melt the butter and crush the graham crackers. I like to leave a few large chunks and make some pretty fine. Then stir together the melted butter, crushed grahams, brown sugar, and salt. Set aside.

Make the Vanilla Cheesecake Ice Cream Base

In a small bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese using a hand mixer until light and fluffy – about 3 minutes. (You can do this in your stand mixer as well, but it’s not necessary.) Pour in the heavy cream. Beat the cream and cream cheese until stiff peaks form. Start out slowly so the cream doesn’t splatter everywhere, then crank it up.

Take about 1 C of the whipped cream mixture and stir it into the sweetened condensed milk. Then take the entire sweetened condensed milk mixture and fold it into the remaining whipped cream, being careful not to deflate it.

Then, in a pan lined with parchment paper (really any freezer safe pan will work – I’ve used my 8″ cake pans for this often!) Pour in half of the ice cream base, then dollop about 1/3 of the roasted strawberry jam all over and sprinkle half of the graham cracker crumble. Swirl it around with a butter knife. Make sure not to swirl it too much or you’ll just have pink ice cream and not those pretty swirls throughout.

Repeat with the remaining ice cream base, another 1/3 of the roasted strawberry jam, and the rest of the graham cracker crumble. Freeze for at least 6 hours, up to overnight. Save the remaining 1/3 of roasted strawberry jam to serve on top of the ice cream.

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Serve

Grab the ice cream from the freezer and let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes to soften up before scooping. Or, if you can’t wait another second, run your ice cream scoop under very hot water for a few seconds to make it easy to scoop right away. Drizzle with extra roasted strawberry jam.

This turned out so good. Like better than I even imagined. Taking the extra step to roast the strawberries just really makes this strawberry cheesecake ice cream next-level-delicious. I’m not saying I’ll stop visiting my favorite home town ice cream shop, but I AM saying that I’ll be keeping a stash of this in my freeze for emergencies.

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If you enjoyed this no churn ice cream, check out these Oreo Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches