Turkish Delight Cheesecake Ice-Cream: Recipe

This Turkish Delight Cheesecake Ice-Cream recipe is one of my favorite recipes that I created in 2015. The super creamy rose ice-cream with its little chunks of Turkish delight reminds me of our amazing trip to Iran earlier in the year. In Tehran we were looking for a bookshop and along the way we found two gentleman distilling rose water. In the heat, it smelt like you were walking through a field of roses. I wanted the ice-cream to really capture the essence of what that experience was like, so you smell and taste rose in multiple forms without it being overwhelming. This really is a great treat to have on a warm day. A little bit familiar and a little bit exotic. It’s the exact recipe that we used for one of the options at The City Lane’s Ice-Cream Donut Popup in December.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes     /     Cooking Time:  10 minutes     /     Makes 1.5L

Ingredients

• 200g caster sugar
• 60ml rose water
• 2ml rose food colouring
• 300ml full cream milk
• 1.2L thickened cream
• 2 large (56g) eggs
• 250g Philadelphia cream cheese

Optional:

• 50g Turkish delight cut into small pieces
• 10g Edible rose petals

Method

1. Place the cream cheese, milk and sugar in a heavy bottom pot and whisk with an electric beater.
2. Add the eggs, cream and rose water and continue to whisk for 5 minutes.
3. Place the pot on a medium heat. Stirring regularly to stop the cream cheese sticking to the pot.
4. Heat the cream to 60°C and hold it at this temperature for 5 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for at least 2 hours.
7. Transfer the mixture into an ice-cream maker and churn as per the manufacturers instructions.
8. Once the ice-cream has churned mix through the Turkish delight pieces and rose petals (optional).
9. Place the ice-cream into the freezer for at least 2 hours, and enjoy.

Notes

When you serve the ice-cream, sprinkle a little extra Turkish delight chunks and rose petals on top to intensify the flavour. For an additional textural element you can sprinkle a few pistachios on top too.