I recently posted a quick poll on our Facebook fan page to see what kind of ice cream recipes y’all wanted to see on the blog. Chocolate Peanut Butter won but Strawberry Cheesecake didn’t fall far behind. Cheesecake also happens to be hubby’s favorite dessert so this ice cream was a natural choice in our house. The first time I made it, I was impatient. The ice cream and strawberry sauce weren’t chilled enough so the strawberry sauce didn’t make a pretty swirl; instead I got pink strawberry cheesecake ice cream. It tasted fine but it wasn’t pretty! 
I also thought that the recipe as written was too cream cheesy and I wanted it to have a stronger milky, creamy flavor so I did a bit more tweaking. The result was perfection. All you cheesecake lovers, give this a try!
Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Ice Cream
8 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces
Zest of one lemon
1 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cup half and half*
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
Strawberry Sauce (Yields 1 cup):
3/4 pounds strawberries, rinsed and hulled (~ 2 cups roughly chopped)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest the lemon directly into a blender or food processor, then add the cream cheese, sour cream, half and half, sugar and salt and puree until smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Make Strawberry Sauce: Puree the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice in a food processor until smooth. Press the puree through a strainer to remove the seeds. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Once ice cream mixture and strawberry sauce have chilled thoroughly, freeze the ice cream mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
To finish the ice cream: Put one third of finished ice cream in a container. Top with some strawberry sauce and gently swirl with a sharp knife. Repeat layers. Store in the freezer until ready to serve.
Source: Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz