Cherry Cheesecake Homemade Ice Cream

Week 511, and the dark arriving early, the kitchen warm against the cold, the soups simmering, the bread rising. I am 68 years old and the days have a rhythm now — the morning writing, the afternoon visits to Cedarhurst, the evening cooking, the weekly blog post — and the rhythm is the structure, and the structure is the sanity, and the sanity is required because the rest of it, the losing and the loving and the carrying, requires a sane woman at the helm, and I am sane, mostly, except when I cry in the car in the Cedarhurst parking lot, which is not insanity but its opposite: the specific, targeted release of emotion in a contained space, which is the most rational thing I do all week.

Support group on end-stage; Sandra returns to visit; peach cobbler. These are the facts of the week, the data points, the things I would put in a report if I were writing a report, which I am not — I am writing a life, and the life includes the facts but is not limited to them, because the life also includes the way the kitchen smells at six in the morning when the coffee is brewing and the challah is rising and the house is quiet and the quiet is both the grief and the peace, simultaneously, and the simultaneous is the condition, the permanent condition of a woman who is 68 and alone and not alone, who is a grandmother and a wife and a writer and a cook and a caregiver and all of these things at once, always at once, braided together like the challah.

I made peach cobbler this week — because it was what the week needed, because the week always needs something and the something is always food, and the food is always the answer, and the answer is always the kitchen, and the kitchen is always mine, and the mine-ness of the kitchen is the one thing that has not changed in sixty-seven years of living, from Sylvia's kitchen on the Grand Concourse to this kitchen in Oceanside where I stand every morning and every evening and many of the hours in between, making the food that is the chain, that is the love, that is the thing I do when I don't know what else to do, which is always, and especially now.

I brought food to Marvin at the usual time. The visit was what visits are now — quiet, steady, the feeding by hand when necessary, the reading aloud always, the holding of the hand that may or may not know it is being held but that is warm and alive and present, which is the definition of love in this particular year: warm and alive and present. He ate what I brought. He received what I gave. The receiving is the relationship. The receiving is the vow. In sickness and in health, in recognition and in forgetting, in the recliner and in the kitchen, the receiving is the marriage, and the marriage continues, one container at a time, one visit at a time, one day at a time, at two o'clock, every day, because the chain does not break.

Peach cobbler was the week’s answer, but this cherry cheesecake ice cream is the recipe I want to leave you with — because it lives in the same territory, that place where fruit and sweetness and something made by hand become the thing you give when you don’t know what else to give. The kitchen is always mine, and these are the things I make in it: food that carries the weight of the week without showing the strain, food that looks like a celebration even when it is also a lifeline. Make this on a quiet morning. Put it in the freezer. It will be ready when you need it.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours (includes freezing) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 6 full sheets)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Pinch of salt

Instructions

Prepare the graham cracker swirl. In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar, and salt. Stir until the mixture resembles wet sand. Set aside to cool completely.
Beat the cream cheese base. In a large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with a hand mixer on medium speed until completely smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Beat again until fully combined and silky, scraping down the sides as needed.
Whip the cream. In a separate chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 3—4 minutes. Be careful not to overwhip.
Fold together. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture in three additions, working carefully to keep as much volume as possible. The mixture should be light and airy.
Layer into the pan. Pour half of the ice cream base into a 9x5 inch loaf pan or a 2-quart freezer-safe container. Spoon half of the cherry pie filling over the top in dollops. Sprinkle half of the graham cracker crumb mixture over the cherries. Repeat with the remaining ice cream base, cherries, and crumbs.
Create swirls. Using a butter knife or skewer, gently drag through the layers in a figure-eight motion 3—4 times to create a marbled effect. Do not overmix — you want distinct ribbons of cherry throughout.
Freeze. Cover the surface directly with plastic wrap, then cover the container with a lid or foil. Freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight, until completely firm.
Serve. Remove from the freezer 5—8 minutes before scooping to allow it to soften slightly. Serve in bowls or cones, with an extra spoonful of cherry pie filling on top if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cherry Cheesecake Homemade Ice Cream — The Sweetness We Make When the Week Asks for It