Ice Cream Sandwich Cheesecake

Ice Cream Sandwich Cheesecake

Okay, so in line with the Philly contest, I've been trying to come up with all sorts of cream cheese recipes and have been having so much fun!! My most interesting creation so far has definitely been my Ice Cream Sandwich Cheesecake.  Now I LOOOOOVE ice cream sandwiches... and I also love cheesecake, so it seemed only natural to combine the two.  I did a quick google search only to find that there are no recipes out there for this!! I couldn't believe my luck!!  So, with much skepticism from Mike, I embarked on my ice cream sandwich cheesecake.  (I had originally named it ice cream cheese sandwich, but because the words can be separated into ice cream / cheese sandwich, I decided that sounded utterly disgusting and confusing, therefore the new name had emerged!).  Now my biggest disappointment with this recipe is that it takes over an hour to set, and therefore does not qualify for the Real Women of Philadelphia Contest (must be prepared and ready to serve in an hour or less).  However, I consider this a victory since it tastes so absolutely amazing!!

Ice Cream Sandwich Cheesecake
1 brick light cream cheese
3 cups ice cream (this is 1/2 a 1.5L (aka 6 cup) container) vanilla ice cream -- or whatever flavor you want!!
1/2 cup icing sugar *you can adjust this to your desired sweetness)
1 package brownie mix

(yes with these 4 little ingredients, you get something absolutely amazing and heavenly!!)

Okay, so first, mix up your brownie mix according to package directions.  Cut a circle of parchment paper to line the bottom of your spring form pan. Spray pam on spring form pan, top with your parchment circle and then spray more pam on top of the parchment paper.  Pour HALF of mixture into parchment lined spring form pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into brownie comes out with a few crumbs sticking to it.  Set on wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.  Remove sides from pan and gently slide the brownie layer onto the cooling rack.  Put your pan back together, grease the bottom again (don't need parchment for this layer) and pour the remaining half of your brownie batter in.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and cool on wire rack until completely cooled.  (After 10 minutes, you can pop this in the freezer to cool it down quicker)

**** If you have two springform pans you can of course bake this at the same time!!

While the 2nd layer is baking, in mixer, whip together your room temperature brick cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth.  Add your melted ice cream to this and blend till completed mixed.

Once brownie layers have completely cooled, pour ice cream mixture over bottom layer in the spring form pan and put in the freezer to set.  After two hours (longer if not using a deep freeze), the ice cream will be mostly frozen and you can gently peel off the parchment from your remaining brownie layer and place peeled side down on your ice cream layer.  Freeze for atleast another hour or two until completely set.  (Overnight is optimum).  Take out a few minutes before serving to allow for easier slicing.

I hope you enjoy my recipe!  Mike was surprised that it turned out for the sole fact that when you refreeze melted ice cream, it's not very good.  But this was soooo good!  I may invest in another spring form pan just to save some time!  I plan on playing around with this recipe a little bit to try and make it into smaller portions so it'll freeze faster and hopefully qualify for the contest!!