Filipino cheese ice cream – queso ice cream – is a sweet-and-salty frozen dessert made with cheddar or processed cheese, and it is one of the standard flavours of the bright yellow sorbetes sold from carts across the Philippines. This version needs no ice cream maker: the base is whipped cream folded into cream cheese and condensed milk, with grated cheese stirred through for salt and texture.
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Recipe
Cheese Ice Cream
Ingredients
Method
- Grate the processed cheese using a coarse grater or cut it into small cubes. You want it to be chunky for a nice texture.
- In a bowl, whip the cream until it's smooth, fluffy, and almost doubled in size. Pop it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- In a large bowl, blend together the cream cheese and condensed milk. Use an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture is smooth, light, and fluffy.
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture using a spatula. Keep folding until everything is well combined.
- Optional: Mix in a few drops of yellow food coloring along with the grated cheese
- Transfer the mixture into an ice cream tub or rectangular pan. Tap the pan on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Cover the top with plastic wrap, pressing it flat onto the surface of the mixture. Stick it in the freezer for at least 6 hours or overnight.
- When it's frozen solid, scoop out the cheese ice cream into serving bowls or cones
Step by step, in pictures
Six moves, from grating the cheese to covering the tub.
Grate the cheese coarsely, so it stays chunky.- Whip the chilled cream until fluffy.
- Beat the cream cheese with the condensed milk.
- Fold the cream in gently.
- Stir the grated cheese through.
- Press wrap onto the surface, then freeze.
How long does cheese ice cream take to freeze?
Six hours, or overnight. Recipes for this dish agree on that, whether they are no-churn like this one or churned in a machine first.
Worth saying plainly, because the times on the recipe card are mixing times. Twenty minutes gets the mixture into the tub; the freezer does the rest of the work while you are asleep. Make it the day before you want it.
What queso ice cream actually is
It is ice cream flavoured with cheese – cheddar in most modern versions – and the taste is salty and tangy against the sweet cream rather than cheesy in a savoury way. Wikipedia describes it as one of the most common flavours of traditional sorbetes, usually dyed bright yellow.
Two things make it work. The cheese is grated coarsely rather than melted in, so you get small salty pieces through a sweet base. And the base itself is barely sweetened beyond the condensed milk, which leaves room for the salt to register.
How cheese ended up in Filipino ice cream
Early Filipino ice creams were made with carabao milk – the milk of the domestic water buffalo, and the same milk used for the soft white cheese kesong puti. That is where the dairy-and-cheese pairing starts, according to The Cheese Professor’s account of the dish.
The same source dates the first ice cream parlour in Manila to 1908, opened by an American serving vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. Native flavours – mango, coconut, ube, cheese – spread through street vendors and small parlours rather than through those shops. Cheddar arrived later still: it was imported into the Philippines after the Second World War, and it is the cheddar version that most people mean by queso ice cream today.
How to serve it
Three ways, all traditional and all confirmed by Wikipedia’s entry on the dish. In a cone, usually sharing the scoop with ube, vanilla or chocolate. Sandwiched inside a split pandesal roll, which is the street version and better than it sounds. Or with sweet corn kernels, as mais con queso – the same corn-and-dairy idea as mais con yelo.
Tips for a smoother scoop
- Chill the bowl and the beaters in the freezer before you whip the cream. Cold cream whips faster.
- Fold the whipped cream in rather than beating it. Beating knocks the air back out and the mixture goes flat.
- Press the wrap flat onto the surface of the ice cream, not across the top of the tub. Covering the surface is what keeps ice crystals from forming.
- Keep it at the back of the freezer rather than in the door.
More Filipino cold desserts
If you liked the no-churn method, mango and condensed milk ice cream uses the same technique with fruit instead of cheese. For something to spoon rather than scoop there is halo-halo, and for a frozen street treat, iskrambol.
Cheese ice cream FAQ
What is Filipino queso ice cream? A sweet-and-salty ice cream flavoured with cheese, most often cheddar, and one of the classic flavours of Filipino sorbetes – the bright yellow ice cream sold from painted street carts.
What is queso ice cream made of? In this version: processed cheese, cream cheese, all-purpose cream and condensed milk, with optional yellow food colouring. Amounts are in the card above. Other versions build a custard with egg yolks and churn it in a machine instead.
Do I need an ice cream maker? No. Whipped cream folded into condensed milk holds enough air to freeze scoopable without churning. You would only need a machine for the custard-style versions.
What is a famous Filipino ice cream? Sorbetes, the ice cream sold from painted carts on the street. Queso is one of its standard flavours, alongside ube, vanilla and chocolate.
Can I use cheddar instead of processed cheese? Yes – cheddar is what most versions of the dish use. Processed cheese is milder and softer, and melts into the base more readily; a sharp cheddar gives you more salt and more distinct pieces.
