Strawberry-Preztel Ice Cream

Because we are now residents of the South (I've heard Florida specifically described as "the South's Dumpster" by tongue-in-cheek sources), Mrs. Hackknife thought it might be a good idea for us to subscribe to Southern Living Magazine (the original idea was Coastal Living; however, we quickly discovered that this publication would also encompass such locales as Mendocino and Nantucket, not quite prime examples of tropical culture). As fate would have it, the very first issue of Southern Living that arrived on our doorstep (July 2013) had a feature article listing 56 no-cook summer recipes. After anxiously paging through all 56 recipes, I decided to start at the back in the dessert section with a sinful-sounding strawberry-pretzel ice cream. Unlike other homemade ice cream recipes I've tried that include, well, cream, this particular version employs cream cheese, buttermilk, and half and half instead to yield more of a smooth, custard-like confection. If you're so inclined, you can stop with just the base or throw in more ingredients to gussy it up a bit. In order to make strawberry-pretzel, I needed a combination of fresh strawberries and strawberry preserves, plus some chopped fresh basil and crushed pretzel sticks. Since my Cuisinart ice cream maker is fairly low capacity, I was forced to mix in by hand in all of the pretzels and about 1/4 of the strawberries after the maker had done its thing (lest I overflow the whole contents). The final result was incredibly soft (almost too much so) and, even after firming it up in the freezer for a while, still had a not-unpleasant loose consistency. Regardless, neither my kids nor my niece/nephews visiting from Chicago had any problems gobbling down this icy treat, although they were all a little put off by the "odd green flecks" (maybe we'll omit the basil next time)...