Arequipa Spiced Frozen Milk (Queso Helado)
Queso helado Say it: KEH-so eh-LAH-do
Queso helado — literally "frozen cheese" — contains no cheese at all. In Arequipa it is a street-side frozen dessert of milk, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and coconut, thickened lightly with egg yolks and churned until smooth. Vendors pack it into tall metal cylinders and slice it, but home cooks simply freeze it in a tray or an ice cream maker. The result is silky, gently spiced and not too sweet, dusted with ground cinnamon. It is eaten all year, especially on warm afternoons and at festivals.
Arequipa Spiced Frozen Milk (Queso Helado)
Queso helado
Pronounced KEH-so eh-LAH-do
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total
- 40 min
- Level
- Easy
Allergens: contains milk, egg, nuts. Check labels on packaged ingredients.
Ingredients
Amounts are scaled. Cooking times and pan sizes stay the same.
Frozen milk base
To serve
Method
Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and add the sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves and salt. Warm over medium heat, stirring now and then, until steaming and small bubbles ring the edge, 5 to 6 minutes — do not let it boil.
Stir in the shredded coconut, take the pan off the heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes so the cinnamon, cloves and coconut perfume the milk.
Whisk the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl until smooth. Ladle in about 1 cup (240 ml) of the warm milk in a thin stream, whisking constantly, then pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula and scraping the bottom, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spatula, 5 to 8 minutes; it should read about 170°F (77°C) and must never boil or it will curdle.
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the coconut to squeeze out all its flavor, then discard the solids. Stir in the vanilla, cool to room temperature, then chill for at least 2 hours until very cold.
Churn in an ice cream maker until thick and softly frozen, 20 to 25 minutes, then scrape into a container and freeze for 2 hours to firm up.
Without a machine, pour the chilled base into a shallow metal pan and freeze for 45 minutes. Beat with a fork or whisk, breaking up the frozen edges, then repeat every 30 minutes for 3 to 4 hours, until smooth and scoopable.
Scoop into glasses or small bowls, dust generously with ground cinnamon and serve at once.
Regional variants
Some Arequipa cooks enrich the base with a little evaporated milk or add a strip of lemon zest with the cinnamon; others flavor it with a spoonful of pisco. In the city it is often frozen in a tall cylinder and served in thick slices rather than scoops.
Cook's notes
- Chill the base thoroughly before freezing — a cold mixture freezes faster and stays smoother.
- Toast the shredded coconut in a dry pan until pale gold before steeping for a deeper, nuttier flavor.
- If the frozen dessert sets rock-hard, let it stand 5 to 10 minutes at room temperature before scooping.
Serve with
Serve on its own, dusted with cinnamon, or with a glass of cold chicha morada.
Make ahead and storage
Keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks; cover the surface with parchment to prevent ice crystals.
