Ever try a new food and think, “Oh, man! I gotta eat this every day!”? That was exactly how I felt after my first spoonful of queso helado. Prior to visiting the South American country Peru, I had never heard of this iced sweet. As soon as I arrived in the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the country’s second largest city, Arequipa, I saw it everywhere. Along with its reputation for art, literature, baroque architecture crafted from volcanic ash and the volcanoes that produced this ash, Arequipa is known as the birthplace of queso helado.

In Spanish queso helado means “frozen cheese” but this creamy, cinnamon-spiced ice cream seems more like frozen heaven to me. Its deceptive name comes from its appearance. When scraped rather than scooped from a metal bowl, the slabs of ice cream resemble wedges of cheese. Don’t let looks fool you. It tastes nothing like cheese.

What’s in queso helado?

Unlike traditional ice cream, queso helado contains no cream. Instead it features three types of milk, sweetened condensed, evaporated and whole milk. Dried coconut, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks provide its unique, mildly spiced flavor.

Some versions include egg yolks. These give queso helado a custardy flavor. A few contain cheese curds, allowing the dish to live up to its name “frozen cheese.” Lighter variations omit both ingredients.

How to make it at home

Whenever I become obsessed with a dish, my first move is to track down the recipe so that I can recreate it at home. Usually, I talk with the local cooks, learning how they make it. After that I look in bookstores for cookbooks and culinary histories about the specific region and recipe. (These bookstore jaunts mean that I either mail back an expensive box of inexpensive books or stuff my coat with books so that my bag doesn’t exceed the airline’s carry-on weight limit. I’m still not sure if this is clever or just pathetic.)

In Peru I had some difficulty tracking down a reliable cookbook. Although the country had lots of well-stocked bookshops, every single book in these shops was sealed in a plastic sleeve. I couldn’t look inside any cookbook to see if it contained a queso helado recipe. Before leaving the country, I took a chance and bought The Arts of Peru — The Cuisine in Lima. Although the book offered fascinating insights into Peruvian cooking, it did not include my new, favorite treat.

Working from notes and Gaston Acuriou’s Peru and Martin Morales’ Andina: The Heart of Peruvian Food cookbooks, I created the following recipe. Because I am not a patient person, I used my ice cream maker to speed up the freezing process. However, you do not need an ice cream maker to whip up this dessert. As long as you’ve got a large, shallow, freezer-proof dish, you’re on your way to enjoying this Peruvian specialty.

QUESO HELADO
Makes 4 cups

16 ounces whole milk
3 1/2- to 4-inch piece of cinnamon (can be 1 whole stick or several smaller ones)
4 whole cloves
1/4 cup dried coconut
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
16 ounces evaporated milk
Cinnamon sugar, optional, for serving

Place the milk, cinnamon, cloves, coconut and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it they begin to boil, reduce the heat to low and allow the ingredients to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the burner, stir in the vanilla extract and allow the liquid to cool to room temperature.

Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the milk and discard the cinnamon, cloves and coconut. Pour the flavored milk into either an ice cream maker or a large, shallow dish. Add the sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk and stir until combined. If using an ice cream maker, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for making ice cream and then put the mixture into a large, shallow dish.

If putting the liquids directly into the freezer, cover the dish with a lid or cling wrap and place it on a flat surface in your freezer. Allow the queso helado to freeze completely, at least 4 hours. Spoon individual servings into bowls. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over top, if desired, and serve.