Authentic Queso Helado Recipe Arequipa, Peru

Despite its name, "cheese ice cream," queso helado is a cheese-free concoction. The traditional recipe is a blend of creamy milk infused with cinnamon, cloves, and coconut, sweetened with sugar, and enriched with egg yolks for a custard-like base. Once set in the freezer, it's served in squares dusted with ground cinnamon, making it a refreshing end to any meal. However, in the traditional preparation, a wooden barrel was used to house ice, sourced exclusively from nearby glaciers. Atop this icy bed, a metal pan was set. The creamy queso helado mixture was then poured in, and the pan was continuously rotated above the ice whilst also mixing the mixture, mimicking an inverted bain-marie technique. This method allowed the mixture to swiftly freeze against the chilled metal surface, after which it was expertly scraped off with a spatula or metal spoon.