A couple of years ago, I was on an ice cream kick. Every trip to the grocery store resulted in me bringing home Jeni’s Bramelberry Crisp or Three Twins Chocolate Malt. All of a sudden, I decided I had to start making my own ice cream and my “cooking enabler” (a.k.a. my husband), bought me a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.
I don’t remember the first ice cream flavor that I made, but I do remember my last…Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream!
The picture doesn’t do the ice cream justice, so you will have to trust me that it was super creamy and delicious!
This recipe obviously is going to involve an ice cream maker. You can get these relatively inexpensively and they do a great job. Make sure to read the directions on your machine in advance. You usually need to freeze the bowl overnight, so plan ahead!
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups fresh cherries, washed and pitted
- ¾ whole milk
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2(ish) tablespoons of good milk or dark chocolate
- Pinch of salt
Everything I used in this recipe was organic. At minimum, try and buy organic cherries. You leave the cherry skins on for this recipe, so I would highly recommend this.
Preparing the Ice Cream Base:
- Put the cherries into the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse the cherries until roughly chopped.
- In a medium bowl, combine the milk, sugar, and salt and whisk until the sugar is incorporated. You can also user a hand mixer, but I’m usually too lazy to get mine out of the pantry.
- Add the heavy cream, vanilla, and chopped cherries to the milk mixture. Grate in the milk or dark chocolate. Mix all of the ingredients together, pour into a shallow pan or pyrex dish, and chill (covered) for at least four hours or overnight.
By the way, I have no idea how much chocolate I really used. I just kept grating until it looked like enough. I made up the two tablespoon measurement above - please let me know how much you end up using! It also might be interesting to add a flavored chocolate bar like Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar by Vosges.
Make the Ice Cream:
- Take the bowl for the ice cream maker out of the freezer, attach it to your ice cream maker, and pour in the ice cream base. Allow the ice cream maker to mix until the ice cream is thickened, about 15-20 minutes. Read the directions for your machine as times may vary.
- After the ice cream is mixed, pour the ice cream into plastic 32oz (tall) containers and freeze them for at least 2 hours before serving. I usually use two containers and fill them both ¾ of the way full.
Definitely give this recipe a try and let me know if you enjoyed it. I have two others for you that I’ll be posting (eventually)…Cranberry Orange Chocolate Ice Cream and Mango Sorbet. Keep watching for those!
Bon Appetit!