I am recently obsessed with making ice cream. It is only the first week of June and I have made five kinds – and my kids probably will only want to eat two of them, so you know what that means…
If you have access to an ice maker, but have been apprehensive to use it, or think that making ice cream is difficult or time consuming, you need to rethink and get on it. It is not hard – not at all. And it tastes so much better and the texture? Oh. My. God. Plus you can make all kinds of interesting flavors and use all kinds of seasonal fresh fruit, and you can decide exactly how chocolatey you want your ice cream or how much peanut butter you want in it. All good things in my opinion.
There is two kinds bases for ice cream – something else I did not know until I started making my own. Custard base – which is with egg yolks, milk and cream, and is the more traditional American type of ice cream (and super rich and creamy).
And something called Philadelphia style ice cream, which is what you will find here today. Being lazy, and that I only had three eggs in the house at the time, I decided to google ‘ice cream with no egg yolks’ and found out that this is a thing. A really delicious thing and so simple that to be honest, I thought it was gonna suck. I mean, basically you just heat up heavy cream with sugar until the sugar dissolves and then chill it before putting into the machine.
I had and always have tons of heavy cream around so what the hell, I tried it. I can honestly say I cannot tell the difference. Maybe the texture is slightly less creamy (if you make it plain)…maybe. But since I added vanilla bean and sour cherry puree I could not tell even a little bit.
Simple as hell and though I am still a custard base ice cream lover at heart, I have since used this base for other flavors as well – this is an ideal base for fruit ice cream.
And if you have sour cherries available to you GET THEM – farmers markets should have or should start carrying soon. Make a pie (it is the only cherry you should ever use in a pie) and make this ice cream, you won’t be disappointed.
Sour cherry vanilla bean ice cream
Ingredients
For the cherries
- Two cups of sour cherries (fresh or frozen pitted and loosely chopped
- Few squeezes of lemon juice
- ½ cup of sugar
- pinch of salt
For the ice cream base
- Three cups of heavy whipping cream
- pinch of salt
- ¾ cup of sugar
- one vanilla bean or teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Instructions
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Place the cherries, ½ cup of sugar and the lemon juice in a saucepan and cook until cherries cook down and give off their juices, it will be like a compote. Chill this overnight.
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Next, put one cup of the heavy cream, and the vanilla bean (if using a whole bean) the sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan and gently cook until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture – DO NOT BOIL, cream can separate when boiled and it is gross. Remove from heat and whisk in the remaining cream and if you are not using the whole bean, add the extract or the vanilla bean paste at this time. Chill this overnight separate from the cherries.
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When totally chilled, put the cream into the ice cream maker and begin churning (follow the ice cream maker instructions), after about 8 minutes slowly add the cherry compote mixture to the ice cream maker and continue to churn until it is thickened and creamy – keep what you don’t’ eat right out the machine in the freezer.
Yum! I really need to get an ice cream maker so I can make goodies like this!
We love to make ice cream. Especially at this time of year. Cherries are one of my fav’s so I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Yum! I love cherry ice cream! Saving to try later 🙂
That looks so good and I don’t even like cherries! However, I’m always willing to try things and change my mind. If I make it, I’ll probably try it first with strawberries or raspberries.
This looks so delicious! I wish I had an ice cream maker because it is my kryptonite lol Such a beautiful blog. 🙂
Just in time for cherry season and I just bought a cherry pitter! Perfect timing since this looks delicious!
Yum, your kids are so lucky! Ice cream is my absolute favorite dessert. I do not have an ice cream maker…maybe it’s time to get one.
Looks amazing! Great photos! I am an ice cream junkie, so I’m always looking for new recipes I can make at home. I have added this to the list!
I’ve never made my own ice cream before. I guess now is a good time to start!
Yum!! This looks amazing. Such a great summer treat.
I’ve been considering an ice cream maker lately because I’ve seen such good recipes. This sounds so yummy!!
This looks so yummy! I always love cherries at this time of year, but never thought of making ice cream.