Cherry Ice Cream
May 11, 2008 
Fresh ice cream is such a treat. If you've never made it, go out and buy an ice cream maker and get ready. When berries are in season, there's nothing like fresh ice cream. And I mean fresh - right out of the ice cream maker. You can put the ice cream in a plastic container and freeze it, but it's not the same as eating it right when it's ready. And it's absolutely pure - no fillers or ingredients you can't pronounce. We have a Cuisinart ice cream maker, but there are many brands on the market now. You just keep the bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer all the time and you are always ready to make fresh ice cream. We love to make strawberry ice cream and one of our favorites is blueberry ice cream, when blueberries are in season. With the recipe I'm giving here, you can make any kind of fresh fruit ice cream.
Last year when cherries were in season, they were so delicious that I couldn't bear the thought of going all year without them. I loved just eating them raw and, of course, my family loved the fresh cherry ice cream. So I bought lots when they were in season and froze them. I just pitted them, put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer and then vacuum sealed them and stuck them in the freezer. When they're frozen, they don't make for a good raw snack, but they are outstanding in pies, cobblers and ice cream. So we had "in season" cherries all winter. What a difference.
This recipe calls for heating the cream with the sugar on the stove before chilling. I like doing this because I feel the sugar gets dissolved better this way. If you don't have time for this, you can simply mix everything together and make the ice cream. But I like to make this mixture in the morning, stick it in the fridge to get really cold, and then when you want the ice cream, all you have to do is pour it in the ice cream maker and 30 minutes later you have fresh ice cream. It's really a convenience.
I wanted to post this recipe because Susan, from Food Blogga, is hosting a "Beautiful Bones" food blogging event. She has osteoporosis and is asking people to post calcium rich recipes. What's better than ice cream?
Cherry Ice Cream
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups half n half
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp. vanilla extract)*
- 1 cup pureed fresh cherries (or any kind of fruit)
Instructions:
Warm half n half and cream with sugar on the stove. Split vanilla bean and scrape into mixture. Add pureed fruit. Warm gently until sugar has melted. Pour into 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup or any other container (the Pyrex just makes it easier to pour into the ice cream maker later). Stick in the fridge and chill thoroughly.
When you're ready to make ice cream, put the freezer bowl into the ice cream maker, pour in the cold mixture, press the button and 30 - 40 minutes later you have outstanding, fresh ice cream!
ice cream maker: Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker
*tip: Please use vanilla beans if you can! They make such a difference. You can buy them in any grocery store.
Reader Comments (14)
Hi Elaine,
This is the perfect way to lengthen cherries' otherwise heartbreakingly short season. Enjoy cherries year round and in ice cream--oh, yeah, baby. Thanks for a luscious and calcium-rich treat!
Cheers,
Susan
ps-I really need to buy an ice cream maker, don't I?
Susan:
You won't believe how easy it is to make ice cream. Also, we make sorbets in our Cuisinart and they're outstanding. Get one!
great way to get your calcium.
Looks like a good recipe Elaine...
THROWDOWN?!?!
Where did I go wrong? I carefully followed the instructions, froze my bowl over night, churned for forty minutes and my concoction never thickened. I tried to freeze for a couple hours, still runny.
Autumn: After a long time of making ice cream, one evening the ice cream would not thicken up in the bowl. We could not figure it out for the longest time. We used to make thick ice cream in 20 minutes and now, after half an hour, it would not thicken up. What turned out to be the problem was that we started keeping the freezer bowl out in the garage freezer, which froze meat and many other things just fine. What we did not realize was that it was not quite cold enough for the freezer bowl. No kidding. Moving it to the freezer in the kitchen fridge put it back to normal. Was weird but it was an ever so slight difference that made a big difference. Maybe something small like this is the problem. Good luck! I hope you can figure it out. If the freezer bowl is cold enough, you should be able to make ice cream just fine.
I love making ice cream and the only time it didn't freeze properly was when the custard wasn't cold enought before putting in the ice cream maker. If you can leave over night in the frig. it should freeze fine.
I also have the cuisinart. I figured out a clean dish towel folded and placed over the ice cream maker insulates the bowl and makes a better/quicker freeze! I tried it after one failure!
Clean dish towel remedy...Clarification needed: Do you put the dish towel over the bowl for the freezer phase--i.e., before you put it in the freezer? Or for the churn phase--i.e., when the bowl's on the counter and the paddle is churning?
Thanks,
Nancy
I believe it would be for the time when you're actually making the ice cream, to keep the freezer bowl cold on the counter. I'm going to try this, myself, because the colder the bowl, the faster you make ice cream!
After reading some earlier comments- my cuisinart freezer bowl takes about four days in the freezer to be ready for a batch.
On this recipe- no cherries anywhere to be found on my grocery shopping trip this weekend so I used frozen strawberries: terrific! This recipe makes excellent strawberry ice cream.
From The Italian Dish:
BobT: Right you are, Bob! We use this recipe to make any kind of fruit ice cream and it's great. Thanks.
Looks great - however what is 'half n half'? Yours ignorantly. susi
From The Italian Dish:
Susi: Half n Half is a dairy item sold in the U.S. that is half cream and half whole milk.