For the last four or five weeks we’ve been on a bit of a cherry binge. We’ve been picking up 2kgs at the market each week and loving them. I’ve been splitting the box with my dad and they’re usually gone within a couple of days, meaning that I haven’t had a chance to do anything with them cooking wise – until now! This weekend I decided to bring the box home with me and put them to good use.

Enter choc-cherry ice cream.

I’ve been making a fair bit of ice cream lately and a couple of days ago it was rather hot here in Melbourne so I decided ice cream was a winner. Truth be told, given the heat I couldn’t be bothered making a custard, so I made this ice cream the ‘Philedelphia’ style, which is ice cream made predominantly of cream and without eggs. It was super simple and oh so yummy.

Choc Cherry Ice cream – makes about 1 litre

Ingredients

3 cups (750ml) heavy cream (35% fat)
150g sugar
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup pitted and chopped cherries (cut into approximately 8 pieces per cherry)
1/2 cup melted chocolate (I used Ghiradelli bittersweet as I had a ton of it in the cupboard from a recent trip to Costco)

Method

1. Place 1 cup (250ml) cream into a saucepan with the sugar and salt. Place it over a medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the remaining cream and the vanilla essence until well combined.
3. Place the mixture into the fridge to let it chill thoroughly.
4. Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker of your choice. A couple of minutes before it has finished churning, mix in the cherries. I added them towards the end because I wanted decent sized chunks of cherries when I ate it, not mushed up cherries.
5. Melt the chocolate just as the ice cream is finished.
6. Place 1/4 of the ice cream mixture into a container and drizzle in a thin layer of approximately 1/4 of the melted chocolate – I used a fork to do the ‘drizzling’. Repeat in layers until all the ice cream and chocolate is in the tub. Place in freezer to harden. The chocolate will break up into chunks as you are scooping the ice cream.
7. Once frozen, enjoy!

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