Don’t you just love farmers markets? I do! I got a bunch of huge sweet Bing and Rainier cherries for pretty cheep at the farmers market in Moscow. I have just recently started to like fresh cherries, although I can’t stomach anything with artificial cherry flavor. Almost four years ago I had to have an emergency colonoscopy in the middle of the night. Normally you have at least a day to get your system “cleaned out”, but I only had a short amount of time to gag down a gallon of cherry “Go-Lightly.” I didn’t even get close to drinking the whole gallon because the nasty cherry flavor made me throw up. Still to do this day, I can’ not handle cherry flavor. Colonoscopy stories aside, I finally got the guts to try fresh real cherries and they are actually really yummy. Maybe one day I will be able to eat cherry jolly ranchers and cough drops, but for now, I will stick to this yummy chocolate cherry ice cream.
Ingredients:
- 2 C. cherries, pitted and halved or quartered (about 40-50 cherries)
- 14.5 oz. dark chocolate bar (about 1 C shavings)
- 1-1/2 C. 2% milk (or whole milk )
- 1 C. sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 C. heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
Directions:
- Combine milk and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium until bubbles form around the edges.
- Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks thoroughly. Very slowly, add half of the hot milk mixture, whisking the yolks constantly. Return pan with the remaining milk mixture to stove top and then whisk the egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan, whisking constantly. Don’t pour too fast, or the eggs with curdle.
- Add the heavy cream. Over medium-low heat and stirring constantly, continue heating custard mixture until right before it boils. It will thicken quickly.
- Remove from heat and add the copped cherries immediately. Add the vanilla and almond extracts as well. Let the custard cool and place in the fridge or freezer to chill. ( I like to do an ice bath and then put it in the freezer for about 45 minutes. See Custard Tutorial) Then churn in your ice cream maker according to the instruction that come with the machine.
- While the ice cream is churning, grate the chocolate. Use one of those large-sized Hershey dark chocolate bars. Use about 3/4 of the bar. I used a lot less because I got tired of grating. Use a micro plane
grater or just a normal cheese grater to get fine pieces. I hate large frozen pieces of chocolate in my ice cream. When the ice cream is almost done churning, add the chocolate. Freeze in an air tight container until frozen. Eat. Enjoy.
NOTE: To pit the cherries, use a straw, a skewer, or one of these handy dandy cherry pitters
Click Here for the Basic Custard Tutorial.
Recipe by www.ourbestbites.com
