Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
Creamy, smooth vanilla ice cream studded with fresh cherries and chocolate chunks, this Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream is chock full of summertime flavor. Cherries and chocolate are a match made in ice cream heaven.
Right now….right this second….I’m sitting in a house waiting for the sun to come up. We had a wicked, nasty storm last night and when we woke up this morning, the air conditioning was off. And, like, permanently off. A brand spanking new, shiny air conditioning unit was foiled by mother nature, who insists on blanketing the entire eastern seaboard with a boiling hot air mass that just won’t give up. The beach is the only place to be and so….I went there. And now, I’m waiting for the house to heat up….or the A/C repairman to show up. Hopefully, the repairman is lightening quick and the sun stays behind the last remaining clouds for a couple more hours. I’ll send the kids to the beach and sit here with my head in the freezer.
Honestly, though….I feel for those of you who do not have air conditioning. I don’t know how you do it. The last place I had without air conditioning was a second story apartment that I shared with my daughter as a single mom. It was the best I could do. And the heat in that place would just build until you felt like you couldn’t breath any longer. It would get stifling to the point that I would only make cereal for dinner….or nachos….with cold cheese. You won’t find those things here on the blog. But you find a bit of relief from the heat with a bit of Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream. It’s absolutely fantabulous.
There were a few weeks when my house was just busting at the seams with cherries. I had the most insanely amazing cherries from Harry & David so I made this clafoutis and then I made a ricotta bowl and THEN I made a batch of Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream. It’s a creamy, rich custard churned until fluffy then sprinkled with cherries and dark chocolate chunks. It’s great in a bowl all by itself but it’s ridiculously tasty topped with a few spoonfuls of Chocolate Magic Shell.
Want something even more decadent, top a scoop with a spoonful of Cherries Jubilee!
I can promise you one thing, if you’re a cherry fan you will flip over this ice cream. And if you’re not….I have a ton more ice cream recipes you can try like Toasted Marshmallow or Mint Chocolate Chip….that’s not artificially flavored one bit. AND if this heat doesn’t break soon….I’ll be sharing some ice cream dinner recipes because I’m a mom and I make the rules, so if I say Ice Cream for dinner….ice cream for dinner, it is.
Get the Recipe: Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1 1/2 cups pitted cherries, cut in half
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, add the milk, cream and 3/4 cup of sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer over med-low heat, whisking until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the remaining sugar and egg yolks until the mixture is slightly thickened and light in color. Slowly, add 1/4 cup of the milk mixture to the eggs while whisking constantly. Continue adding the milk to the egg mixture 1/4 cup at a time until all the ingredients are combined.
- Prepare and ice bath in a large bowl and place a medium bowl in the ice bath. Place a fine mesh stainer over the bowl.
- Transfer the cream mixture to a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the custard into the bowl and allow to cool.
- Refrigerate the custard until cold or overnight.
- Pour the custard into the freezer can of an electric ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the ice cream is the consistency of soft serve, add the cherries and chocolate chunks. Allow to blend. Transfer to an airtight storage container and freeze.