Description
Better than a its store-bought equivalent, this cherry almond ice cream has gorgeous swirls of cherry juice in a cherry vanilla almond base ice cream along with chunks of real cherries and flaked almonds. The only thing that would make this ice cream any better is a slice of cherry pie to go with it.
Ingredients
Cherry Almond ice cream
- 10 ounces whole cherries, pitted (frozen makes this easy)
- 1/4 cup vanilla sugar (see note)
- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups heavy cream (472 mL)
- 1/2 cup flaked or slivered almonds (50 g) (optional if you don’t like nut chunks in your ice cream)
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
Instructions
Chill
- Chill a mixer bowl with the whip attachment and the heavy cream in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Make the cherry puree
- While the cream is chilling, chop the cherries into small pieces. Mix the cherries with the vanilla sugar and then pour the cherries into a small skillet.
- Cook the cherries over medium heat until the juices start to thicken. It’s not necessary to cook the cherries down until they turn into jam, but you do want some of the juice to evaporate and start to make a syrup.
- Blend the sweetened condensed milk, almond extract , and little less than 1/3 cup of the cherries.
- Set aside the rest of the cherries to cool.
Whip the cream
- Beat the cream in the chilled bowl until it holds its shape.
- Fold the cherry base into the cream, mixing by hand until you have a consistent color throughout.
Finish the ice cream
- Drop spoonfuls of the cherries over the top of the cream along with most of the almonds. Stir 3 or 4 times to distribute the color. Save a few cherries and almonds for the top of the ice cream.
- Smooth the mixture into a loaf pan. Top the ice cream with the rest of the almonds and cherries. Drag a spoon or a knife through the mixture at random to make swirls with the cherry juice.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze overnight until firm.
- If you’d like, transfer the ice cream to a freezable lidded container like a Pyrex or one of Tavolo’s ice cream tubs for longer keeping.
Notes
Vanilla sugar substitute: If you don’t have vanilla sugar on hand (you can make your own with this recipe), toss the cherries with 1/4 cup of regular granulated sugar. Blend in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract in with the almond extract when you blend the cherries.
Dairy-free cherry ice cream: Use coconut sweetened condensed milk in place of the regular sweetened condensed milk and use a container of frozen coconut whipped cream in place of the heavy cream.
Make it smooth: Feel free to blend ALL of the cherries and the almonds if you want a truly smooth texture in your ice cream. While I love the contrast of the cherry swirls and chunks, I know that that’s not for everyone. You’re running your blender, and you get to make those decisions on your own!
Flavor variations:
Copycat Cherry Garcia recipe: Chop a 3 ounce bar of dark chocolate and add it to the ice cream when you fold in the almonds and cherries. Add 1 tablespoon of good Dutch-process cocoa powder (like Droste or Hershey’s Special Dark) to bump up the chocolate flavor.
Boozy Black Forest Cherry Ice Cream or Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream: In place of the almond extract , stir in 1 tablespoon of Kirsch for black forest or 1 tablespoon of amaretto for the cherry amaretto.
Faux Spumoni version 2: In my pistachio ice cream recipe I gave the idea of stirring cherry chunks and chocolate into the pistachio ice cream to get all of the flavors of spumoni in one ice cream. In this version, stir in a couple handfuls of chopped pistachios and a bar of dark chocolate into the cherry ice cream for the same idea.
Cherry Limeade: Omit the almonds and the almond extract . Stir in the zest and juice of 1 lime into the cherry puree.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Ice Cream
- Method: Freezer, Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
