Fresh Cherry Ice Cream

This fresh cherry ice cream is made with ripe cherries, sugar and whipped cream. So easy and delicious, no churning required. Gin optional! The flavor of my favorite summer fruit shines through. 

I have so many favorite summer fruits that it really is hard to choose just one but fresh cherries are definitely in my top three, along with figs and watermelon. You just can’t buy cherries or figs any other time where I live and watermelon grown out of season or imported is usually not very sweet, which is always disappointing. 

Last summer I got lucky though because I came across whole boxes of cherries at a discounted price and we ate like cherry kings for almost two weeks. Most of them were eaten straight from the box but the rest were turned into muffins, jam, tarts and, finally, this very ice cream. 

Fresh Cherry Ice Cream

If you don’t have fresh cherries, I’d substitute frozen ones but make sure to pit them if they aren’t already pitted. And doublecheck that the pitting process didn’t miss any pits if they are. Nothing will break a tooth faster than biting down on a hard cherry pit when you weren’t expecting one! 

Ingredients

12.5 oz or 354g cherries

1 cup or 240ml water

3/4 cup or 150g sugar

1 2/3 cups or 393ml whipping cream

Optional: 2 tablespoons gin – I used strawberry infused gin for more fruity flavor 

Method

Pit the cherries. Chop them roughly (which helps to check for pits you might have missed!) and set aside a few for garnish for when you are freezing the ice cream later. 

Pulse the cherries briefly in a food processor. You want small chunks, NOT puree. 

In a pot large enough to hold the cherry chunks, dissolve the sugar in the water over a medium high heat and then heat to boiling.

Add in the cherries.

Cook until the liquid is reduced by about half and the temperature just reaches 220°F or 104°C. This could take as many as 20-25 minutes.

Remove the cherries from the heat and transfer them to another vessel to cool. 

Once they are cool, whip the cream to soft peaks. 

Gently fold a couple of spoonsful of the cream into the cooled cherries.

Then fold the cherries and cream into the rest of the cream. 

Gently does it! You don’t want to deflate the air in the whipped cream. 

Add the gin, if using, and fold again. This isn’t essential but I think it makes the ice cream easier to scoop and serve. 

Spoon the ice cream into a freezer friendly container with a lid. Top with the reserved chopped cherries then cover and freeze until set. 

Remove from the freezer 15-20 minutes before you want to serve it. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 9th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter I. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the I recipes below:

• Sneha’s Recipe: Instant Urad Dal Flour & Rava Medhu Vadas 
• Blogghetti: Italian Chopped Salad 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Ice Apple Salad 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Ice Cream Wafflewiches 
• Food Lust People Love: Fresh Cherry Ice Cream 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Italian Ice 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Iced Gems 
• A Messy Kitchen: Irish Colcannon Mac and Cheese 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sun-Dried Tomato & Kale Italian Pasta Salad 
• Culinary Cam: Es Teler (Indonesian Drunk Ice)

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake 

D. Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam 

E. Whipped Espresso Cream 

F. Fish Sauce Roasted Chicken 

G. Extra Herby Gremolata 

H. Smoked Herring Spread 

I.  Fresh Cherry Ice Cream – this post!

Pin this Fresh Cherry Ice Cream! 

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Strawberry Vanilla Blueberry Ice Cream #foodieextravaganza

Sweet summer strawberries, juicy blueberries and vanilla bean ice cream bring a little red, white and blue to this week’s Fourth of July celebrations.

Let’s talk about obsessions. At our house, we are a little football crazy. Some of us, more than others. My husband came home from work last night a little early, just so he could have a short nap and stay up till midnight (Dubai time) for the START of the USA-Belgium World Cup game. I have no idea what time he came to bed. I checked the news first thing this morning though and read through the play-by-play of the game and some of the social commentary - Best quote: Tim Howard is the American Jesus! He saves! - and I couldn’t help laughing at all the Tim Howard jokes. It almost made me wish I had stayed up to watch. Almost. Darn this time difference!

There’s an English idiom that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. So I should even the score by admitting that I am throwing football rocks in my own ice cream glass house. I’ve got an obsession for making ice cream. But you probably knew that already after this post, and this post and, just yesterday, this post with an ice cream cookbook giveaway. (And those are just the ones I’ve shared!) With the churn, without the churn, it’s all good.

Truth is, I was hoping that this red, white and blue ice cream would be a celebration of a football victory so our two obsessions would dovetail so nicely.  After all, isn’t that what marriage is all about? The best advice books say to find something in common that you can enjoy together, right? Right?!

Today, I’m joining another great group of bloggers in an event we are calling Foodie Extravaganza and the ingredient for this month is blueberries. So how about let’s just celebrate blueberries and call it a day well spent! Make sure to scroll on down to see the whole list of blueberrilicious recipes. Many thanks to Alexis from We Like to Learn as We Go, our organizer for July’s extravaganza.

Ingredients
3 1/2 oz or 100g blueberries
3 1/2 oz or 100g strawberries
1 2/3 cups or 400ml whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup or 200g sweetened condensed milk
1 whole vanilla bean
2 tablespoons homemade vanilla extract (split vanilla bean infused vodka) or 1 teaspoon normal vanilla extract and two tablespoons vodka or alcohol of your choice (The alcohol helps keep the ice cream from freezing solid, which makes scooping easier.)

Method
Hull and chop your strawberries into pieces about the same size as your blueberries. Spread the strawberries and blueberries out in a single layer on a baking pan lined with cling film. Put the pan in the freezer until the fruit is frozen. This doesn’t take long so set a timer for about 25-30 minutes.

Once your fruit is frozen, split the vanilla bean with a sharp knife and scrape out the tiny little seeds. (Pop the empty bean pod in a couple of cups of sugar in an airtight container to create fabulous vanilla flavored sugar or add it to your vanilla extract.)

In your stand mixer or with electric beaters, whisk the cream, cream of tartar and the vanilla bean seeds until the cream thickens. Add the condensed milk and the vanilla extract. Whisk until stiff peaks form.

Reserve some blueberries and strawberries to decorate the top of the ice cream.  Ever so gently, fold the rest of fruit into the cream mixture.

Pour in an airtight container, top with the reserved fruit and freeze for several hours for soft serve or overnight for firmer ice cream.

Warm your ice cream scoop in a mug of hot water and serve.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the Foodie Extravaganza!  

We are a group of bloggers who love to blog about food! And each month we all incorporate one main ingredient into a recipe. This month the ingredient is blueberries. We hope you all enjoy our delicious blueberry foods this month and come see what next month's new ingredient is. If you would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

Make sure to check out these great recipes from our group! 

Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Cake @ We Like to Learn as We Go

Blueberry Orange Muffins @ Forty Eighteen

Homemade Blueberry Poptarts @ Our Thrifty Ideas

Blueberry Cheese Cake Pastries @ Summer Scraps

Lemon Blueberry Sandwich Cookies @ From Gate to Plate

Panna Cotta w/a Blueberry Compote @ The Freshman Cook

Strawberry Vanilla Blueberry Ice Cream @ Food Lust People Love

Blueberry Pie Ice Cream @ Love in the Kitchen

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake @ Keep it Simple, Sweetie

No-Churn Coffee Amaretto Ice Cream with Almond Marshmallows #IceCreamTuesday #MallowMadness

Creamy ice cream is so easy, even without an ice cream machine. This version uses whipping cream and dulce de leche, flavored with espresso powder and Amaretto. 

So here you have it, my first Ice Cream Tuesday post! At the instigation of the great Jenni Field of Pastry Chef Online, we are making ice cream that includes marshmallows in some form. You can find my own almond marshmallow recipe and instructions here.  

Make sure you scroll on down past the recipe to see all of the Ice Cream Tuesday Mallow Madness links! We are all posting today at different times so if a link isn’t live right now, please try back later in the day. 

The ice cream base recipe was adapted from one of Nigella Lawson’s on the BBC website. She makes it look so easy and it really is!  (You may need a VPN set to United Kingdom to watch.) But you can also find instructions here on Nigella.com.  

Ingredients

For the ice cream:

1 2/3 cups or 400ml whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2/3 cup or 200g dulce de leche or sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur

3 1/2 oz or 100g homemade almond marshmallows from this recipe. 

For the candied almonds:

2 2/3 oz or 75g almonds

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon butter

Method

In a small heavy saucepan, toast the almonds over a medium low flame until they start turn golden and smell toasted and lovely. Toss frequently to prevent scorching. Turn the fire off and sprinkle the sugar over the nuts.

Stir them around as the sugar melts to make sure they are all coated with the syrup that results. Add in the butter and stir again.

Pour the nuts out onto a greased baking pan, separate them and leave to cool. 

In your stand mixer or with electric beaters, whisk the cream, espresso powder and cream of tartar until the cream thickens.

Add the dulce de leche and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Add the liqueur and whisk again.

Reserve a few marshmallows and almonds to add on top of the ice cream.  Ever so gently, fold in the candied almonds and the marshmallows.

Put in airtight container.

Top with the reserved marshmallows and almonds and freeze for several hours or overnight.

Enjoy! 

Check out all the wonderful creamy, marshmallowy frozen treats we have for you today!

• Traverse City Cherry Cordial Frozen Yogurt from Kirsten of Comfortably Domestic
• Strawberry Marshmallow Ice Cream from Donna of Cookistry
• Horchata Ice Cream with Mocha Mallow Swirl from Allison of Decadent Philistines Save the World
• Kahlua Marshmallows and Marshmallow Sauce from Betsy of Desserts Required
• No-Churn Coffee Amaretto Ice Cream with Almond Marshmallows from Stacy of Food Lust People Love
• Blackberry Cheesecake Swirl Ice Cream from Jeanne of Inside Nana Bread’s Head
• Princess Badass Ice Cream from Sophia of NY Foodgasm
• Strawberry Cheesecake Key Lime Marshmallow Ice Cream from Jenni of Pastry Chef Online
• Frozen Coconut S’mores Bars from Karyn of Pint Sized Baker
• Fudge-Topped Marshmallow Ice Cream from Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Strawberry Ice Cream with Marshmallow Swirl and Toasted Walnuts from Dionne of Try Anything Once

And for you visual folks, thanks to Karyn at Pint-sized Baker, we've got clickable photos!

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