Remember all those cherries I picked a few weeks ago- well they are showing up once again with their partner in crime....chocolate. This time in a cool melty treat, but now that I htink about it, could be a nice topping to my latest brownies too ;)
Cherries are such a treat by themselves. You can make them a meal and dessert just by washing them off and making them the centerpiece to the kitchen table. But this creation was just a fun treat we had this last week. My kids and I decided that we can never have too much cherry ice cream. It's been our dessert of choice lately and I'm not sad about it one bit!
One bite at a time. You don't need much to feel satisfied with such a delacacy. A little bit goes a LONG way and once you start making your own dairy-free ice cream- it's hard to go back and it's easy to imagine and want to create a 100 new combinations.
This is a pretty standard combo and since we have all those fresh cherries to use up this was a no brainer. I would usea bit more maple syrup that my vanilla version since it helps sweeten the cherries just the right amount. I also think if almonds or amaretto don't bother you that they would be an ammazing addition as well. Here's my simple combo and hope you give it a try xo
Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Recipe
{gluten, dairy, soy, egg, nut, seed, and refined sugar-free, VEGAN}
2 cans of full fat coconut milk cream - should amount to 2 cups of cream
(scoop out the cream and save/discard the water in the can)
1/2 vanilla bean pod scraped
1/2 lemon squeezed (1 large TB of juice)
1/3 cup of pure maple syrup or a mixture of honey/maple syrup if you are not vegan
hearty pinch of sea salt
1 TB of tapioca starch (this ingredient helps the ice cream to be so much easier to scoop from the freezer and even I think allows it to be creamier and melt just the right way instead of it being too hard or icy- you can omit it too, but from my experiments I like it better added!)
1 1/2 cup of finely chopped cherries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup of dark chcolate chunks or use mini chips by ENJOY LIFE
In a small saucepan, warm up the coconut cream with the rest of the ingredients, make sure to whisk in the tapioca starch well and as the milk warms under the flame it will slowly thicken the cream. DO NOT warm too much to a boil. Just warm enough for the starch to thicken and turn off the heat and let it cool off.
Then use an immersion or regular blender and blend the mixture to get a bit frothy and bubbly.
You can stir cherries into already mixed cream mixture or blend together with cream when you blend it all together. I usually add in half of the cherries before blending and then have half of the mixture just stirred in last.
Pour into a container and let full cool off in the fridge for 2 hours- overnight, or in the freezer for 30 minutes. After the cream has cooled down a bit you can add the chocolate chunks or chips right before you process together in the ice cream maker.
Then if you have not invested in the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker- then you might want to in time for this summer. I got this as a birthday gift last year and have enjoyed using it. The instructions before you make the ice cream is to deep freeze the mixture container. It must be super cold! Then once you do that you can hook up the container and follow the instructions- which for this ice cream includes just pouring in the mixture while it has already started spinning. This will take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to thicken up the ice cream. It is like soft serve and ready to top or eat, but if you want a more scoop-able ice cream then let the machine run for the allotted time and then pour into a container and put in the fridge and within 30 minutes it will be a perfect scoop!
Hope you are enjoying summer for all it's fresh and warm gifts! Much love as always xoxo
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