It’s supposed to be hot today. Very hot. We’re talking temperatures near 110°F, which is pretty darn hot. And we, fellow scratchers, will be out in the heat late this afternoon as part of volunteering for our usual Monday night walk (nope, the walk is never cancelled; it happens every Monday, regardless of the weather or holidays), so we need something to help us keep our cool. Real cool. Ice cream is just the thing.
You might know that there are two basic sorts of ice cream, French-style and Philadelphia-style. French-style ice cream is made by heating cream and/or half-and-half, mixing with egg yolks, and reheating to make a custard, whereas Philadelphia-style ice cream is, for the most part, churned cream of half-and-half. Which is better? Well, really, they’re two different frozen desserts; although, for richness and creaminess, we think the French-style ice cream can’t be beat. That said, we like Philadelphia-style, too. It’s a little lighter, and has more of a fresh cream taste (not surprising, since the cream isn’t cooked).
And, for completeness, this recipe is based on a Philadelphia-Style Blueberry Ice Cream we made earlier this year.
Philadelphia-Style Cherry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 270 g pitted cherries (1 3/4 cups)
- 200 g sugar (1 cup)
- 15 g freshly-squeezed lemon juice (1 Tbs)
- 480 g heavy cream (2 cups)
- 240 g half-and-half (1 cup)
Instructions
- Place cherries, sugar, and lemon juice in a blender and blend smooth.
- Strain cherry mixture into a large bowl, then add heavy cream and half-and-half.
- Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight.
- Set up your churn and churn according to the manufacturer's directions.
- Pack into an airtight container and place in freezer for storage.
Ingredient discussion:
It’s fresh cherry season right now, so we’re buying and eating cherries hand-over-fist. Given how short the cherry season is, you should, too, so make this ice cream when you can get fresh cherries. The lemon juice is there to hold the color of the cherries, so don’t omit it; we’d recommend using fresh lemon juice, too, not the metallic-tasting bottled kind. Finally, we really prefer making ice cream with organic dairy products. They contain cream and milk, and nothing else.
Procedure in detail:
Blend cherries. We happen to have a high-speed blender, but a regular blender should be fine. You might have to blend a little longer. Place the pitted cherries in the blender, along with the sugar and lemon juice, and blend on high speed until very smooth, at least a minute, perhaps as long as 5 minutes.
Strain. Once blended, strain the mixture into a large bowl, or, if you have one, a large measuring cup with a spout, which will make it easier to pour into the churn later. We always like to strain our liquids if they’re going into a recipe that should be smooth. We surely wouldn’t want a stray piece of unblended cherry interfering with the smoothness of our ice cream.
Add dairy. Once the cherry mixture is strained, stir in the heavy cream and the half-and-half, and your ice cream base is basically done.
Chill. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours, preferably overnight. This pre-chilling will help the ice cream churn faster, plus, it’ll help meld the cherry flavor into the cream.
Churn. Set up an ice cream churn and churn the mixture according to the manufacturer’s directions. We happen to use a KitchenAid ice cream attachment, which makes great ice cream.
Pack. Scrape the ice cream out of the churn, pack into an airtight container, and store in the freezer. Of course, if there’s a bit of ice cream left in the churn, well, consider it a chef’s snack.
This ice cream is packed with a strong cherry flavor, plus, it’s nice and creamy. It really hit the spot when we were volunteering for our walk and it was over 105°F. We love the idea of using fresh, ripe, cherries, so bright in flavor, that we’d not even consider using frozen. Instead, we’d just make another flavor of ice cream using whatever fruit is in season and bursting with flavor. Five stars.
