Thursday, August 6, 2009

Make Life Sweeter: Cherry Garcia Ice Cream


August 1-7 is National Breastfeeding Week. This is very near and dear to my heart, as I have a 13 month old daughter whom I breastfed for just over a year. I won't lie, the first few weeks were incredibly difficult and painful, but once we made it over the hump, I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world. I truly believe that breastfeeding your child is one of the best things you can do for them, and I feel very fortunate that I was able to keep it up for as long as I did. In fact, I have been very emotional over the past few weeks about it; I guess I wasn't quite ready to give it up.

In any case, in honor of this week, I am participating in the Got Milk? event hosted by Linda of Make Life Sweeter. The rules are simple: make a sweet recipe that has milk as an ingredient. The hardest part for me was deciding what to make! When I made the swiss meringue buttercream over the weekend and had leftover egg yolks, I knew I would make ice cream. And then when I picked up a big bag of cherries at the grocery store, I quickly decided on Cherry Garcia ice cream. It is even more fitting since she absolutely loves ice cream and cherries (Not that she will get to eat any; she is allergic to eggs).

I didn't follow any particular recipe; I just made a basic vanilla ice cream and mixed in pitted and quartered cherries and shaved chocolate. The result was deliciously sweet! I have actually only had Ben and Jerry's once or twice, so I can't say how it compares, but this was definitely a winner!

Cherry Garcia Ice Cream
method from
Giada de laurentiis
  • 3/4 cup sugar, divided
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups pitted and quartered cherries
  • 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
  • 1 oz semi-sweet chocolate
Heat milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar in a medium saucepan over low heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring often.

Meanwhile, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until they are pale yellow and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup milk mixture to the eggs and stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into saucepan, and cook, stirring constantly, 10-20 minutes, or until mixture has thickened and it coats the back of a spoon. Add vanilla extract.

Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl and chill completely. Follow the instructions on your ice cream maker to churn. When finished, fold in cherries and chocolate. Freeze until ready to serve.


6 comments:

BMK said...

This looks delicious!

ErinsFoodFiles said...

That looks BETTER than B&J's!

pigpigscorner said...

Definitely looks better and B&J!

Siri said...

Yum! Good for you on sticking with it for so long. I can't get a hold of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in Norway, but that doesn't matter as long as you have an ice cream maker and some good recipes. Thanks for sharing!

Laura said...

Holy cow...I'm actually speechless. This looks sooooo incredibly good!

linda said...

Yum, looks so delicious with the chunks of cherry and chocolate!

Thank you for participating in Got Milk? I've added your entry to the round up...

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