I had cherries and whipping cream left over from last week’s Summer Chiller. I’ve made ice cream a few times this summer, and I thought I’d try making it with cherries. Nothing goes better with cherries than chocolate, so I threw in some milk chocolate chips. I actually cobbled together a few different recipes to come up with this. I also used a no-cook, eggless ice cream base this time.
Chunky Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
2 cups whipping cream or half and half
2 tbs almond extract
1 cup pitted and chopped cherries macerated in 1/4 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk chocolate chips
Pit and chop cherries. Stir in 1/4 a cup of sugar. Refrigerate for one hour.
Combine milk, cream, sugar and almond extract. Stir briskly, about two minutes until sugar is dissolved. (Undissolved sugar crystals may be a cause of large ice crystal formation.) Pour into a 1-gallon ice cream freezer, and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. When ice cream is partially frozen, add in cherry mixture and chocolate chips. (Again make sure all the sugar in the cherry mixture is dissolved.) Finish freezing. Put in a covered container and place in the freezer several hours to harden.
I guess I’ve been on summer vacation for a few days. I never did get around to doing last Thursday’s Girl Talk. And I didn’t plan ahead for this week’s Summer Chiller. When I finally decided I should make something last night, I had to make due with ingredients on hand. I had all the things to make vanilla ice cream.
A lot of vanilla ice cream recipes call for raw eggs. I don’t want to give my family salmonella, so I found a recipe with a cooked egg base which technically makes this a frozen custard.
Vanilla Ice Cream (Frozen Custard) Recipe
6 eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
crushed ice (if required by manufacturer for your ice cream freezer)
rock salt (if required by manufacturer for your ice cream freezer)
1. In medium saucepan, beat together eggs, milk, sugar and salt. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat a metal spoon with a thin film and reaches at least 160 degrees F.
2. Cool quickly by setting pan in ice or cold water and stirring for a few minutes.
3. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least one hour.
4. When ready to freeze, pour chilled custard, whipping cream and vanilla into 1-gallon ice cream freezer can.
Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions using six parts ice to one part rock salt. Transfer to freezer containers and freeze until firm.
From the UNL Extension
I got this all cooked and cooled then realized I’d made an oversight. I have an electric ice cream maker that uses a frozen bowl instead of ice and rock salt to freeze the ice cream. The bowl is supposed to go in the freezer for 12 hours before making the ice cream. So although I had every intention of finishing this last night, I had to wait until this morning.
It took almost as long to find the other pieces to my ice cream maker, as it did for the ice cream to freeze. It was scattered all over the kitchen in different cupboards. But I finally got it put together. About 45 minutes later it was thick and creamy. It’s still pretty soft at this point, so it’s best to let it harden in the freezer for a few hours or overnight. But you can eat it right away too.
While the ice cream was churning, I made blueberry sauce for it.
Blueberry Sauce Recipe
1 C water
1 C sugar
1 C blueberries
Stir sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add blueberries. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid thickens to a thin syrup. If you get distracted like I did, and the sauce gets too thick, just add some water back in.
Now if you have the time and an ice cream maker, this is one food that if you make it yourself, you can definitely save money. A premium gallon of ice cream in the store can be over $5 these days. It only cost about $2.50 cents to make this. And if you’re worried about what’s in your food, you can control that too by using organic ingredients, and this of course has no preservatives in it. You could even make it sugar-free by substituting Splenda.
Fourth of July is just a few days away, and as they say, what’s more American that apple pie? But I didn’t want to peel and cut up apples and make pie crust. I didn’t want to warm up the house by leaving the oven on for an hour either. So, I came with the Apple Pie Ala Mode Freezer Tart. I don’t often just make up my own dishes, but this one is a Mommie Daze original, sort of. It’s based on other frozen desserts I’ve had in the past.
Everything you need to make this you can buy pre-made from the store.
2 Pre-made graham cracker pie crusts
1 can of apple pie filling
1 gallon of vanilla ice cream
1 jar of caramel sauce
1 tub of Cool Whip
I did actually make my own crust, because I wanted to put it in a 9×13 dish instead of two separate pie tins. And since it was only 50 degrees when we woke up this morning, I didn’t mind turning the oven on for 10 minutes. It’s summer, but it’s felt more like apple pickin’ season around here lately.
Graham Cracker Crust for 9×13 Pan
2 c. crushed graham crackers
1/4 c. white sugar
1/2 c. melted butter
Stir together. Press into bottom of baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
In the past, I crushed graham crackers in my food processor. It gets the job done fast, but digging it out of the the cupboard and washing it afterward is a pain. It’s a lot easier to put the crackers in a big Ziploc bag, and crush them with a rolling pin. I let my son do that part. It’s a good outlet for a three-year-old boy who likes to pound on things.
Either you’ve got the store bought crust or your homemade one ready to go. Now you need to soften the ice cream, and chill your can of apple pie filling in the fridge. Sit the ice cream out on the counter for about a half an hour. It may take a little longer or a little less, depending on the room temperature.
Once the ice cream is soft spread it in a layer about 1/2 to inch think. (If you make your own crust, make sure it’s completely cooled first.) I found it easier to press the ice cream down into the crust with a spatula rather than actually spread it. I only ended up using about 2/3 of the gallon. Once the ice cream is spread out, put the tart in the freezer for an hour to let the ice cream firm up.
After an hour take the tart out of the freezer, and the pie filling out of the fridge. Spread the filling over the ice cream. Then spread the Cool Whip over the pie filling. Cover and return to the freezer for about six hours until firm or overnight.
When ready to serve, top with caramel sauce. (Mine actually has butterscotch on it, because I accidentally grabbed the wrong jar at the grocery and didn’t notice until I got home. Still tastes good!)
I was playing with my 3 year-old son this morning when suddenly he grabbed my face between his hands, pulled it close to his and with a big grin on his face said, “Mommie, you ice cream!” Then he stuck out his tongue and licked my cheek. Nothing has ever been so sweet and so gross at the same time.
