Sweets | Cherry Garcia Ice Cream

Posted on August 4, 2011

Cherry Garcia is one of my all-time favorite ice creams, so I decided to make my own version. I went with a vanilla base flavored with Tahitian vanilla, which has a hint of cherry flavor. Then added Candied Cherries, made from fresh cherries. For the chocolate chunks, I chopped up a Scharffen Berger semisweet dark chocolate bar.

Yield: 2 pints / 1 quart

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream, divided

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of kosher sea salt

3/4 teaspoon Tahitian vanilla extract

heaping 1/3 cup semisweet dark chocolate chunks (chopped from Scharffen Berger bar)

heaping 1/2 cup candied cherries, quartered, well drained, chilled or frozen

 

Method

Pour 1 cup of the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from the heat and add the remaining 1 cup cream, 1 cup milk, and the extract.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker for about 30 minutes. The last minute, add in the chocolate chunks. As you are moving the ice cream to a storage container, layer in the cherries.

Note: I semi-freeze the cherries on a sheet pan before mixing to further prevent them from bleeding into the ice cream.

 

(Recipe by Brenda.)