What if I told you that you could make ice cream with only three ingredients plus your favorite mix-ins and it didn’t require fancy equipment? You can!
I’m on a major sugar bender right now. It’s unusual for me to eat sweets three days in a row but nothing beats my homemade Creamy No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream with Cherries and Chocolate.
Not movie candy. Not baked goods. This dessert is it for me. It’s incredibly delicious and I want to give you the “scoop” on how to make it at home.
If you can use a hand mixer and a spatula, you can make this yummy recipe. Preparing the ice cream is easy. Waiting about eight hours for it to freeze is the tough part.
If you prefer different fruit or candy mix-ins, you can swap them for the fresh cherries and chocolate. In fact, I almost wish I remembered to add chopped walnuts to this recipe, but that’s okay! I can just sprinkle them on top of my ice cream or get wild and create a sundae with whipped cream too.
Can you believe how amazing that scoop of ice cream looks topped with chocolate dipped cherries? As vanilla ice cream as the base, the possibilities for flavor combinations is limitless. Why not peanut butter and chocolate? Or a take on Smores using mini marshmallows? Or perhaps chunked pieces of apple pie from the grocery’s bakery department?
I was inspired to use the cherry-chocolate flavor pairing after purchasing a pound of fresh dark cherries from the grocery store. If you buy fruit that is in season, it forces you to use your creativity to build a recipe around it. What goes well with cherries? Say it with me…chocolate!
To keep the recipe inexpensive, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. You’ll also need two cups of cold, heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, and one can of sweetened condensed milk to make the ice cream base. Preferring big chunks of fruit in my ice cream, I halved each cherry rather than chopping them.
Be sure to lay out all of your kitchen tools and ingredients before starting this recipe, a method many chefs refer to as “Mise en Place.” This is French for putting everything in place. You’ll need to be organized so you can quickly move the Seran wrap covered ice cream pan to the freezer, which if you’re like me, means first clearing a flat space in the deep freeze.
To prepare the ice cream base, beat the heavy whipping cream in a large bowl until stiff peaks form on the hand mixer’s beaters. In a separate large bowl, mix a can of sweetened condensed milk and one tablespoon vanilla extract with spoon by hand.
Gently fold in the whipped cream a large clump at a time until all of it is gently incorporated into the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract mixture. If you mix too the whipped cream into the ice cream base in a hurried fashion, you’ll end up with sweet soup. Patience pays off.
I added about 2 cups pitted and halved fresh cherries and 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and gently mixed them into the ice cream base mixture. When finished, pour the bowl of ice cream into a glass loaf pan. Cover tightly with Seran wrap and freeze at least 6 up to 8 hours before serving. It was harden just like any other scoopable ice cream. This is not ice milk or soft serve ice cream.
Creamy No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream with Cherries and Chocolate
Ingredients
- Ice Cream Base:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 can sweetened condense milk
- 1 T. vanilla extract
- Mix-Ins:
- 2 cups pitted halved fresh cherries
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Pour heavy whipping cream into a large bowl.
- Using a hand mixer on a middle speed setting, mix the heavy whipping cream until it begins to thicken. You'll know it's done when it forms stiff peaks on the beaters. When finished, set the bowl aside.
- In a separate large bowl, add vanilla extract to the sweetened condensed milk and mix thoroughly. Set the bowl aside.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the whipped cream a little at a time into the condensed milk and vanilla mixture. Continue adding the whipped cream and gently continue mixing until all three ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add in the pitted, halved cherries and chocolate chips (or your mix-ins of choice)
- Pour ice cream base mixture into a glass loaf pan.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap.
- Freeze 6-8 hours.
I hope you enjoy this easy, no frills ice cream recipe. It’s super simple and inexpensive to make as a dessert for several people.
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