Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream

Are you a fan of creamy, decadent desserts? Look no further than this delicious cherry chocolate ice cream recipe! Bursting with the sweetness of cherries and the richness of smooth chocolate, this homemade ice cream is the perfect way to indulge your sweet tooth on a warm summer day. Whether you’re hosting a backyard barbecue or simply looking for a delicious way to cool off, this cherry chocolate ice cream recipe is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. So grab your ice cream maker and get ready to whip up a batch of this delectable treat!

This delicious homemade ice cream is fairly straightforward. It uses a deviation of my super delicious chocolate ice cream as a base and in the last minute of churning I add in some cherries and chocolate chips. The great thing about this recipe is that this classic pairing is always a hit with friends and family.

While this cherry chocolate ice cream has, well…chocolate of course, if you are looking for a more cherry-solo style ice cream then you might like my even easier recipe for a spring favorite wild cherry ice cream!

What You’ll Need

As with all of my ice cream recipes on Scoops of Delight, you need an ice cream machine. The exact style and brand does not matter too much but you do want one that is decent quality. I personally use the Smeg ice cream maker. The only issue with it is that you need to already have a Smeg stand mixer – which can be quite pricey. While there are plenty of recipes for no-churn ice creams, I often find a properly churned ice cream magnitudes better.

Some other things you will need for this homemade ice cream recipe are:

• Mixing Bowls
• Whisk
• Steel Pans (I personally find steel the best for making ice cream, but you can use any as long as you are careful about the temperature.
• Rubber Spatula
• Sealable Container (The best thing to use to store homemade ice cream is plastic in my opinion. You want something that is more flat than tall as it provides more surface area to quickly freeze in a home freezer).
• Kitchen Scale (optional, but recommended as almost all of my recipes use metric as it is more precise than imperial for most home cooks).

Ingredients For Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream

Like many other homemade ice cream recipes, you don’t actually need that many ingredients. Unlike cooking when you sometimes need a dozen or more ingredients, ice cream usually consists of a base of 4-5 ingredients, plus the flavor.

• 400 ml Heavy Cream
• 200 ml Milk (full fat)
• 150 grams Sugar
• 4 Egg Yolks
• 300 grams Cherries (pitted, destemmed, and sliced. Slice them and save the juice that comes out. You can easily use frozen cherries in this recipe which work much better than canned. Of course if you can do fresh than go for it, but in my opinion frozen works just as well).
• 2 grams Vanilla Powder
• 1 pinch Salt
• 85 grams Bittersweet Chocolate (as you can see in the photo I’m using 56%, but you can go higher if you want to make it even darker).
• 50 grams Milk Chocolate Chips (For this recipe I use Callebaut No 823 which is a a very high quality callet and really enhances the entire dessert).

Steps To Make Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream At Home

The first step is to heat the milk, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla powder together in a pan. You do not want it to reach a boil, or even a hard simmer, just warm it enough to where you see steam trailing up from the surface.

Place your bittersweet chocolate into a cup or bowl and pour over some of the hot milk mix. Let sit for a couple minutes then whisk everything together until homogenous. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks. Pour the hot chocolate mix over the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Use a rubber spatula to ensure you don’t leave a lot of custard in various bowls.

Add the chocolate custard back into the pan with the rest of the hot milk. Also add in any of the cherry juice from when you sliced the cherries. Bring the heat up to medium and stir until thickened.

Pour your chocolate custard into a bowl through a mesh strainer. This will remove any bits of chocolate that didn’t melt or any egg that got a bit too hot and cooked itself. You should be left with a rich, smooth base. Place the bowl in the fridge, and don’t remove until it is very, very cold.

Time To Churn!

Place your very cold chocolate custard into your ice cream machine and let it run according to its instructions. All machines are different so while mine requires 30 minutes, yours might be longer or shorter.

In the last minute of churning add in your sliced cherries and chocolate chips. Then turn off your machine. Pour the soft churned ice cream into a sealable container and place into the coldest part of your freezer until completely solid.

When ready to serve just grab your favorite ice cream scoop and add a few boules to a nice serving bowl. You can garnish with whatever you like!

For my homemade cherry chocolate ice cream I decided to garnish with some whole cherries and a sprinkling of mixed chocolate curls.

Fun Facts

1. Cherry chocolate ice cream is a relatively new flavor, having been introduced to the US market in the 1980s.
2. The combination of cherries and chocolate is said to have originated in Germany, where it is a popular cake filling (Black Forest Cake).
3. In addition to fresh cherries, some other cherry chocolate ice cream recipes also include cherry preserves or cherry liqueur to intensify the flavor. Feel free to add these to your homemade ice cream and really make it your own.

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