 I'm not really a food blogger. I'm a writer who loves food, and my next book is about a disgraced Food Network chef with a mother gone off the rails. So, I thought I'd get some practice on the recipe front. To wit: this scrumptious cherry chocolate ice cream with chocolate loaf dessert. I made it. From scratch. Yes, I'd hate me too, if I were you. It was tasty. If you're feeling up to it, I beg you to make it. It's worth it. You'll make all kinds of yum yum sounds.  Here's the fresh pitted cherries for the ice cream. If you don't have a cherry pitter, you can do this with a knife. My tried and true method: My husband does it. Because I'm not really a food blogger, I didn't take any photos of the maceration process. You just bring some water and sugar to a boil to melt the sugar. Then you take it off the heat and add vanilla and brandy. If you're going to be serving this to the kiddies, just skip the brandy. If you don't like brandy (and I don't) take a chance and add it anyway. This just tastes good, not boozy. Here's the exact measurements.
What's not to love? By the way, making this desert is not hard. It's just not fast. After you put the cherries in an airtight container, pour the cooled brandy mixture over them and let them get really cold in the fridge. I did it overnight. Did I say this wasn't quick?  I didn't take photos of the half and half, cream and sugar simmering on the stove for the ice cream base either. I gotta get in the swing of this...You simmer it just long enough for the sugar to melt, take it off the heat, add vanilla and let it cool. I put it in a smaller bowl, then put the smaller one into a bigger one full of ice. After it's completely cold I put it in the fridge for at least three hours. You can also skip the ice bowl thing entirely and just put the mix in the fridge. But you'll need to let it get cold overnight. Yeah, this isn't an instant gratification thing, but its easy as pie. Ok, it's a hell of a lot easier than pie, but takes longer. The good news is, most of the time is spent just sitting there, doing nothing more strenuous than waiting. After the cream mix is cold, pour it into your ice cream maker and mix away. This is what mine looks like after I add the cherries and chocolate. I'm messy.  Anyhoo - while your cream mix is mixing away, chop up a cup (if you haven't eaten them all already) of the booze soaked cherries and a half cup of chopped dark chocolate. I used bittersweet chocolate chips from Whole Foods which saves me from having to chop it. When your ice cream base is half done (mine takes 30 minutes total so I plop in the add ins after 15 minutes) add your chopped up cherries and chocolate and let it finish freezing. My ice cream maker didn't really like the chocolate chips. It made bump bump sounds and the lid kind of moved sideways a hair. I did what I always do when things like that happen. I ignored it.  Here's what it looks like all done, ready to get scooped out and put into the freezer. You can eat it now if you can't wait. It'll be soft serve though and not like "from the carton" ice cream.  This is my husband scraping it into the tupperware. He does this because he thinks I leave too much in the ice cream maker. And, because he's really nice. If I'm making ice cream for company I usually let it freeze overnight. But, it's really fine after a few hours. We ate this the same night and no one was worse for the wear.  I made a chocolate loaf cake to go with the ice cream, but feel free to make brownies, or cookies, or nothing but the ice cream. I tried to make this look pretty so I garnished with a couple of the brandied cherries.
This ice cream recipe came from my BFF what's his name who has a food site that I just discovered called simplecomfortfood.com. Check it out. I posted the recipe on my personal face book page but I will add it below for your convenience. I will also post my chocolate loaf recipe later this week. Cause I'm that kinda gal.
Make sure you freeze the ice cream maker bowl. Do this the night before. I keep mine in the freezer all the time. I know, I'm ridiculous. I didn't follow the directions of this recipe so I'll tell you what I did. You can refer to his website if you'd prefer to follow his. Add the milk (I never use milk, I always use half and half, the more fat, the better I like it), cream and sugar to a saucepan, mix with a whisk occasionally over medium heat until it simmers and all of the sugar dissolves. Take off heat and add in the vanilla extract, squirt of red food coloring and either put it in the ice bowl or let it come to room temp, then put it in the fridge. I didn't use the red food coloring. I could say its because I don't believe in dye, I'm a purist. But that would be a lie. I forgot. Did I say I don't follow directions? After its cold, pour it into your ice cream maker and do all the stuff I already told you. Viola!
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