Cherry ice cream

Oh goodness, I’m becoming a morning person. This weekend I’ve woken up before 9 am, which though may not be too surprising to some, is quite astonishing to me. I’ve always relished in sleeping in late and lounging about in the most awful way before attempting to do anything on a day off. But having a job now where I’m up and going so early each week day has trained me and my sleep cycle. I’m almost fearful of going back to the old schedule when school starts up again and my hours change to later ones. We shall see.

It’s been so long since I’ve made ice cream! I was starting to feel bad for neglecting my beloved ice cream machine. Ideas for ice creams have now been plaguing me lately and I should write some of them down before I forget. Though I’m not overly fond of pumpkin ice cream for being too sweet, I’ve a hankering to try an espresso pumpkin ice cream – perhaps with chocolate chunks. I also need to work on a chai recipe I meant to do last autumn, but never got around to. Oh dear, the heat has me thinking of autumn-y things already.

Cherries have been on sale everywhere lately and I bought a large bag of them. But then I felt bad because Zach couldn’t have them (his allergy prevents him from having so many good fruits) so I decided to make cherry ice cream so he could taste them too – in a way.

Cherry ice cream:

1 pint heavy cream

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups cherries

Pit the cherries and put them in a food processor to puree. Heat the cream. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light in color and ribbony. Temper the egg mix into the warm cream and add cherry puree. Heat mixture until  165F/ 70C and mixture is thick, coating the back of a wooden spoon. Strain mixture and place in fridge until cooled down (preferably overnight), then put in ice cream maker per manufacturer instructions.

The flavor is very creamy and light. I kinda wish the cherry flavor was a bit stronger, but I supposed I’d have to use some sort of natural flavoring for that, or maybe more cherries next time.