Roasted Cherry Stracciatella Ice Cream
This roasted cherry stracciatella ice cream is super creamy, full of flavour & packed full of dark chocolate shards & amaretto soaked cherries. It's a grown up version of cherry garcia!
Servings: 1 Litre
Equipment
- Ice Cream Machine
- Blender
- Digital Food Probe
- Saucepan
- Baking Tray
- 1 Litre Container
Ingredients
Roasted Cherries
- 400 g Sweet Cherries (Pitted Weight - See Notes)
- 40 g Caster Sugar
- 15 g Honey
- 10 g Balsamic Vinegar
- A Pinch Of Sea Salt
- 150 g Double Cream
Custard
- 250 g Whole Milk
- 60 g Caster Sugar
- 60 g Skimmed Milk Powder
- 40 g Glucose Syrup
- ½ A Vanilla Pod (Or 2 tsp Vanilla Paste)
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt
- 65 g Egg Yolks
- 170 g Double Cream
Cherry Pieces
- 150 g Sweet Cherries (Pitted Weight)
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 40 g Amaretto (See Notes)
Stracciatella
- 60 g Dark Chocolate (72% Is Best!)
Instructions
Roasted Cherries
- Preheat an oven to 180°c/160°c fan (356°f/320f).
- Place the pitted cherries into a mixing bowl with the caster sugar, honey, balsamic vinegar & salt. Mix to combine then transfer to a baking tray.Keep the cherries whole!
- Roast the cherries in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until the fruit is soft and the juices have reduced into a thick, jammy syrup. Make sure to stir the cherries every 10 minutes or so, to stop them from catching on the tray.
- Once the cherries have cooked, carefully transfer them to a blender then add in the cream & blend into a smooth puree.Don't let the cherries cool for too long on the tray, as the juices will start to set!
- Transfer the puree to a container, cover then chill in the fridge overnight.
Custard
- Place the milk, 30g of the sugar, milk powder, glucose, vanilla & salt into a saucepan. Whisk to combine then set over a low heat and leave to get steaming hot. Stir the milk regularly with a spatula.Don't let the milk boil!
- Whilst the cream is heating up, place the yolks & remaining sugar into a mixing bowl then whisk to combine.
- Once the milk is steaming hot, pour half of it into the yolks, whisking as you do so. Pour the now tempered yolks into the pan of milk.
- Cook the custard over a low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon & has reached a temperature of 82°c/180°f.You'll need a digital food probe for this.
- Once cooked, take the custard off the heat & stir in the double cream. If you've used a vanilla pod, take this out of the custard at this point. Give the custard a quick blitz with a stick blender then pass into a container, through a sieve.
- Let the custard cool, stirring occasionally then place a piece of baking paper (or clingfilm) onto the custard’s surface & refrigerate overnight.This stops a skin forming on top of the custard.
Cherry Pieces
- Cut the cherries into small pieces (around 5mm) then add into a small bowl with the sugar & amaretto. Stir to combine then leave to soak in the fridge overnight.
Churning
- Add the cherry puree into the custard then whisk to combine. Pass the cherry custard through a sieve into a jug then pour into in an ice cream machine & start churning.
- Next, pass the soaked cherries through a sieve then leave to drain whilst you churn the ice cream. The liquid can be discarded, we just need the cherries!
- Whilst the ice cream is churning, roughly chop the dark chocolate & place into a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water then heat until just melted. Transfer the melted chocolate into a piping bag (cut a small hole in the end just before piping).You could also melt the chocolate in a microwave.
- When the ice cream has reached soft serve consistency (the temperature of the ice cream will be around -5°c/23°f), slowly pipe the chocolate directly into the ice cream, whilst it is still churning. The chocolate will freeze into shards as it mixes through the ice cream.
- Once all of the chocolate has been piped in, continue churning for another 30 seconds then add in the cherry pieces & use a spatula to fold them through the ice cream by hand.
- Transfer the ice cream to a 1 litre tub then leave to set in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.
Notes
1. Ice Cream Maker –To churn this ice cream, you’ll need to use an ice cream machine. The machine that I use is linked in the post above.
2. Cherries - Make sure to use sweet cherries for this recipe (not sour!). The weight called for by the recipe is the pitted weight, which means that you'll need to remove the stones from the cherries before weighing them. In total, for this recipe you'll need around 650 grams of whole cherries.
3. Skimmed Milk Powder – We’re using skimmed milk powder for this ice cream. I used Marvel dried skimmed milk.
4. Glucose Syrup – Glucose syrup helps make our ice cream easier to scoop. This is available in most supermarkets.
5. Chocolate – I like to use 72% dark chocolate for the stracciatella but feel free to use something lighter or darker, if you’d prefer.
6. Amaretto - I used Disaronno to soak the cherries but other brands will work as well. If you're not a fan of amaretto, you could use vodka instead. If you'd prefer to make this ice cream alcohol free, I'd recommend leaving the cherry pieces out, as they'll freeze solid without being soaked in alcohol.
7. Storage - This cherry ice cream is best eaten within 2 weeks of being made. If homemade ice cream is kept in the freezer for too long, it can start to turn icy.