Roasted Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (Video Recipe)

If you love fresh cherries as much as we do, chances are you also borderline worship the person who invented the cherry pitter. 

Before we invested in one (and they are not expensive — this is the exact one we have), we tried all kinds of hacks — from using a straw to using a paper clip. All of the hacks we tried were difficult and resulted in very sore, very red fingers.

I strongly recommend you save yourself the trouble and buy a cherry pitter. Your hands and fingers will thank you.

Roasting is so simple to do but brings out the best in fruits. It makes them sweeter, stickier and that much more flavourful.

To roast fresh cherries, simply place them in a baking dish lined with foil. It doesn’t matter what size baking dish you use, just as long as it allows the fruits to spread out in one even layer.

Bake at 400F and take out after 30 to 45 minutes, or when they’re soft and juicy. Remember to stir the cherries halfway, or every 15 minutes or so, to ensure that they don’t burn. That’s it!

I don’t add sugar or anything else when roasting fruits.

Did you know there are 1,000 varieties of cherries grown in the United States? I honestly don’t give it much thought because they’re usually just labeled “cherries” at the supermarket.

Whatever kind of cherry you choose, pick sweet and not sour ones for this recipe.

I personally haven’t tried substituting frozen for fresh cherries in this cherry chocolate chip ice cream recipe but I think you can use them if that’s what you have available.

When roasting, you probably need to add 5 to 10 minutes to your baking time.

Homemade, no-churn ice cream has two main ingredients: sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream. 

You want heavy cream to make your whipped cream, which has 36 to 40 percent milk fat, because it results to firmer, more stable whipped cream with stiff peaks that hold their shape longer. This is what gives your homemade ice cream that smooth texture and creamy taste.

In a pinch, you can use whipping cream (30 to 35 percent milk fat) but it will result to a lighter, softer texture.

Half & half can’t be substituted for heavy cream in no-churn ice cream recipes because it just doesn’t have enough fat content for whipping (10 to 18 percent).

To prevent your homemade ice cream from getting freezer burn or forming ice crystals:

– Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the ice cream’s surface before placing the lid. This also helps prevent freezer smells from seeping into your ice cream.
– Make sure you use a freezer-safe container with a proper, tight-fitting lid. 

It’s still safe to eat ice cream with a few ice crystals. It’s going to affect the texture and the taste though so you really want to protect it from air (its main enemy) and eat it within 2 weeks of making it.

Homemade ice cream lasts about 2 weeks in the freezer. Because it doesn’t have the same preservatives as store-bought ice cream, when it comes to homemade ice cream, the fresher the better. 

Some tips to keep it fresh for longer:
– Cover the top with plastic wrap (see above).
– Store in a relatively shallow and flat container vs. a deep dish. Ideally, you want a container that’s meant to store ice cream, like these ones.
– Store towards the back of your freezer so that its temperature can remain fairly constant, away from the door and never on the freezer door shelf.