Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream

Zak's grandparents mailed us a big box of cherries last week and we decided to try a new cherry vanilla ice cream.  The recipe we tried a year or two ago was ok, but froze very hard.  This new recipe was like the peach raspberry ice cream we made a few weeks ago--we basically used the base and then added cherries. My friend let us use her cherry pitter, which was awesome!  It is a great tool.  The ice cream was great, soft and creamy and perfect on a hot summer day.

1 c. milk
3/4 c. sugar + 1/8 c.
1 c. half & half
1/2 Tbl. vanilla
2 c. cream
2 c. pitted, quartered cherries
1 1/2 Tbl. vanilla

1.  Scald milk on stove until bubble form around the edges, remove from heat.
2.  Pour into a heat-proof bowl and stir in sugar and salt until it's all dissolved.
3.  Add in half & half, vanilla and heavy cream.
4.  Cover tightly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5.  Freeze ice cream according to ice cream maker's directions.  Once it has churned for about 20 minutes (starting to stiffen up), add pitted, quartered cherries and continue mixing another 5 - 10 minutes.
6.  Freeze in freezer for a few hours.

delicious!

Peach Raspberry Vanilla Ice Cream

We have been itching to make homemade ice cream, but it hasn't been very "summer-y" around these parts until the last few days.  After much debate, we decided on a vanilla ice cream with peaches from Zak's grandparents and raspberry jam or syrup to swirl in.  We ended up using the basic vanilla ice cream recipe from our ice cream maker book and went from there.  The result was simply delicious.  We were too eager to try it after a few hours in the freezer that we completely forgot about the sugar cones we bought.  Anyways, this was supposedly a 2 quart recipe, but we separated it into two containers to fit into the freezer, so I don't know how much total it made.  But it was worth it!

1 c. milk
3/4 c. + 2 Tbl. sugar
pinch of salt
1 c. half & half
1/2 Tbl. vanilla
2 c. heavy whipping cream
2 c. pureed peaches (2 fresh peaches)
about 4 Tbl. seedless raspberry jam (didn't have any homemade stuff, but Smucker's worked just fine)

1.  Scald milk on stove until bubbles form around the edges, remove from heat.
2.  Pour into a heat-proof large bowl and stir in sugar and salt until it's all dissolved.
3.  Add in half & half, vanilla and heavy cream.
4.  Cover tightly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5.  For the pureed peaches, Zak blended them with about a Tbl. of plain yogurt to smooth the texture out.  And then he heated up the jam in the microwave so we could pour it easily.
6.  Add peaches to refrigerated mixture and freeze according to ice cream maker's directions.
7.  We added the jam after about 20 minutes of mixing it, just on top and let it run for a few minutes.
8.  Freeze for at least 2 - 3 hours before tasting, it will be tempting though!

before freezing

it was a bit soft when we ate it, but it was so good (also check out the cute bowls Zak's parents got us, we love them)

delicious!

Honey Peach Frozen Yogurt

This week we made honey peach frozen yogurt because we had a bunch of peaches and we love peach ice cream. However, we decided to use vanilla yogurt instead of heavy cream so it would be a less fattening. This recipe was really simple and we added a few extra ingredients until it tasted how we wanted it to. Delicious!

3 c. peaches (peeled, pitted - - about 3 peaches)
1 (32 oz.) vanilla yogurt
1/4 c. honey
2 Tbl. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Place all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add mixture to ice cream maker and freeze according to directions.

Very simple! It did freeze rather hard, so it'd be a good idea to let it stand at room temperature for 5 - 10 minutes before serving. Also, we decided to blend all the peaches up because we hate having frozen chunks of peaches in the middle of the ice cream/yogurt, so if you want to blend half and have the other half cut up small, that would work too.

Oh, and I was a little exuberant with the food dye.

Vanilla Cherry Ice Cream

Yesterday we made an impulse purchase: a 4 qt., Rival ice cream maker for $20. It was on clearance at Wal-Mart and we decided we might as well give it a shot; we don't need to get the $100 Kitchenaid attachment just yet. Well, I had been looking at recipes for bing cherries (since we have a huge flat left, and some are starting to turn yucky), and came across a vanilla cherry ice cream recipe. And since that is both one of our favorite recipes, we decided to give it a shot. It's a very simple recipe and we are quite pleased with the results with both the recipe and the ice cream maker. We are now excited about making different types of ice cream this summer....

2 c. heavy cream
1 c. milk
3/4 c. white sugar
1 Tbl. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 c. fresh cherries, pitted and cut in half (we did quarters so it would be easier to eat)

1. Combine the cream, milk and sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in the extracts; add the cherries.
3. Pour into ice cream mixture and churn according to manufacturer's instructions.

churning away

after being frozen overnight

yum yum yum!

Zak has stained hands now, haha