Vanilla Custard Ice Cream with Fresh Cherries and Hint of Chocolate

Today is national ice cream day (July 21st) and thought of posting my recent ice cream made at home. This ice cream is unique from my other preparations, were I added egg custard with loads of fresh cherries pitted and chopped. Also added chocolate bites to enhance the flavor. Trust me on the whole it tasted similar to branded ones n my H who hates cream also enjoyed a scoop :-), let’s move on to the recipe…

Ingredients

Heavy/Fresh Cream – 2 Cups
Egg Yolks – 3 Number
Fresh Cherries – 1 Cup (Pitted and chopped)
Whole Milk – 1 n 1/4 Cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Condensed Milk –  3/4th Cup
Sugar – 1/4 Cup or as needed
Chocolate Chips/Dark Chocolate – 2 Tbsp (Optional)

Method

• Wash, pit and chop the cherries as well Pic 1.
• Use potato masher and mash as shown in Pic 2
• Boil the milk by this time it reduced to 1 cup Pic 1.
• Whisk egg yolks and 2 Tbsp of sugar in a separate bowl Pic 1.
• Add hot milk gradually to it and strain the mixture.
• Now bring to boil in medium flame until it custards Pic 2.
• The correct custard process is the mixture turns shiny, smoothie and coats well in back of spoon.
• By this time remove from heat and add vanilla essence.
• Allow to cool, by this time the custard starts setting.
• Now whip the cream n condensed ilk to soft peaks by adding remaining sugar and more.
• Once attained soft peaks add chilled egg custard Pic 3.
• Whip for fraction of seconds (not for longer time), now add chopped cherries n fold well Pic 4.

How to make chocolate bites

• I used chocolate chips and frozen it for 30 minutes before grinding.
• Use food processor/mixie n grind to coarse powder Pic 5.
• Finally add this to cream/custard mixture Pic 5 and freeze it at least 3-4 hrs to set well.
• In first 1 hour i mixed it twice by taking it out from freezer.
• This way makes to blend the cherries and other flavors well.
• Scoop the cream n enjoy it chilled 🙂

Notes

1. You can add 2 tsp of corn flour/starch or All purpose flour/Maida in the egg custard as thickening agent.
2. If using flour then mix it with 2 Tbsp of cold milk and add it to the boiling custard mixture.
3. For basic vanilla ice cream skip cherries and add one more tsp of vanilla essence.