Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream is the perfect way to cool off on a hot day — or any day, if you’re anything like me. I love my ice cream maker because it lets me have fresh, homemade ice cream in about 30 minutes. No trips to the store, no mystery ingredients. We enjoy ice cream year-round here, even when it’s not sweltering outside.
Local fresh cherries are finally in season and they’re wonderfully sweet. They’re delicious on their own, but they also make an incredible addition to this ice cream and other desserts like Cherry Almond Clafoutis. Cherries pair beautifully with almonds, so a splash of Amaretto — an almond liqueur — complements their flavor perfectly.
Homemade Ice Cream: Know What You’re Eating
One of the best reasons to make ice cream at home is knowing exactly what goes into it. Most homemade recipes rely on simple ingredients: cream, milk, sugar and fruit, sometimes a touch of vanilla or cocoa. Many store-bought frozen desserts contain long ingredient lists full of stabilizers, gums and sweeteners. While there are good commercial options, reading labels is essential. Making your own keeps the ingredient list short and natural.
What’s in That Ice Cream?
To illustrate, some premium “frozen dairy dessert” labels include milk and sugar — yes — but also corn syrup, whey, mono- and diglycerides, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, natural flavor, annatto for color, vitamin A palmitate and more. That’s a lot of additives. Homemade ice cream skips most of those extras and focuses on flavor made from real ingredients.
An Ice Cream Machine Can Save You Money
Buying an ice cream maker is a worthwhile investment. It pays for itself over time, especially with the rising cost of store-bought frozen desserts. If you own a machine, you know the convenience and the ability to experiment with fresh flavors. If you don’t, consider trying one — homemade ice cream is faster and more satisfying than you might expect.
No Machine? Make It in the Freezer
If you don’t have an ice cream machine, you can still make Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream at home. Prepare the mixture and pour it into a freezer-safe container. Place it in the freezer and stir every couple of hours as it firms up until it reaches an ice cream consistency. It takes longer, but the result is well worth the wait.
If you enjoy making frozen treats, you might also like other fruity and creamy recipes such as mango coconut ice cream (a non-dairy option), black currant ice cream, apricot mascarpone ice cream or no-sugar strawberry popsicles.
Recipe
Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream – Homemade Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup Amaretto or any almond liqueur
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups fresh ripe cherries pitted and sliced
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl combine milk, cream, sugar, vanilla extract and Amaretto.
- Using a hand blender on low, blend until the sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes.
- Pour the cream mixture into the bowl of an ice cream machine.
- Run the machine for 25 minutes.
- Turn the machine off and add the cherries and their juice.
- Run the machine for an additional 5 minutes, until the cherries are incorporated and the ice cream has a light pink hue.
- Serve immediately for a soft-serve texture, or transfer to a freezer-safe container with a lid and freeze until firm.
Notes
About 30 minutes of the prep time is ice cream machine time. A cherry pitter is handy if you’re processing a lot of cherries — they’re inexpensive and make pitting quick.
Nutrition
