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This sweet and slightly tart Cherry Ice Cream is made with just a handful of easy ingredients.
No custard base, no eggs, no cooking time, just a quick whirl in the blender with sweet cream, sugar, and cherries.
Cherry Ice Cream
Fresh, sweet cherries are one of my favorite fruits, but the hassle of removing the pits, combined with their limited availability makes their frozen counterparts perfect for this quick and easy ice cream recipe.
Homemade Ice Cream is the perfect dessert for any occasion and as any of my friends will attest, I’ll use any possible excuse to make a fresh batch.
The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!
Cherry Ice Cream Recipe
- frozen sweet cherries
- heavy cream
- milk
- sugar
- kosher salt
- vanilla extract
I make this ice cream both with and without the chocolate swirl. The chocolate is optional, but I highly recommend it. Isn’t everything better with a chocolate swirl?
My favorite homemade ice creams are the ones that require very little effort on my part. At least half of the reason I love making my own ice cream is because it is often easier than a trip to the grocery store.
Stir together the cream and sugar along with whatever flavors you are craving and just pour it into the machine. Nothing beats a batch of homemade ice cream straight out of the machine.
Here are a few more of my favorite easy ice cream recipes:
Oreo Ice Cream is not your everyday cookies and cream ice cream. (Although don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a batch of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream too!) The base of this ice cream tastes just like Oreo cookies, not like vanilla ice cream with chunks of Oreos.
Fluffy, creamy Berry Banana Ice Cream is filled with strawberries and bananas. It is the perfect way to cool off this summer.
Chocolate Chip Toffee Bits Ice Cream is exactly that – a homemade vanilla ice cream fully loaded with miniature chocolate chips and toffee bits. This is the best ever chocolate chip ice cream. You’re going to love it.
With over 160 ice cream recipes here to choose from, there’s sure to be an ice cream for everyone! If you’re new to making ice cream, the best and easiest vanilla ice cream is a great place to start.
These are my favorite inexpensive containers for storing ice cream. They’re perfect for gifting (who doesn’t love homemade ice cream?) storage, re-using, etc. I write the flavors on the lids with a sharpie and it washes off with dish soap.
I have more ice cream scoops than I can keep track of at this point and I definitely play favorites. This ice cream scoop does the best job ever of cutting through firm ice cream and still delivers a pretty scoop. It gets bonus points for being one of the least expensive scoops I own as well.
Don’t miss our Ice Cream Maker Review for all the information you need to find the BEST Ice Cream Maker for your needs. Spoiler alert – our top-rated machine under $50 just might surprise you. It sure surprised me!
Cherry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 16 ounces frozen sweet cherries about 3 cups worth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Swirl Ingredients
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil
Instructions
- Combine the cherries, cream, milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla in the blender. Puree until completely smooth. Serve immediately for soft-serve ice cream or pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Chocolate Swirl Instructions
- While the ice cream is churning, combine the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a small glass bowl. Microwave for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. If needed, heat an additional 20-30 seconds. Stir until smooth.
- Let cool a bit at room temperature while the ice cream finishes churning. (If it solidifies too much to drizzle while waiting, reheat for 10-15 seconds and stir again.)
- When the ice cream finishes churning. Transfer about a third of the ice cream to an airtight container and drizzle generously with about a third of the melted chocolate. Repeat twice. Freeze until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 5/31/15 – recipe notes and photos updated 7/6/22}
This really looks incredible! It is all flavors my family loves. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. Pinning to try this summer!
This ice cream looks like it's made of win. Cherry with chocolate swirls, oh yeah.
Very nice Mary! I bet it tastes pretty great on these hot almost-summer days.
Oh man, this would be heaven.
Velva
I'm an instant gratification kind of girl, so any ice cream that doesn't have a custard base that needs to be made and cooled is my kind of recipe!
Mary, I love how simple this is! I love cherries, and this looks like the perfect way to enjoy them this summer. YUM!
OMG! This is soooo good! I doubled the recipe and I used some pitted frozen cherries (quartered)from grandma’s tree. I used half the cream and the other half was fat free half and half, and I used fat free milk because that is all I had and it is so amazing! Blew away the peach ice cream we had a couple weeks ago! Super easy too!
Very tasty, thank you!
I like but I recommend putting a whole container of cream and skip the salt. Also you only need a cup of cherries. It’s better to use fresh cherries rather than frozen.
Isn’t it fun to adapt different recipes to best suit our tastes?
This tastes amazing! I put it in the ice cream freezer and it turned out great. Next time, I think I’ll just throw in a handful of mini-chocolate chips rather than doing the swirl. Definitely one I’ll do again. Thank you!
I’m so glad that you love the ice cream, Glenda!
I never want to not have this ice cream in my freezer – it’s unbelievable! I added some halfed cherries and a cup of yogurt to feel like I’m eating a “healthier” dessert, and two tablespoons of amaretto. This recipe is the best!
I’m glad you’re enjoying the ice cream, Lucia.
Incredibly easy and turned out perfect. Great flavor!!
I’m glad you liked it, Terry.
The recipe says to puree until smooth, but your photo shows chunks of cherries. Am I missing something here?
The photo actually shows the optional chunks of chocolate, Rose. Happy ice cream making!
I”m new to ice cream making… I’m on my 4th batch with a new machine and the results are fantastic so far! Would you recommend thawing the cherries before puree or blending frozen? Thanks!
I’d probably let them thaw a little bit at room temp, but then just puree them.
Thank you for sharing these fabulous recipes. The Orange-Chocolate and cherry ice creams are out of this world! So easy too. We all love Barefeetinthe kitchen.
I’m so very happy to hear this! Enjoy the ice cream.
Great recipe, thanks for sharing! Love how easy it is- when I think “cool refreshing homemade treat”, the prep work of cooking and using eggs isn’t what I have in mind. It doesn’t have cups of sugar to mask the natural fruit sweetness, the cherries give a ton of flavor. I have also made using coconut milk instead of cream/milk for a dairy-free version, the cherries did a nice job of balancing the coconut flavor- even those who loved the dairy version couldn’t resist the coconut milk option. If you’ve gotten as far as reading reviews- make the recipe, you know you want to try it!
I’m so glad you liked the recipe, Hannah.
I’m going to try this tonight but with fresh cherries… any adjustments to make versus frozen?
It should work perfectly with pitted, fresh cherries, Jessica. Enjoy!
Haven’t made this yet, but it looks to be fantastic! I was 2ondering how much this makes. I have a 2 quart ice cream maker, will this work?
Thanks!
That should work perfectly, Tracy.
Hi Mary, could I use Bing cherries and just pit them, and chop them? Thank you. Do I need to freeze them?
Fresh cherries will work as well, Kris. Happy ice cream making!