We have a few pecans, courtesy of my parents and their tree. I was trying to decide what to do with them, and as often happens I thought of dessert. Specifically ice cream. Then I thought about what would go well with pecans in ice cream…and came up with something amazing.
Cherry Pecan Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Mix a little less than 2 cups of milk [1], a little more than 1/3 cup of the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries, and 2/3 cup of sugar [2] in a big bowl. Use an immersion blender until the sugar dissolves or you get bored.
Add 2 cups of cream [3]. Dump into the ice cream maker.
After about 20 minutes, add 1 cup chopped pecans, 2/3 cup chopped dried cherries, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. After about five minutes it should be mixed up and you can freeze it.
[1] Most recipes call for whole milk, but 2% is what we have in the house, so that’s what I use.
[2] This is half the sugar the recipes in my booklet call for. The cherry juice adds plenty of sweetness.
[3] The recipes call for 3 cups, but cream is sold in 2 cup containers, so I use an extra cup of milk instead. The good thing is this makes the ice cream lower fat, but the texture isn’t as creamy (shocking). So feel free to use an extra cup of cream and one less cup of milk. I won’t tell.