Summer is at it’s peak here. And we are somehow managing to get through this unbearable scorching heat and we are almost hitting the 46 degree Celsius. No respite from the heat at least from the weather Gods. Rather they are playing tricks on us by sending some terribly sparse clouds in the sky. But still no relief.

And with that, the baking spirits are also getting lazy to turn on the oven and warm the house with added heat. And hence comes a call for ice creams and more frozen desserts. A simple, fast and cool dessert to whip up in no time. And a recently purchased ice cream maker makes the life more simpler and effort less, with yielding creamy and delish results.

The best part, and probably the only one with Summers, at least which I found is that the weather brings a variety of juicy, re-hydrating, sweet and plump fruits, such as melons, cherries, plums, apricots and mangoes. And all of them are dearing to me without any disparity.

They don’t last for long, probably would stay for 2-3 months, except for mangoes which remain for little longer. So, every year I always remain in hurry to bake/cook with these lovely fruits of the season, to make maximum out of their short appearance.

I had my copy of The Perfect Scoop from a very long time with me, but I don’t know why I had never tried any recipe from this book. Yeah, but it never collected dirt sitting on my bookshelf, because I always loved to flip through the pages  dreaming about those creamy ice creams and almost drooling through those attractive pictures.

But this time, when cherries appeared in the market, I knew about the first recipe, I was going to try from this book. I found this cherry and almond ice cream a kind of love at first sight, because it reminded me of my childhood days, when we used to have fruit ice cream, which was especially churned in manual ice cream makers.

And when I made this ice cream and had the first spoon, it straightaway took me to those memory by-lanes of childhood. I could almost felt that taste from the childhood memories.  A spoon full of this rich creamy and melt in your mouth ice cream is good enough to make you forget this insanely hot weather.

Recipe minimally adapted from The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients

250 ml whole milk
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
500 ml heavy cream
1/4 cup of whole almonds, toasted and chopped
5 large egg yolks
1/2 vanilla bean slit
200 gm cherries, pitted
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. In a saucepan, mix half of the cream, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, vanilla bean and milk and warm on medium heat. Take off from stove, cover and let steep at room temperature for one hour.
2. In a bowl, add the remaining cream with a sieve set on top of the bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Rewarm the cream and milk mixture and slowly add that to egg yolks, whisking continuously. Put this on medium heat and continue stirring, until the custard becomes thick and coats the back of spoon. Take off from heat and pour the custard through the sieve onto the cream and mix vigorously.
4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in fridge, preferably overnight.
5. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar, balsamic vinegar and cherries and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally, until all the juice from cherries is absorbed and it forms into a jam like consistency. Let cherries chill in fridge.
6. Freeze the chilled mixture in ice cream maker as per the manufacturer’s instructions.
7. Once ice cream is ready, fold in the balsamic cherries and almonds.