Homemade vanilla ice cream with cherries and dark chocolate. Just like Ben and Jerry make!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
When we first moved to Colorado almost 20 years ago, I was so excited to have a Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Shop in town. I’m even more excited to share this Copycat Cherry Garcia Ice Cream with you!
Back then my favorite flavor was Cherry Garcia, and it still is, all these years and ice cream flavors later.
If you’ve never had Cherry Garcia ice cream before, you really must try this recipe! Vanilla ice cream with shaved dark chocolate and cherries.
As far as I’m concerned, chocolate and cherries are a match made in heaven. Adding them to ice cream is even better!
I use the Cuisinart ice cream maker and I love it. If you’re in the market for an ice cream maker, I highly recommend it.
I adapted this recipe straight from Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and Dessert Handbook, so you know it’s going to be as authentic as it gets.
Their recipe calls for fresh cherries, but I find that fresh fruit freezes so well in ice cream, it’s kind of unpleasant to sink your teeth into it.
So I used frozen cherries, which surprisingly end up being easier to bite into once they’re mixed in to the ice cream.
Any dark chocolate bar will work in this recipe, but I find that Hershey’s Special Dark tends to be a bit waxier than other brands, which means it shaves more easily. But ultimately, you can’t go wrong no matter what kind of chocolate you use.
If you only make one homemade ice cream this summer, make this Copycat Cherry Garcia Ice Cream!
Be sure to save this recipe to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Ingredients
- Dark chocolate
- Frozen cherries
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Heavy cream
- Milk
- Vanilla
- Salt
Copycat Cherry Garcia Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup shaved dark chocolate
- 1/3 cup frozen sweet dark cherries halved
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Place the shaved chocolate and cherries in separate bowls, cover and refrigerator while you mix the ice cream.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until completely blended. Whisk in the cream and milk, then stir in the vanilla and salt.
- Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.
- About 2 minutes before the ice cream is done, add the chocolate and cherries. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe container and freeze until ready to serve.
Video
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19 comments
Sam
Hello Danelle,
I’m excited to try your recipe. Do I thaw the frozen cherries first before putting them in the ice cream?
Zee
Can I leave out the eggs
Joey
I’ve just made this. Really easy to follow. It needs a few more cherries to be similar to the UK version of cherry garcia in my opinion. But great recipe. Thank you!
Peter Robertson
Hello Danelle.
I would love to have a go at this because I’m new to the whole ice cream making thing, and like you I have the Quisineart machine and so far I have made fresh strawberry ice cream and of course chocolate.
My main goal now is this Cherry Garcia. I love it, but unfortunately they stopped making it for the UK market!
However, I have been looking for a recipe and yours looks straight forward but I am in the UK, so we don’t know what the quantities are when people say a cup of this and a cup of that? Were used to grams etc to control the ingredients so things turn out properly.
Are you able to help with this please Danelle?
Many thanks
Peter.
Danelle
I would suggest looking for a conversion chart on Google, or a tool where you can input the quantity in cups and it will convert to metric measurements. The good news for this recipe is that if the conversion isn’t exactly perfect, it should still work well.
Susan Bourdelais
I’ve been making Cherries Garcia Ice Cream for years. My Special Ingredient is using a real Vanilla Bean that’s been soaking in Jack Daniels for two weeks. Slit the bean down the length and scrap out the vanilla seeds and place in cream mix. Yum Yum
Natalie
Hello,
I can use the same recipe for an ice cream maker?
Danelle
Yes, that’s how I made it.
Jes
For those wanting to accentuate the cherry flavor, we made this leaving out the vanilla, adding 1/2 tsp. almond and 1 Tbsp Dr. McGillicuddy’s Cherry Spirits. Soooo good.
Emily
I have a 2qt cuisinart ice cream maker. Should I double this recipe?
Heather
I have a 4 quart Ice cream maker. I doubled the recipe and doubled the cherries/chocolate for each recipe on top of that. It made nearly 2 1/2-3 quarts frozen goodness.
Since it expands some, I bet you could double it, but maybe stick to the original amount of cherries and chocolate.
I made this two days ago. I think if you want it to taste more like the real thing, I think you need some almond extract, however, I just identified that flavor when I compared them side-by-side, so I don’t know how much almond extract to use.
Robin
I made this recipe today & it is awesome. Followed it to a T. Cherry Garcia is my favorite ice cream. I usually cut up a banana to put in. For me it’s my banana split fix. Next time I will make w some chopped banana.
Thanks for sharing.
Ross Strong
I swapped out the vanilla for 3/4 teaspoon of almond extract flavor to try and achieve the current cherry garcia flavor. I reduced the sugar to a half cup and that combined with the almond flavoring was still plenty sweet enough, I’ll possibly reduce the amount of almond and sugar even more next time around as it’s still a little sweet and strong flavored for my liking!
Jennifer Jarvis
you don’t have to cook the milk and egg mixture? doesn’t that mean there are raw eggs in the ice cream. sorry I am just confused!!
Susan
I agree about the raw eggs. I cooked the cream and milk slowly over low heat until it bubbles. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy…tempered the eggs with a little hot milk and then poured the egg mixture into the cream and cooked until slightly thickened. Chilled the base and proceeded as directed. It was delish!
Beanthebaker
The Ben and Jerry’s recipe book has recipes with both approaches (cooked custard vs. use of raw eggs). Tempering helps, but only cooking to 140 degrees or so for 1/2 hour (traditional cooked custard method) will kill salmonella. I’ve made both recipes with no issues on the raw egg method, but I’d rather be safe and use the full cooked custard method, especially if you’re sharing the finished product with others. Plus, for me, it seems to create a richer consistency.
Adam Ljoså
Do you know if Milk can be replaced with Greek Yoghurt/Creme Fraiche with 10% fat for example or even less?
I guess the extra fat content wouldn’t hurt and the extra tartness would maybe even benefit it?
Danelle
I’ve never tried that. Would love to know how it works if you do.
Stephanie Manley
Who doesn’t love Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia Ice Cream? I think it was his birthday yesterday too. I will have give this recipe a try!