Whoever invented air conditioning, I LOVE you. No, seriously, if you were still alive right now, I might want to marry you. This heat is destroying me with the passion of a thousand suns. It’s the kind of heat that makes you afraid to set foot outside for fear that your skin will crisp and then fall right off. I may be exaggerating just a tad bit, but seriously, it is scorching outside and today is only the first day of summer!
To Moira and Jonty who run Climb Eat Cycle Repeat, I bow to you for coming up with the original recipe for this pretty much guilt free balsamic cherry roasted ice cream that’s allowing me to beat the heat. I could not thank you enough! If anyone here has yet to check out their blog, well, you should because they’re pretty darned cool, inspiring, and insert any other positive adjective here. Their ice cream photos also look 10 times better than mine. FYI.
I adapted their balsamic roasted cherry ice cream recipe sometime last Wednesday. It was such a big hit at my house that it was polished off by Sunday. My dad, my harshest food critic, probably consumed most of it because it was so ‘healthy’.
This ice cream is creamy, rich, vegan, and refined sugar free (omit chocolate chips). In fact, I use dates to sweeten it.
- 2½ cups fresh cherries (overflowed, stems removed, keep pits in)
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 (14 fl oz.) can of coconut milk
- ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)
- 5-6 medjool dates (pitted)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract.
- Soak the raw cashews with warm water for at least 4 hours and then drain. Place the can of coconut milk in the fridge to chill for about the same amount of time.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place cherries in some type of oven safe ceramic pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove them from oven and using a fork, remove the pits from the cherries. Using scissors, cut them into chunks of 4.
- Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the cherries and mix the cherries around so that they are coated in the balsamic. Put them back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Allow the cherries to cool before moving onto next steps.
- Drain the cashews. In a powerful blender, blend the cashews, coconut milk, vanilla extract, and dates until everything is completely smooth. Add a few cherries (3-4) and blend.
- Add the chocolate chips and give it a few quick pulses, some of it may melt into the mixture (You can skip this step if you don't want to add the chocolate chips)
- Taste the mixture and see if you'd like to add any more dates to sweeten it.
- In a bread loaf pan, pour the ice cream mixture into it and stir in the cherries. Cover with foil and place in the freezer. Every 30 minutes you should remove the ice cream and give it a thorough stirring. Be sure to not forget to scrape down the sides. Do this at least 4 times.
- Let the ice cream freeze to your preferred consistency or let it freeze completely. If you let it freeze completely, you'll have to wait about 10 minutes before it is soft enough for you to scoop some.
Guys, it’s like eating a bowl of Haagen Daas ice cream except without all of the excess refined sugar and unhealthy fats. Instead, the coconut milk is rich in minerals such as manganese, copper, magnesium, iron, and potassium. It is also known to lower blood pressure. In the words of Moira, this could basically be considered a ‘health’ food. Just remember to portion control this ice cream because coconut milk and cashews are fairly high in calories and you never want to exceed your daily calories.
I am currently cooped up inside because if you read anything I wrote above, it is way to hot to go outside. And what’s worse is that in the evenings, when it is finally cool enough to enjoy the outdoors, bugs dive bomb into my face and nest in my hair. It’s so gross. This summer heat in conjunction with all of the rain we’ve had this year is causing quite a huge bug problem.
I hope you’re all managing the heat as well or better than I am. If not, just go ahead and try to make this ice cream, your lives will be so much better with it.
Stay happy and healthy y’all!
This looks sooooooo good! Perfect summer treat!
Thank you! It is definitely keeping me cool this summer!
I love this recipe! The ice cream looks so decadent and delicious! The photos are fantastic!
Thank you! It is super rich surprisingly!