Buttermilk Ice Cream with Poached Cherries

Buttermilk ice cream. Cherries. You want this, I promise you–you do.

The ice cream is creamy and tangy and marries perfectly with the sweet cherries.

We have poached cherries before in a combination of wine, water and sugar with a vanilla bean.  But this time around I left out the wine and added almond extract.  Just as good, though I’ve included the wine in the recipe below because you might just want to try it.

Buttermilk Ice Cream with Poached Cherries

original recipe
Ingredients:

For Buttermilk Ice Cream:

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup light cream
1 cup buttermilk
4-6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar

For Poached Cherries:

3 cups cherries (about 1-1 1/2 lbs.)
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon (optional, or 1/2 cup more each:  water and sugar)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1-2″ piece of a vanilla bean
Almond extract (if not using wine)

Instructions:

For Buttermilk Ice Cream:

Heat the heavy and light cream in a pan until steaming. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together until thick and light yellow. Add the hot cream in a steady stream while whisking. Pour into the pan and heat to 170 degrees F. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Add the cold buttermilk. Chill for several hours or until very cold. Churn.

For Poached Cherries:

Bring to a simmer. Lower heat and let cook for 30 minutes-1 hour, or until the liquid is syrupy. Transfer to a clean jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, or let cool a bit and use immediately.

To serve:
Layer the cherries and scoops of buttermilk ice cream in a serving dish and drizzle some of the syrup over the top.
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And looky what you can do with the leftover cherries…assuming you don’t eat them by the spoonful from the jar. (I’m not judging you.) You can put it on Greek yogurt.