chocolate cherry ice cream with cacao nibs

Chocolate and cherry can do no wrong together in my world, which makes this probably my favourite homemade ice cream. It’s delicious. It’s easy, and pssst, you don’t even need an ice cream maker: I made this using the food processor in under ten minutes. I start with a couple of frozen bananas, to which I add about a half bag of frozen cherries (which amounts to about 1 1/2 cups or so – there’s no right or wrong – I do it to taste). Throw the cherries and bananas in the food processor along with (up to) 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (again, this is a to taste thing – I like a lot of cocoa, but you might want to start with 2 Tbsp to start), add between 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of non-dairy milk of your choice to facilitate blending (I favour unsweetened almond milk at present, but soy milk works grand too), and blend just until smooth. Enjoy as is if desired, or add some more cherries and cacao nibs and pulse just enough to distribute them – but not so much as to break them up. Even if you don’t add extra cherries, I highly recommend adding the cacao nibs – they add an amazing crunch while evoking the spirit of chocolate chips in a much healthier way. If you really want to, you could put this mixture through your ice cream maker to make it firmer (before adding the extra cherries and cacao nibs at the end of the cycle), but it’s truly not necessary: as you can see in the photo, the frozen cherry component adds a lot of firmness all by itself. Plus, who wants to wait half an hour to eat ice cream when you could be enjoying it in less than ten minutes? Enjoy.

*blush*