Berry Chocolate Ice Cream

ALERT! ALERT! IT'S CHERRY SEASON!

I bought a ton of cherries at the farmers market last week and then even more at the grocery store today (because $1.99 per pound!), so basically I need to make all of the cherry things. At the same time, there are piles and piles of blueberries and strawberries in the fridge because, really, this is the best time of the year. This. Right here.

Berry Chocolate Ice Cream.

It's all of the things that were sitting in the fridge thrown together into ice cream. And YESSSSS. It turned out so good.

So very good.

Berry Chocolate Ice Cream

Small handful pitted and halved cherries
Small handful blueberries
Small handful hulled sliced strawberries
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided (1 1/2 cups the first time, 3/4 cup the second time)
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

1. Start by preparing your berries. You're going to put all of the berries in a large saucepan. Place the cornstarch in the measuring cup with the water and stir gently until the cornstarch is incorporated. Pour it in with the berries. Add the 2 tablespoons of white sugar and cook them over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until you have a fun syrup and some soft berries. It takes about 15-20 minutes. Throw the berries in the fridge once they are done.

2. Place the 1/4 cup of white sugar and 1 1/2 cups heavy cream in a new medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk, until the sugar is fully dissolved.

3. Place the egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl and whisk them together. Take 1/2 cup of the warm cream and sugar mixture out of the saucepan and very slowly add it to the egg yolks. Keep whisking the whole time you're adding. Make sure you're adding the warm cream slowly because you don't want your eggs to turn into scrambled eggs.

4. Now you're going to add the eggs into your cream-filled saucepan. Keep the heat on medium and slowly add the eggs into the saucepan, whisking the whole time. Keep stirring and stirring and heat until your cream is at least 170 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, place a spoon in the cream. It's done when you pull the spoon out and it stays coated with cream.

5. Remove what is soon to be ice cream from the heat.

8. Add the butter and chocolate chips. Stir until everything is melty and smooth and perfect.

9. Stir in the remainder of the heavy cream and vanilla/almond extract.

10. Refrigerate the cream mixture until cool, about two hours.

11. Pour the cooled cream mixture into your ice cream maker and turn that sucker on. Let it go until it is super thick.

12. Once you clearly have a chocolate ice cream thing happening in your ice cream maker, add in the berries. Either let your ice cream maker mix them in or use a rubber spatula. I'm not going to judge no matter which way you do it.

13. Toss the bowl in the freezer for at least two hours so that the ice cream can fully set.

14. Homemade ice cream is SO much better than the cheap store crap.