Vegan Miso Chocolate & Cherry Chunk Ice Cream

because i love stone fruit season and a challenge

Remember when I bought an ice cream maker and then making ice cream became my whole personality? I wanted to take on the challenge of making a dairy free ice cream because it seems like everyone is dairy-free, plant-based, or vegan these days (or at least we’re all admitting that we’re at least a little lactose intolerant). Plus, I don’t get to treat my vegan friends and neighbors as often as I’d like, so it felt like the right time to try out a vegan ice cream recipe.

Stone fruit season is quickly becoming my favorite season with Rainier cherries taking center stage, but for this recipe, I used regular-degular red cherries instead because they pair better with chocolate. This ice cream is tart from the cherries, the chocolate flavor is not-too-sweet yet enriched by the coconut milk, and the miso adds a really nice salt that brings each flavor to life.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

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Miso Chocolate & Cherry Chunk Ice Cream

(adapted from minimalist baker — makes about 6 cups/1.5 qts)

INGREDIENTS:

1 (14-ounce) can full-fat quality coconut milk
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I think you could try oat here too!)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (needed for creamy texture!!)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar (use raw sugar, ground in a coffee grinder or blender, if vegan)
2 tablespoons miso, dissolved in a splash warm water (I’d say 1 TB if you’d like to measure)
1 ½ cups cherries, pitted and quartered
2 TB sugar 

DIRECTIONS:

1. To make the ice cream base, combine in a blender the sugar coconut milk, almond milk, xanthan gum, unsweetened cocoa powder miso, and vanilla. Cool for at least 2 hours, or overnight. 
2. While the ice cream base is cooling, work on pitting and quartering the cherries. I don’t own a cherry pitter, so I used a pairing knife, but allegedly you can push the cherry pit out with a chopstick or metal reusable straw. I just sliced the cherries in half then popped the pit out with my hands, which did result in a Macbeth-like experience on my cutting board/hands.
3. Once sliced, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over the cherries, and let them sit for about 1 hour. This process is called maceration: the sugar will pull juice out of the cherries and seep into the fruit making it sweeter and softer in texture. You can store these overnight in the fridge too.
4. Ready to make ice cream? When your base is chilled, churn per your ice cream maker’s directions. I have the Cuisinart 2 qt and it usually takes 25-30 minutes to get a soft serve-like consistency. Once your ice cream is the consistency you want it to be, add it to a storage container and fold in the cherries with their syrup.