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Chocolate Cherry Stracciatella Gelato Recipe – a summer favorite! Refreshing combination of sweet cherries, vanilla bean milk based ice cream and chocolate.
It is still summer… And I’m pleased with the nice weather.
But this summer is different for me!
I am craving ice cream almost every other day.
That’s why my husband and I have been going to ice cream/frozen yogurt places a few times a week.
I also made my favorite strawberry sorbet and vanilla bean ice cream a couple of times this summer.
I knew it was time to make something different.
This is how this Chocolate Cherry Stracciatella Gelato was created!
I was not a huge fan of ice cream, when I was a kid.
I could eat it, but I much rather have a slice of cake.
My taste has changed a lot and now I love ice cream.
Especially now, when I’m pregnant, I don’t crave cakes and cookies, ice cream is my thing!
This Chocolate Cherry Stracciatella Gelato.
What is gelato?
I’m sure professionals will give you more accurate information, but here is what I know.
Gelato is made with less cream and more milk than regular ice cream.
It has less fat than ice cream and recipes usually call for less egg yolks.
Ice cream is churned harder than gelato.
Stracciatella – to make things clear, it is an egg drop soup popular in Italy.
Stracciatella Gelato is milk based ice cream filled with fine and irregular shavings of chocolate.
There aren’t any chocolate chips inside, but instead it is filled with delicate chocolate chards.
Melted chocolate is drizzled into the gelato, towards the end of the churning process.
Yes we do need an ice cream maker.
I use this Cuisinart one.
But since it is summer, just chocolate was not enough for me! I needed to add fruit.
And the perfect addition seemed to be cherries! Growing up, cherries used to be my favorite fruit.
I used cherry preserves for the gelato and served it with fresh cherries.
The result – a gelato with great texture, awesome flavor and delicious refreshing taste.
How much is 1 serving of ice cream?
One serving of ice cream is usually considered 1/2 cup of 100 grams.
Chocolate Cherry Stracciatella Gelato Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 large egg yolks at room temperature
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, , coarsely chopped
- 6 tbsp cherry preserves
- fresh cherries for serving
Instructions
- In a deep saucepan, combine milk, heavy cream and 1/2 cup of the sugar.
- Split vanilla bean open and scrape down the seeds from the inside. Add vanilla bean and seeds to the pot.
- Heat over medium heat, heat until bubbles start to form, but do not let it boil.
- Remove from heat and steep for 15 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and the remaining sugar.
- Slowly add 1/2 cup of the warm mixture to the yolks, whisking constantly. Add another 1/2 cup from the warm mixture and whisk to combine.
- Pour the egg yolk mixture back to the pan with hot liquid, remove the vanilla bean and heat over medium heat.
- Stir constantly with a spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula, for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve. Cool at room temperature for 15 minutes, then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Churn in an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer's instructions. (Make sure you freeze the ice cream bowl for the time needed). It took mine gelato 15-20 minutes to churn.
- While the gelato is churning, melt chocolate over a double boiler. Place in a zip lock bag, close and cut the tip.
- With the ice cream maker still churning the gelato, slowly drizzle the chocolate inside.
- Transfer to a container and swirl the cherry preserves. Freeze overnight.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I love gelato so much and I have never tried to make it at home- yours looks seriously wonderful 🙂
Who doesn’t love a good ice-cream? What a beautiful looking gelato, Mira. Chocolate and cherries sound the best combo. Lovely share.
MMMMMM……Chocolate and cherries! Love your recipe and the pics!
Ice cream is my absolute favorite and I loved it even more when I was pregnant too 🙂 This gelato is gorgeous, Mira!! I love the chocolate and cherry combo!!
This makes me want to get an ice cream maker! This ice cream looks so amazing, I love gelato, and the chocolate and cherries just makes it even better! Perfect summer dessert!
I love this recipe, Mira! And Stracciatella is worth the effort to drizzle that chocolate in.. I just made some last week! But you added cherries to this and made it gelato – I’m drooling! Gelato is favored by far over ice cream. Yes, less fat, but the thing for me is it’s intense flavors. We have a little Italian restaurant here in town that scoops the finest gelato, but I’ve not made my own! It’s time! Thank you for your inspiration. Just love this!
Thank you Traci! Heading over to check your recipe out! I’m sure I’ll love it!
Are you really supposed to REFRIGERATE this or FREEZE? Has anyone put it in the refrigerator?
FREEZE
Refrigerate the mixture BEFORE CHURNING THE MIXTURE in the refrigerator. After the mixture is cold, churn and then FREEZE.
Yes, always chill (refrigerate) before churning.
Love gelato! This one turned out delicious!
The recipe was appealing so I have followed the recipe exactly as indicated. What I just poured into my ice cream maker is only about half the volume of any other gelato or ice cream recipe that I have made through this summer. I see no way that even with the added chocolate and cherry preserves that it will yield 8 servings. Please double check and confirm that it only requires 1 cup of 2% milk and 1 cup heavy cream. My suspicion is that the first listed ingredient which is “1 cups 2% milk” should be 2 cups of milk. Please advise. Thanks!
You are right, it is 2 cups of milk
Mira- Thanks for responding and making the correction. I will make it again today with 2 cups of milk and a little more cherry preserves and anticipate great results. By the way, I offered the first, overly rich version to some folks and called it Rich Chocolate Cherry Custard and sounds such as “yum” were expressed. -Bruce
Thanks Bruce! Hope you like the lighter version!