I am thrilled beyond belief and feel like I have hit the jackpot with this Black Forest Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream. I adore ice cream, always have. Over the years I have prided myself on the long list on new flavours I’ve tried, especially on holiday – I mean, is it really a holiday if you don’t have an ice cream?
In 2017 I found out that my dietary issues were all thanks to dairy, eggs, and few other foodie items. Goodbye ice cream, I knew you so well. I did a total U-turn and decided that if I couldn’t have the real thing then I wasn’t going to settle for second best (I can be a stubborn so and so!)
I’ve been having a think about the content I have on my website, putting myself in your shoes. As someone looking for free from recipes what would I love to be able to eat again. This has been a really useful exercise and fuelled me with renewed excitement for my recipe development, and ice cream was one of those recipes I decided I simply had to crack once and for all.
Where did the idea for Black Forest Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream Originate?
I love cherries, I like chocolate (in moderation) and I love ice cream. Creating a Black Forest Gateau is not the easiest thing to do dairy and egg free so I wondered, if I could develop the perfect ice cream recipe base, could I then add anything to it, thus creating a whole host of ice creams in honour of delicious flavour combos and bakes? Black Forest Ice cream seemed as good a place as any to start.
I am now confident that this, easy to make dairy free and potentially vegan, no churn ice cream will be the start of a long list of delicious ice cream recipes, so watch this space – the ideas I have scribbled down in my trusty recipe notebook are going to thrill ice cream lovers out there. We never need to feel left out again!
What Cherries can I use for Black Forest Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream?
In this recipe I have used tinned (canned) cherry pie filling. I find it perfect because you have the delicious sweet red cherries that you can dot around the ice cream, then you have the gooey cherry sauce that is perfect to swirl through the ice cream giving that mouth-watering ripple effect.
I did use cherries in syrup during the recipe development stage which gives you a darker cherry but if you want to achieve the ripple effect you will need to pour the syrup into a saucepan and reduce the cherry syrup by half to have a thick enough sauce to swirl.
Alternatively, you could choose to use fresh cherries. I would de-stone and gently soften in a sugar and water solution on the stove being carefully not to stew the fruit causing it to lose its shape. If you chose to use fresh cherries, you will have a less sweet final ice cream dessert.
Can I use an ice cream maker to make Black Forest Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream?
Technically yes you can use an ice cream maker to make this Black Forest Ice Cream, but don’t you find those machines noisy and as bit of a hassle? Don’t get me wrong, I have an ice cream maker and it’s really good at making ice cream for the family in no time at all. But I’ve waited 3 years to make this perfect dairy free ice cream so I can certainly wait 24hrs for the best dairy free ice cream ever. Yes! I did just write that thus cementing my guarantee to you that this is THAT good!
If you’re not convinced and you still want to make this recipe in an ice cream maker just remember that to achieve the fully loaded brownie, cherry and chocolate filled ice cream you will still need to create those mouth-watering layers and freeze for at least 1hr.
What can I use for the cake bites in my Black Forest Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream?
I cheated, life is too short to bake brownies to chop up and throw into an ice cream dessert right? After all, my mantra is life’s a drama, gluten free doesn’t have to be. So, with that in mind I used gluten free and dairy free brownie squares from Waitrose, but you can get them in most stores. Finding gluten free and vegan brownies is more of a challenge but Kent and Fraser sell such a thing in Sainsburys stores in the UK, failing that you can make your own or simple to bake kits (I’ve linked a couple I’ve used in the past below for your convenience).
An alternative is chocolate cookies (these go soft in the ice cream) or even tiffin, Lazy Days make delicious tiffin squares that are gluten free, dairy free and vegan.
How to make vegan condensed milk
Making dairy free and vegan condensed milk is very simple so please don’t be wary of making your own condensed milk with this easy two ingredient recipe and method;
Empty a 400ml tin of coconut milk into a medium saucepan, add the caster sugar and stir to combine. Place on a high heat and stir until bubbling. Turn heat down to a gentle rolling boil and leave for 15 minutes. Don’t leave unattended and stir occasionally, the condensed milk will halve in volume and go a wallpaper paste colour! Remove from the heat, pour into a glass heatproof jug and cool to room temperature, this will take about an hour.
You now have a 250ml volume of dairy free condensed milk that you can use with a variety of recipes. I have made this using 200g of caster sugar in some of these examples but now feel that you can get away with 50g less sugar unless you plan to continue to reduce the liquid to make a toffee sauce in which case you need all 200g of sugar.
Chocolate Orange Bailey’s – GF|DF 
Pumpkin Spice Bailey’s – GF|DF 
Original Bailey’s – GF|DF
Other recipes that are similar and I know you’ll love
If you’re reading this recipe because you’re a fan of cherries then you’ll surely be tempted by my Three Ingredient Cherry Shortbread Crumble, Cherry Choc Raw Squares – a mouthwatering combination or how about my Cherry Ripe Chocolate Bars; gluten and dairy free.
For the chocoholics among you your going to want to check out my Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding or my Gluten Free Salted Chocolate Tart (please note this is not dairy free, just gluten free)
Cherry Ripe Bars 
Cherry Crumble 
Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding 
Salted Chocolate Tart
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Black Forest Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe
- 400 ml tin of coconut milk use the highest coconut extract percentage you can find 60%+
- 150 g caster sugar
- 200 ml soya cream
- 30 g dairy free butter try to use a solid dairy free butter, I use a flora block
- ½ 400 g tin of cherry pie filling
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 150 g gluten and dairy free brownies chopped into bite-size chunks
- Empty the tin of coconut milk into a medium saucepan
- Add the caster sugar and stir to combine
- Place on a high heat and stir until bubbling
- Turn heat down to a gentle rolling boil and leave for 15minutes
- Don’t leave unattended and stir occasionally, the condensed milk will halve in volume and go a wallpaper paste colour!
- Remove from the heat, pour into a glass heatproof jug and cool to room temperature, this will take about an hour.
In a large bowl whisk together the soya milk melted 'butter' and cocoa to fully incorporate.
- Add the cooled condensed milk and stir to combine
- Take your metal loaf tin and begin to layer your cherry/chocolate ice cream dessert.
- Make sure you set aside a few of the better-looking brownie chunks for decorating.
Start with a layer of the chocolate cream mixture (about an inch) then add a few brownie pieces and using a teaspoon plop into the mixture a few pie cherries.
Repeat with another layer and continue until you have one final layer or chocolate cream mixture.
- Add your final brownie chunks spaced evenly and spoon in a few more cherries, maybe add a few blobs of the thick pie sauce too. Hold the spoon end of a teaspoon and using the handle dip the end into the cherry sauce blobs and gently swirl the sauce to create a pretty swirl pattern on the top of your dessert for that professional look.
- Cover the top of the loaf tin with foil and secure with an elastic band, place in the freezer on an even surface and leave overnight.
- To serve simply heat your ice cream scoop in boiling water and scoop away, no need to take this out of the freezer in advance, this ice cream scoops perfectly!
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And one last thing! I’ve linked my Black Forest Ice Cream with these other awesome Foodies websites, go check them out
Cook Blog Share | Baking Crumbs | Fiesta Friday
disclaimer: I’ve started using affiliate codes on my website again (needs must). If you click on any of the links in the post and make a purchase my family will benefit from a small % of that purchase at no extra cost to you.
I’m here for EVERYTHING about this ice cream! It’s so incredibly beautiful, I love black forest anything, and there’s even giant chunks of cake! So perfect!
It’s ALL about those chocolate cake chunks hahaha.