cherry and balsamic ice cream

From Brooklyn Supper by Elizabeth Stark

June 29, 2010

Strawberries used to be my favorite, and every summer I ate copious amounts of fresh strawberries straight from the berry patch, strawberry shortcake, and every birthday, a strawberry flavored birthday cake with strawberry frosting. There’s also Strawberry Shortcake herself. Is she responsible for my obsession? If so, the world might be seriously in need of some vegetable-themed characters. But that’s a discussion for another day.

I am writing at length about strawberries as a means of letting them go. I just don’t love them any more. It might be me or the inferior berries produced by the New York spring, but the magic is gone. And that’s alright since it gives me even more time to obsess over cherries. This time around I made cherry balsamic ice cream. It sounds amazing right? Maybe? The results were highly edible, if not good, but definitely not recipe material. There are kinks. Such as the color. No one wants to eat puce ice cream. Or the flavor--not quite cherry-y enough.

With improved color and flavor in mind I am going to keep testing as long as the cherries stick around. I like the idea of the sweet cherries tempered by a smoky tang of balsamic. In the meantime, I took some decent pictures that minimize the mauve-y puceness of this ice cream.