Black Cherry Ice Cream – Helado de cereza negra

Click here to go to printable recipe:  Black Cherry Ice Cream

The orange ice cream featured in my previous post was one of my favourites when I was a kid, but my all-time favourite ice cream flavour is black cherry.  As I have mentioned before, back in the day, fresh cherries were expensive and really hard to find in Mexico, so traditional ice cream shops and parlours did not carry that flavour.  However, there was a more contemporary family-owned chain called Helados Bing™, that I first discovered when I was a pre-teen; during a roller-skating birthday party (LOL, this was in the mid 1970s!), my friends and I ended up “rolling” in front of a Bing ice cream parlour that used to be on Extremadura Avenue, almost at the corner with Insurgentes Avenue.; it was located in a beautiful old house painted in the company’s décor of white and pink stripes.  We stopped for a break and a cone; we had to change to our snickers to go up the beautiful staircase at the front, and then … wow, what a haven for denizens of ice cream nation!  The colour scheme continued indoors, and there were bright signs with long lists of deliciously sounding ice cream flavours. I was delighted to see “Cereza Negra” – black cherry, on the list!  After that day, I have always gravitated to that flavour when browsing any ice cream menu.

I always thought those ice cream stores were called “Bing” after the cherry variety, but it actually has a more convoluted backstory.  Founder Adolph B. Horn was a Cuban-American entrepreneur, who became a diplomatic after World War II, and served as general consul of the United States in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco.  After his retirement, he and his wife, Lena Bingham Horn, decided to stay in that city.  Back then in the 1960s, ice cream was still a very small industry, mostly composed of local stores with traditional fruit flavours, and Mr. Horn saw a business opportunity, opening his first ice cream store in 1965.  Mrs. Bingham Horn had been a dancer, and always dreamed of seeing her name on bright signs, so Mr. Horn decided to name their store “Bing”, his wife’s nickname.  

Helados Bing flourished, and during the next two decades, 15 branches opened around the country, including the one I first saw in Mexico City.  Unfortunately, Mr. Horn’s wife became ill, and in 1983, to be able to spend more time with her, he sold the business to his friend José Luis González González, who had been top executive at Coca-Cola™ Mexico, and later owner of another ice cream company, Helados Holanda™.  Horn continued his involvement with Bing, and by the mid 1990s, the partners had 600 stores and franchises.  Sadly, as with many other domestic businesses, due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Bing faced tough competition and pressure from multinational conglomerates, and both Bing and Holanda were overtaken by the multinational Unilever, which eventually abandoned Bing.  In 1999, Horn and González moved on to found another ice cream company, Dolphy™ (named after Adolph), and González secured the master franchise licenses in Mexico for Donkin Donuts™ and Baskin Robins™ that same year.

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My black cherry ice cream is based on a very basic, all-natural ingredient recipe.  The star of the recipe is of course, fresh black cherries, which need to be washed and de-pitted.  Removing the pits with a knife takes forever, and results in badly stained fingertips, so I really recommend investing in an olive and cherry pitter:

It has a very simple design, not the latest technology, but that makes it inexpensive, and it gets the job done easily and much faster, not to mention that it is fun, too: 

Black Cherry Ice Cream – Helado de cereza negra

Printable recipe:  Black Cherry Ice Cream

Ingredients (for about 4 cups)

2 cups fresh black cherries; washed, and pitted
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar

Prepare equipment:  Ice cream maker (for manual Donvier™, place metal tub upright in the freezer for at least 24 hrs.),  or metal mould(s) pre-chilled in the freezer. 

Chill cherries, cream and milk in the freezer for a few minutes, or keep refrigerated until ready to prepare ice cream mix.   Measure all ingredients:

Place milk and sugar in a blender jar (photo below, left); process for a few seconds, to dissolve sugar.  Add cream and cherries (photo below, centre); process until cherries have coloured the mix, but there are still some bits of pulp left (photo below, right):

Set up ice cream maker (click here for instructions for manual Donvier™), or one or more pre-chilled metal moulds.

Transfer mix to ice cream maker (photo below, left), and follow manufacturers directions.  My manual Donvier™ ice cream maker holds up to about four cups, so all the mix went in, then I closed the lid (photo below, right):  

For this batch, my manual Donvier only needed 4 clockwise turns every 3 minutes (photo below, left, after 6 minutes, and centre, after 18 minutes).  This batch was ready after 21 minutes (photo below, right):

Transfer to a container with lid:

Cover and store in the freezer.

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If using chilled metal mould(s), pour the mix in.  Place in the freezer for one hour, then scrape the frozen mix off the edges with a spatula.  Repeat once or twice, until ice cream is set.  Store, covered, in the freezer.

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The flavours in this black cherry ice cream were delicious, and felt so fresh; the natural colour was a deep purplish pink, bright and inviting, just like the pieces of cherry pulp embedded in the ice cream:   

Serving in a white bowl with a plastic spoon, with a white and pink stripe background, sure sent me back to the 1970s and 80s, inside a Bing store.

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O, Canada 

Now that I live in Canada, it is relatively easy to find black cherry ice cream, as well as other unique flavours, made with fresh cream and good quality ingredients.  Three bright examples, from three different provinces, all great places to visit, especially on this July 1st, for Canada Day:

COWS™ (originally in Prince Edward Island), in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Cable Wharf):

COWS started with one store at the Cavendish Boardwalk in Prince Edward Island, in 1983.  This year, they are celebrating their 40th anniversary with a dozen more locations, some in PEI and others in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, and three in Nova Scotia, including the one pictured above, and a kiosk by the water front, in the photo below, left, taken when my husband and I were visiting our older daughter last fall.  I eagerly checked the flavours of the day (photo below, right), looking for, of course, black cherry: 

I was lucky they had “very dairy chocolate cherry”, a cherry ice cream with chocolate flakes and a chocolate swirl, pictured below in a sugar cone, in front of a poster of their mascot, catching (or being caught by) lobsters: 

Rain or Shine™, in Vancouver, British Columbia:  

The photo above comes courtesy of my older daughter; this has become her favourite ice cream, since she moved to Vancouver last spring.  This family-owned business was founded in 2013, by a couple who loved ice cream but wanted more natural ingredients, and claim at the time their “only expertise was eating it.”  In 2015, they opened a second store; fast forward to 2023, and they are celebrating their 10th anniversary with great success, in their words “making people happy, delivering our best product, and supporting local! Stronger together is our motto.”

Scoops Ice Cream Shop™, on 82 Lakeshore Road E, Mississauga, Ontario:

Last month my husband and I were visiting our younger daughter, who got a job and moved to Mississauga last February.  As part of our sightseeing, we went for a stroll to the lake shore, and enjoyed a delicious cone.  Predictably, I chose black cherry, but I have to apologize for eating it so fast, that I forgot to take a picture for this post (no regrets, though).

Happy Canada Day!

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I am bringing my recipe to Full Plate Thursday #648 with Miz Helen @ Miz Helen’s Country Cottage.

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I am sharing my post at Thursday Favourite Things #616, with Bev @ Eclectic Red Barn, Pam @ An Artful Mom, Katherine @ Katherine’s Corner, Amber @ Follow the Yellow Brick Home, and Linda @ Crafts a la Mode.

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I am joining Fiesta Friday #492  with Angie @ Fiesta Friday, this week co-hosting with Pauline @ Beautiful Voyager.

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I am also sharing my recipe at What’s for Dinner? Sunday Link-Up #427 with Helen @ The Lazy Gastronome.