Amarena cherries are pretty darned good. I had a jar of them that I'd been hoarding for a while, but I finally used them up making some cookies. But then I had the cherry syrup left, and I didn't want to toss it. I thought about making some kind of sauce or drizzling it over ice cream - but then I decided to put it in an ice cream.
I mean, why not?
When I tasted the ice cream base, I thought it needed a little more cherry flavor. So I added some Washington cherry extract. It's a different sort of cherry flavor than the Amarena cherries, so the flavor is more complex.
The color is a pale pink, but the flavor is bold.
Amarena Cherry Ice Cream
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup Amarena cherry syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon Washington cherry extract
Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Whisk or stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Churn in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.
Transfer the ice cream to a storage container and freeze until firm.