My husband loves cherries. And as I may have mentioned, he told me that his only request for a Fourth of July dessert was that the secret ingredient be cherries. I did the cherries on a cloud, of course, but I had also purchased a big bag of fresh cherries.

I could make a pie, of course. And I probably will eventually. But I had some heavy cream and a big chunk of chocolate left over, so I thought I would give Cherry Garcia ice cream a try.

If you don’t own the Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book, I recommend you buy it. The recipes don’t have any weird ingredients, there are a ton of flavors — and variations on many of them — and it has lots of good tips. In this case, it told me to freeze the chocolate and then use a grater to shave it. But I love the big chunks of chocolate in Graeter’s ice cream, so I decided to chop it with a knife instead.

This was very yummy. But it wasn’t perfect. I halved the cherries, as directed, but I think they really should be quartered so they are more evenly distributed. And I wish the ice cream itself had some cherry flavor, because it is really just chocolate chip ice cream with some random hunks of cherry. So I am going to work on that. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Cherry-chocolate chunk ice cream (adapted from the Ben&Jerry’s homemade ice cream and dessert book)

1/4 cup chopped chocolate (I used a block of semi-sweet, but dark chocolate is probably best. Candy bars are fine. Refrigerate or freeze the chocolate first so it will not melt when you handle it)
1/4 cup pitted fresh sweet cherries, quartered (if you used canned, drain the syrup)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk*

Chop the chocolate and refrigerate the chunks. Pit and quarter the cherries and refrigerate those in a separate bowl.

Whisk** the eggs until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add in the sugar a little at a time, whisking after each addition. Continue to whisk until fully blended. Add the milk and cream and whisk to blend.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the instructions. When the ice cream stiffens (after about 20 minutes with mine) but a few minutes before it is done, add the chocolate and cherries. Finish freezing the ice cream. Do not add the chocolate and cherries before the ice cream has begun to stiffen or they will sink to the bottom.

*I used 2 percent milk and it was fine. You can use whatever kind you have.

**You could probably use a hand mixer for this, but if you are about to eat a quart of homemade ice cream, it won’t kill you to burn a few calories whisking the mixture by hand.