No Churn Healthy Cherry Garcia Ice Cream Recipe (Ben & Jerry’s Copycat)

This Cherry Garcia Ice Cream recipe is decadent-tasting but secretly healthy, and puts summer cherries to perfect use when you want a nourishing sweet treat. The best part is that there’s no ice cream maker required!

I’ve always been a chocolate girl when it comes to dessert. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that my usual motto is that if a sweet treat doesn’t have chocolate, it just isn’t worth it.

But I have branched out a little, realizing the deliciousness in things like ethereally light angel food cake, deliciously crisp butter toffee shortbread cookies, and classic flavor combinations like nostalgic peanut butter and jelly made into crumble bars.

This healthy Cherry Garcia recipe has just enough chocolate to hold my interest, without it overwhelming the recipe.

Because let’s face it, cherries also deserve a moment in the spotlight! Their season is so short-lived it warrants a celebration in the form of anything and everything cherry-flavored, including a healthy version of ice cream!

What is in Cherry Garcia Ice Cream?

Cherry Garcia is a flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It is cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes.

According to Ben & Jerry’s, this ice cream originated as a fan-suggested flavor, and is a tribute to Grateful Dead musician Jerry Garcia.

Ben & Jerry’s also makes a low-fat frozen yogurt version of this flavor.

Healthy Homemade Cherry Garcia Ice Cream Recipe

For this recipe, we frozen cherries as the ice cream base with a touch of cream cheese and heavy cream. If you prefer to cut the calories and fat a bit, you can omit the cream cheese and heavy cream, and instead use 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. And we add a little dark chocolate because it pairs perfectly with the flavor of cherry, especially in ice cream.

So let’s talk for a minute about what makes cherries healthy!

Health Benefits of Cherries

Cherries are rich in antioxidants that help fight free radicals in the body, and help to prevent cancer and heart disease.

Additionally, the purple and blue pigments in cherries, called anthocyanins, help reduce pain related to inflammation.

Cherries are also a good source of potassium, which helps the body eliminate excess sodium, thus helping to lower blood pressure.

You can read more about the health benefits of cherries on Fox News, Health, and Live Strong.

Cherries Nutrition

According to USDA FoodData Central, 1 cup of pitted cherries (154 g) has the following nutrition information:

• 97kcals
• 1.6g protein
• 0.3g total fat
• 24.6g total carbohydrates
• 3.2g fiber

Ingredients

• Sweet red cherries – You can use fresh or frozen. If you’re using fresh cherries, wash them, remove the stems and pits, spread them out in a parchment paper-lined baking tray to flash freeze, and freeze until solid, about 2 to 4 hours.
• Cream cheese and heavy whipping cream – We use a combination of cream cheese and heavy cream for a lusciously rich and creamy texture that simulates ice cream even though our base is mostly cherries. If you prefer frozen yogurt, you can omit the cream cheese and heavy whipping cream and add 1/4 cup of plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt instead.
• Stevia – My sweetener of choice here is stevia, but you can use any sweetener you like: sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, monk fruit, allulose, etc.
• Vanilla extract – For flavor and aroma.
• Salt – Salt intensifies the cherry flavor and pulls out the fruit’s natural sweetness.
• Dark chocolate – You can use any type of dark chocolate you like. I give suggestions for some good sugar-free and low-sugar options.

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients except the chocolate to a high-speed blender and process until smooth and creamy, tamping down the ingredients as necessary. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
2. Serve immediately, garnished with a fresh cherry if desired.

Low Carb Chocolate Options

Just a little bit of chocolate adds so much flavor to this recipe! There are a ton of good options available when you’re looking for delicious low carb chocolate:

• Sugar free chocolate options – I like Lily’s and Chocoperfection.
• Dark chocolate – 70% cacao is good, but I usually opt for 80 to 85%. A few of my favorites include Lindt, Pascha, and Green & Black’s.
• Unsweetened chocolate – Yes, it’s bitter, but some people develop a taste for it! I like Pascha 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate chips, and Ghirardelli 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate bars.
• Homemade low carb chocolate – If you want to make your own version of low carb chocolate at home, it’s even better because you get to control the quality of ingredients that go into it, as well as the sweetness level. You’ll need cacao butter and unsweetened cocoa powder, and whatever sweetener you like. (I like using a 2:1 ratio of cacao butter:powder, as measured by weight, not volume. And I sometimes play around with the sweeteners; I’ve had success with honey, maple syrup, stevia, and coconut sugar.)

More Cherry Desserts to Try

• Paleo Cherry Chocolate Chip Coffee Popsicles from An Edible Mosaic
• Cherry Clafoutis from Home Cooking Adventure
• Cherry Cookies from Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen
• Old Fashioned Cherry Crisp from Kevin is Cooking

This post was first published on An Edible Mosaic on August 27, 2018 and updated on June 26, 2020.