Cranberry Vanilla Ice Cream

I can never get enough cranberries on Thanksgiving day. When I was little, one of my favorite memories was getting together with my cousin on the Wednesday before and we would make apple pies, one classic and one studded with cranberries. The next day, I couldn't wait for a slice of my favorite pie, the apple-cranberry. The best part was finding those tart berries among the cinnamon-sweet apples. Last year, I put dried cranberries into the stuffing (it would have been helpful if I written down the recipe, lol, it was so good) and this year it's cranberry vanilla ice cream for dessert. Mmm...creamy and tart. A perfect ending to a Thanksgiving day feast. Enjoy!


Recipe for cranberry vanilla ice cream: makes four 1/2 cup servings.

• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• 1 teaspoon Frangelico liqueur
• 1 cup prepared whole berry cranberry sauce

Bring your ice cream into the refrigerator and let it sit for 1 hour and then combine with the cranberry sauce and the Frangelico liqueur. Scoop into a freeze proof container and freeze overnight. It's nice to top your apple pie with or to have by itself. Top it with a crushed snicker doodle cookie, crushed hazelnuts or dried cranberries to make it extra special. Below you'll find a recipe for whole berry cranberry sauce, if you need it.

Recipe for whole berry cranberry sauce: makes a little under 2 cups.                                   

• 12 oz. cranberries
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar (plus 2 tablespoons if you want your ice cream sweeter)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• generous pinch pumpkin pie spice

Combine everything in a heavy bottomed pot and cover. Bring to a boil on high heat. Once it comes to a boil and your cranberries start popping, lower the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, occasionally stirring, especially towards the end. Allow to cool. You can use 1 cup for the ice cream and reserve the rest for the table for dinner or double the ice cream recipe if needed and use it all.