Name: Chocolate-Cherry Cream
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 8 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped); 8 tablespoons butter (sliced); 3 large eggs (separated); ¼ cup sugar; 1 ½ cups heavy cream; 3 ounces cherry juice; 1 ½ cups cherries (chopped, pitted and stems removed)

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I love a creamy, custardy dessert, especially during the summer months, and this chocolate-cherry cream is a new favorite. Cherry can be a tricky flavor. Too often, cherry-flavored treats have a medicinal quality. To avoid that awful cough syrupy taste, I used fresh cherries and 100 percent cherry juice with no concentrates or extracts in this cream. This ensures you get nothing but an authentic cherry flavor.

Three dessert glasses filled with chocolate cherry cream on pink cheese cloth with fresh cherries.

When I first planned to make this recipe, I thought I wanted to go with a traditional mousse. Although mousses are light, airy and perfect for summer, I was in the mood for something even more delicate. I used the same technique to make a mousse but added a touch more cream to give it even more of a whipped texture. Imagine if chocolate mousse and whipped cream had a love child. That's how I'd describe this chocolate-cherry cream's texture.

Besides being delicious, I love this chocolate-cherry cream's versatility. Sure, it's great in a dessert glass as pictured, but it also makes an amazing cake filling. Recently, I made a three-layer chocolate cake with ganache frosting and filled the layers with this chocolate-cherry cream for a dear friend's party. Everyone loved it and commented on how the cherry flavor added a nice touch.

In fact, it was such a hit that as I was leaving with my empty cake holder, my friend's young son sadly said, "Bye, cake." Did he care that I was leaving? Not so much. But the cake? Now that's a sad moment.

With the temperatures rising and fresh cherries hitting the market, I hope you give this recipe a try, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let's take advantage of cherry season while it lasts.

Perfect Pairing

When chocolate and cherries are in play, you can't go wrong with a bourbon barrel-aged stout. These beers tend to be on the sweeter side, making them perfect with so many desserts. You can also play up the cherry flavor with a kriek, which is a Belgian-style cherry lambic. Krieks are tart and effervescent, so those light bubbles pair well with the whipped body of the cream. A nice port is another delicious choice as is my cherry-infused bourbon.

Cheers!

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