Easy Ice Cream Recipes

Can you imagine, guilt-free ice cream that’s actually good for you?! Yup, that’s what we eat around here… all the time! It’s our favorite treat and very easy to make (compared to pies, cakes, cookies etc.). Here’s a video on how to make it… or read below for the details 🙂

My ice cream recipe is adapted from Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions”.

What you need to know… all my flavors are built from a Vanilla ice cream base! 

Learn how to make basic vanilla and you can make all the flavors you can think up. The next important thing to know is, you need 100% pure raw cream from healthy cows on pasture…the heavy stuff that floats to the top of  raw un-homonognized jersey milk. Unfortunately, you can’t find this stuff in grocery stores, unless you live in CA. You’ll probably have go to a farm or own your own cow to get this creamy gold. In East Texas, I recommend Trimble Dairy in Big Sandy, Texas and Jersey Girls, in Winnsboro Texas.

If you refuse to find a farmer that sells real cream and you have to go to grocery store, look for heavy wiping cream or full cream. Don’t get half and half, you want the ingredients label to say “cream” not “milk” just CREAM. If you’re lucky you may find one that just has cream and a thickener. It’ll be pasteurized, but avoid the ultra-pasturized types. Unfortunately, if you want organic from the store it’ll be ultrapasturized to extend shelf life. You’ll just have to compromise if you buy cream at the store.

VANILLA ICE CREAM 

4 Cups Cream (raw from healthy cows on pasture). No skim, after all it’s not called ice skim. It’s ice cream!
1/2 Cup Maple Syrup (preferably organic)
1/2 Cup Honey (preferably unfiltered and unheated)
1 Tbs. Tapioca Powder/Flour/Starch or 1 Tea. Arrowroot. I’ve used both, but now prefer Tapioca. This is a very important ingredient for a creamy smooth easy to scoop ice cream.
3 Egg Yolks (no whites, preferably local farm raised from pastured chickens)
3/4 Tbs Vanilla Extract
1 tea Celtic Sea Salt, fine grind (salt is important)
1 Vanilla bean (Optional) Cut bean in half and scrap the little black things out and add to the cream. This optional step add’s little specks of black and changes your ice cream into “Vanilla Bean” 🙂

Pour cream in a blender. Turn the blender on the lowest setting, keep it on the whole time (try and avoid air bubbles), add the tapioca powder & salt, slowly stream in the maple syrup & honey, drop in the egg yolks separately, pour in vanilla. Blend on low until mixed well. (Optional step – Refrigerate this mixture for a few hours, even better over night. Then put blender back on low for a second to mix before you pour it in the freezer bowl.)

Before you start your ice cream, put a glass bowl (that you will store your ice cream in) and a spatula in the freezer.  When making ice cream you’re trying to make ice crystals. The quicker you make these and maintain them the smoother your ice cream will be; instead of icy. The goal is to keep everything really cold until you get it in the freezer; so an ice-cold bowl and spatula will help.  The bowl and spatula will chill while you make the ice cream…

I use a 2 quart Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. You must also freeze the Cuisinart bowl 24 hours before you use it. So, once it is frozen take the Cusinart freezer bowl out of the freezer and put it into the maker. Then put the stirring blade inside and the top cover on. Turn it on. Slowly pour in the liquid cream mixture from the blender. If you have the ice cream maker turned on while you pour, you’ll have less sticking to the sides at the end.

Depending on the temperature of your house… it’ll take somewhere around 40 minutes to finish. Set a timer!

It’s done when the top of the ice cream mixture stops moving. You’ll be able to tell when you look at it. You want to take it out when it get’s to it’s thickest point. After that, it will start going the other direction, i.e. melting… because the bowl can’t keep it that thick and rich for long. So, get it out before the melting point.

When the ice cream is ready, quickly get the ice cream out of the maker and into the (now ice-cold) glass bowl with the cold spatula that you put in the freezer earlier. Be careful – if you use a spoon or anything metal you’ll scratch the Cuisinart bowl – rubber is better… ask me how I know.  Do this as fast as possible. Don’t get distracted by anything, ignore baby crying, poopy diapers, kids asking for something, the phone, emails etc. Stay focused and do this step quick. You’re trying to maintain all the little ice crystals you created. Put the lid on and put the bowl in your coldest freezer…preferably right where the cold air blows out. Ideally, you’ll wait to eat the ice cream for at least 6 hours, unless you like soft serve. Make the ice cream at least a day before you need it… it needs time to freeze.

CHUNKY MONKEY ICE CREAM

Vanilla ice cream base, use above recipe
3/4 Cup of Ripe Organic bananas
1 Dark Chocolate Bar
3/4 Cup of Walnuts (soaked, dehydrated and toasted). Soak walnuts in water and a bit of vinegar over night. Rinse and dehydrate completely. Then toast in the oven at 300 for 12 minutes. I store these in the freezer after they’re prepared.

Make the above vanilla ice cream first and then add the ingredients for this flavor. After all the vanilla ingredients are in the blender, add the bananas and mix well. With a large knife cut up the chocolate bar into chunks and break up the walnuts into big pieces. Put chocolate and walnut pieces in the freezer to get cold until you need them. Pour blender contents in the ice cream maker. Set the timer for 30 minutes. After it goes off, get the walnuts and chocolate pieces from the freezer and pour into the maker. Set the timer for another 10 minutes.
Continue w/ instruction above for vanilla.

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM

Vanilla ice cream base, use above recipe
1 to 2 teaspoons Spirulina Powder 
1 Dark Chocolate Bar put through a cheese grater to get small pieces/shavings.
8 to 10 Drops of Peppermint Essential Oil. This stuff is powerful. If you think you want to put more… taste it before you add more. The taste gets stronger as the ice cream settles. If you add too much you’ll wish you didn’t. Less is better until you know how much you like.

Make the above vanilla ice cream first and then add the ingredients for this flavor. Add spirulina powder to the blender and mix well. (Note: the green color will darken later as it turns in the ice cream maker.) After you pour all the liquid in the maker, set your timer for 30 minutes. Then add the dark chocolate pieces/shavings.  Set timer for 10 more minutes for the total 40 minute time. Then take it out. Adding the chocolate later on when the ice cream has thickened (rather than sooner when it is more liquid) will help it disperse better and the mixture won’t end up as dark… you’ll see a more even distribution of the green and black ingredients.

BUTTER PECAN ICE CREAM

Vanilla ice cream base, use above recipe
3/4 cup of pecans (soaked, dehydrated and toasted). Soak in water and a bit of vinegar over night. Rinse and dehydrate completely. Then toast in the oven at 300 for 12 minutes. I store lots of these in the freezer after they’re prepared to make life easier when I need them. Crush them into large pieces and then put them in the fridge to chill before use.

 

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE SWIRL ICE CREAM (It’s like a Dairy Queen Blizzard)

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM

CHOCOLATE OVERLOAD ICE CREAM

CHOCOCLATE-HAZELNUT ICE CREAM (TASTES JUST LIKE NUTELLA)