Guest Post: Ice Creams Made with the July Cooking Tool of the Month

July Cooking Tool of the Month – Blender

I’m very excited about today’s guest post! Janae and I met through Twitter and her beautiful blog, Bring Joy. Seriously, her website is probably one of my new favorites and it’s bursting with gorgeous photos and mouth-watering recipes. We have a similar style of cooking so I asked her to do a guest post this month. 

I sure do love ice cream, but I am not about to buy yet another gadget. Why buy an ice cream maker when you can make it in your blender!? Janae shows us how!

In my family, summer means a lot of things:  swimming every day, games of croquet, camping, & perhaps most important, ice cream making.

Making your own ice cream isn’t as difficult as you might think.  It’s made easier by having a powerful blender, but even with a regular blender, you can still make your own at-home, frozen treats.

I have a Blendtec, that easily blends ice & nuts, creating smooth & creamy home made ice creams.  I don’t have an ice cream maker, so I’ve learned how to make delicious, easy ice cream without the use of an ice cream maker (which can be a tedious process–all that ice & rock salt!).

I like making my own ice cream because I’m able to adjust the level of sweetness to my liking as well as control the ingredients & experiment with flavor combinations.  It’s also much more cost effective to make your own than to buy a pint at the store.  Most non-dairy ice creams run about $4-$5 per pint.  You can make your own for half that cost.

Making your own ice cream is also a fun summer activity for the family or with friends.  My kids enjoy helping me get the ingredients together & watching how the raw ingredients, when combined, turn into ice cream that they love to eat.

What we’ve been eating this week:

Pina Colada Macadamia Ice Cream

 

&

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.  Both treats are vegan & gluten-free.

Before we start, a few tips on making your own ice cream.

How to Make Great Homemade Ice Cream 

1.  Fat & sugar are important in ice cream.  Not just because they add flavor & taste good, but it also helps the ice cream freeze well.  If you take out one, you have to add more of the other.  This is part of the reason why fat free ice creams have so much sugar.  The lack of fat has to be compensated for with sugar.  I try to strike a balance.  These recipes are both higher in fat & don’t skimp on unrefined sugar, so they freeze well.  I encourage you to resist the urge to substitute ingredients with lower fat items or cut the sugar in half.  Doing so may result in more of of an ice, rather than ice cream.

2.  Since there are no additives or preservatives, like many store bought varieties, these ice creams taste best when eaten within 3-5 days of making.  That said, they’ll still be good after that, but for optimum flavor & texture, don’t let this ice cream sit in the freezer for long (which shouldn’t be too hard!).

3.  Making your own ice cream without an ice cream maker is easy!  It just requires a bit of planning ahead, some time & attention.  You’ll need a 13 X 9 (or thereabouts) casserole dish & a good spatula.  I use a glass pyrex dish that I like.

4.  You can make ice cream without xantham gum, but using it gives the ice cream a smoother texture.  If you don’t use it, your ice cream will still taste great, it will just be icy, & won’t scoop out like store bought ice cream, or ice cream used with xantham gum does.  Xantham gum is often used in gluten-free baking & can be found in gluten-free sections of many grocery stores or at a natural foods store.

5.  The initial freeze of the ice cream is an important step.  You don’t want it to just stick the mixture in your freezer & then forget about it for 4 hours.  It will just turn into a big block of ice.  The steps of mixing the mixture periodically & then finally scooping out the ice cream into a storage container is important to the overall texture of your ice cream.

Pina Colada Macadamia Ice Cream 

1, 15 oz. can organic, full-fat coconut milk

1, 15 oz. can crushed pineapple

3/4 c. evaporated cane juice

1/4 c. stevia in the raw (or more cane juice)

1/8 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp.xantham gum

1 TBS. coconut extract

Ice (about 2-3 cups, depending on shape & size of ice)

1/2 c. macadamia nuts, chopped

1/2 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

Preparation

1.  In blender, add coconut milk, 1/2 the can of pineapple with all of its juice, evaporated cane juice & stevia, salt, xantham gum, coconut extract, & enough ice to make 6 cups total mixture.  Blend on high until very smooth.  You don’t want to overprocess otherwise it will melt all the ice, but you don’t want any chunks, either.

2.  Pour mixture in a casserole dish.

3.  Add chopped macadamia nuts, shredded coconuts, & remaining pineapple.  Stir to combine.

4.  Put dish in freezer for an hour.   After an hour, stir mixture throughly.  Repeat every hour for 3 hours.

5.  I’ve found 3 hours to be a good amount of time for the ice cream to set, but time will vary depending on the temperature of your freezer.  Watch the mixture, if you want it a bit more firm after 3 hours, let it sit in the freezer for 20 or 30 more minutes, which should do the trick.

6.  Once the desired firmness has been reached, use a big, strong spoon or scoop, serve ice cream (fun option:  serve in a pineapple, see below) &/or put leftovers in a freezer-friendly storage container.

7.  When you’re ready to have some ice cream, take the ice cream out & allow to soften for 10-15 minutes before serving.

When my husband & I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii we shared sherbet served in a pineapple.  I have loved the idea every since.  You can certainly eat your ice cream in a pineapple by yourself, but it’s much more fun to share it with someone!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

This recipe was inspired by my brother Jory who thinks that there’s no so such thing as too much chocolate in one ice cream.  I think I can agree with that.

I used full-fat soy milk in this recipe.  If you don’t eat soy, you may replace with almond milk, but I think full-fat soy works best here.  Rice milk isn’t a great alternative because it’s too low in fat & will make the ice cream icy.