Recipes for Making Your Own Healthy Ice Cream

I have a new cooking obsession - making ice cream! In my quest to continue reducing my sugar consumption I am always looking for places where I can substitute healthy sweeteners for sugar in my diet. I recently had one of those “aha” moments while staring at the ice cream in my freezer. Years ago we had a little ice cream maker and it wasn’t too hard to use so I decided to try it again.

I got myself a little Hamilton Beach Half Pint Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker (there's a link below if you want to check it out). The booklet that comes with this ice cream maker includes recipes that are easily modified. I made all the dairy organic and substituted xylitol for the sugar. Then I got creative- Blueberry-Acai Ice Cream has turned out to be my favorite, but I’ve also made successful batches  of Lemon-Ginger and Strawberry-Goji Berry Ice Cream, which turns out a very interesting pinkish orange color as you can see in the picture above. I’m still working on the Mint Chocolate Chip (can’t get the cacao chocolate to keep from freezing too hard) and a reasonable coffee ice cream using decaf instant.

There are a number of different Ice Cream Makers available. My Hamilton Beach has been great, but I’ll probably upgrade to a larger model now that I know I’ll use it regularly.

For your culinary pleasure - here are my recipes to date

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup ½  & ½
¼  cup heavy cream
2 tbls. xylitol
½ teas. vanilla extract
Stir or shake well to ensure xylitol is dissolved before  putting in your ice cream maker

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For dairy free ice cream you could experiment with coconut milk instead of the ½ & ½ & heavy cream

Fudgsicle® Chocolate Ice Cream

I think this recipe tastes just like fudgsicles®. I’m going to pick up an ice pop maker and make them for our next picnic.

4 Teas. Unsweetened raw cacao powder
2 ½ Tb. Xylitol
½ cup ½ & ½  or heavy cream
¼ Teas. vanilla extract
Stir or shake well to ensure xylitol is dissolved before  putting in your ice cream maker

Low Fat Vanilla Ice Cream

1 Cup fat free ½ & ½
½ cup evaporated milk
½ cup whole milk
¾ cup xylitol
1 Teas. vanilla extract
Stir or shake well to ensure xylitol is dissolved before putting it in your ice cream maker.

Frozen Yogurt

Just pop your favorite yogurt into your ice cream maker & follow the directions. For a healthier vanilla, buy the plain flavor and add a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia to taste.

VARIATIONS

Here are a few ideas to get you started experimenting.

Blueberry-Acai – Add ¼ cup blueberries & 1 teaspoon acai powder to the vanilla ice cream recipe. Mix well with a hand blender or mixer.

Lemon-Ginger – Add ½ teaspoon grated ginger mixed into 3 tablespoons lemon juice to the vanilla ice cream recipe. Mix well with a hand blender or mixer.

Mango – Add 1/3 cup chopped mango to the vanilla ice cream recipe.  Mix well with a hand blender or mixer. I like to sprinkle dried coconut over the top.

Here's a link to the Hamilton Beach Soft Ice Cream Maker. Just pop the finished product in the freezer for hard ice cream. I think the hard ice cream tastes best if you defrost it a little before eating it.

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Hamilton Beach Soft Ice Cream Maker