I have always had a thing for ice cream. Growing up, I remember visiting our small town local dairy creamery in the northern mountains of Utah for delicious flavors for most every special event in our lives. Going to Country Boy Dairy with my family and friends was always memorable and the flavors were always on point. When we would visit family in Brazil, my great grandpa would take me to a little sorveteria (ice cream parlor) where they had the most amazing brigadeiro ice cream that I loved! When I lived in Italy, finding amazing gelato became a hobby (Hazelnut, Stracciatella, Bacio, and Coconut were my favorites!). Needless to say, when I went sugar free, I HAD to have my ice cream fix!
I tried SO MANY different recipes for sugar free ice cream over the years and sadly, most of them fell short. I also wanted a recipe I could whip up with few ingredients and with little time. After some time experimenting, I created this simple ice cream recipe with ingredients you can essentially dump in the blender then dump again into the ice cream machine.
This recipe is vegan; it is made with canned coconut milk and no eggs. It only has 5 ingredients! I have other ice cream recipes that I will share with you that feature cooking an egg custard into the ice cream, but this vegan version is actually my go-to. I love how delicious, wholesome, and easy it is!
The recipe allows you to get creative. The recipe is simply a base vanilla flavor, but you can add in extra ingredients to customize the flavor however you wish! One of my favorites is by adding a handful of Date sweetened chocolate chips to the ingredients while in the blender (HU brand is my favorite- look at the package ingredients though, they only have one chocolate chip line that is sweetened only by dates). It makes a delicious chocolate ice cream!
base/vanilla straight from the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker
The ice cream has the texture of soft serve due to the coconut milk. If something other than coconut milk is desired, regular heavy whipping cream and milk can be used with some alterations(2 cups heavy whipping cream and 1 cup milk). I haven’t used other non-dairy cream options, but you are welcome to experiment.
You will need a good food processor or quality blender. I like to use the Vitamix blender. This is absolutely necessary to make sure the ingredients, specifically the dates, are all blended smoothly before transferred to the ice cream maker.
You will need a quality ice cream maker. I HIGHLY recommend the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, however, any quality machine will do.
Any leftover ice cream will keep nicely by lining a plastic cylindrical container with parchment paper and placing the ice cream inside the parchment. Seal the container with the lid and place in the freezer. We usually find that the ice cream gets eaten before there can be any leftovers, and to be honest, I prefer it that way! Nothing better than fresh ice cream!
Let me know what you thought of this easy vegan ice cream!