Healthy Ice Cream?

Robert EbsenOP-ED

I finally did it.  I purchased an ice cream machine.  I want to make low-fat ice cream with no sugar, minimal fat content, real fruit, no artificial ingredients, no preservatives. 

Before I look for healthy ice cream recipes, I want to taste the very best homemade type, which relies upon coconut milk.  My goal is to make healthy ice cream that comes as close as possible to the least healthy one that I am about to make. The fat content of one 14-oz. can of Roland Classic Coconut Milk is 130 grams, of which 58.5 grams are saturated fat.  There are four 4-oz. scoops to a pint of ice cream.  If my one can of coconut milk makes a pint of ice cream, and I consume one scoop, I am getting 17 grams of saturated fat.  Gulp!

I found this recipe.  We will see how it tastes.

The Key Ingredients

  • Coconut milk (canned)
  • Agave (sweetener)
  • Fruit (pureed or blended mango, strawberry, raspberry, etc.)
  • Cornstarch (for thickening)
  • Salt (I don’t know what this is for yet)
  • Vanilla extract

Once these ingredients are combined in my not-so-powerful blender, they go in the freezer for a few hours.  Then  the mixture goes in the ice cream machine for up to 20 minutes.  That mixture goes in the freezer again for 2 to 4 hours.  For 10 minutes, the mixture should sit on the table before it is eaten.

The ice cream machine 1½-quart tub that holds the mixture has to be in the freezer until the liquid inside the tub cannot be heard when the tub is shaken.  I shook the tub after 12 hours in the freezer. It was ready to go.  So if I wanted to make ice cream every 12 hours, I could.

Now I will make some strawberry ice cream.  

Whurrrrr.

The verdict:  Very tasty, but that is a lot of saturated fat.

I need to find recipes for low-fat ice cream. 

A Vitamix machine would really help, too.

What a great new hobby!

Mr. Ebsen and his hobbies may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com