Having an ice cream maker at your disposal can be a dangerous thing. I find that, every time I break out the machine to make a batch of ice cream, I have a thousand – well, at least a dozen – flavor ideas swirling in my head, and then I want to make batch after batch of ice cream. This is great for my taste buds, but not so good for my thighs.
I forced myself to put my ice cream machine back in the cupboard and out of sight, but not before I made this luscious batch of sugar free cherry vanilla. Add 1/4 cup of shaved dark chocolate for an absolutely decadent chocolate cherry combo, or leave it as I did and enjoy the classic pairing of cherry and vanilla.
Notes: For a dairy free ice cream, replace the heavy cream with full fat coconut milk. Not sugar free? Replace the xylitol 1:1 with regular sugar.
Ingredients
1/2 cup xylitol
1/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup lite coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 lb. sweet cherries, pitted and puréed
Directions
1. In a medium saucepan, stir together the xylitol and the xanthan gum until the xanthan gum is evenly distributed. This step is important because adding the xanthan gum after you add the wet ingredients will leave you with gummy lumps throughout your ice cream base.
2. Add the heavy cream and coconut milk to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring regularly, until the xylitol is completely dissolved, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat, allow to sit for about 15 minutes to cool, then transfer the base to an airtight container and chill in the refrigerator at least 8 hours, or overnight.
4. Purée cherries in a food processor or with a hand blender and add to the ice cream base before pouring into the ice cream maker. You can also add the cherry purée in step 3, before you transfer the base to the container and chill, but I was trying to decide whether I wanted the cherries as a swirl or completely incorporated and left the decision until the last minute. Make the ice cream according to your ice cream maker instructions and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours.
Posted in Alternatively Sweetened, Desserts, Food, Gluten Free | 5 Comments »
I WANT AN ICE-CREAM MAKER! I want 12 flavours of icecream in my freezer! How wonderful!
posted: June 25th, 2010 at 1:35 amThis sounds soooooooooooooooooooo good! But where do I get xanthan gum?
posted: October 16th, 2010 at 12:44 pmCathy – Thanks! You can sometimes find xanthan gum in the health food section of the grocery store. If I can’t find it at the store, I order mine through the Bob’s Red Mill site: http://www.bobsredmill.com/xanthan-gum.html. It’s a pretty big bag, but it’ll last you for a very long time.
posted: October 20th, 2010 at 10:17 pmany suggestions for a non dairy heavy cream substitute?
posted: May 25th, 2011 at 9:13 pmMike – You could try regular coconut milk. It’s somewhat thicker and more viscous than the lite, so the texture is similar to heavy cream.
posted: May 25th, 2011 at 9:18 pm