Hey there,
summer – what do you associate with summer? Holidays? Sunshine? And what cannot be missed on a hot summer day (besides sunscreen and sun glasses)? Right, a big serving of ice cream. What are your favorite ice cream flavors?
During the last few weeks I’ve been eating a lot of ice cream but at a certain point I couldn’t stand those overly sweetened fruit sorbets anymore. My boyfriend and I therefore decided to get our own little ice cream maker. Nothing special, a very simple device bought in a local supermarket.
So far we have used it three times and every time we ended up with a delicious ice cream flavor, including peanut caramel and coffee. Wow, it’s so simple and so delicious! Today I may not have the fanciest ice cream flavor, but it definitely doesn’t lack flavor!
Cherry ice cream with chocolate chunks.
Fruity.
Creamy.
What else do you need?
And you you know what else is so great about this recipe? It is only sweetened with dates and cherries, of course! Yes, you got that right, no additional sugar! The creamy consistency comes from coconut milk and for that little extra kick I added vanilla and chocolate chunks. I think you can enjoy at least two servings remorselessly.
For those of you who don’t have an ice cream maker you can also make this ice cream without it. You can find instruction below the recipe.
PrintNaturally sweetened cherry ice cream with chocolate chunks
- Total Time: 150 minutes
- Yield: 750 ml 1x
Description
This fruity and delicious cherry ice cream is naturally sweetened and requires just a few ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 can coconut milk (400 ml)
- 150 g soft dates
- 200 g frozen cherries
- 1 tsp guar gum
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped
- 40–50 g dark chocolate, chopped
- 2–3 tbsp liquid sweetener (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except for the chocolate in a blender and blend until creamy.
- Pour the cream into a pre-cooled ice cream maker and churn for about 30 min (see manufacturer’s instructions).
- Afterwards, pour the ice cream into a casserole dish, add chopped chocolate and stir.
- Cover the dish with foil and place in the freezer for 1-2 hrs.
- Serve the ice cream in pre-cooled glasses or waffle cones and enjoy!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 120 minutes
Handy tips:
- If you don’t have a high-speed blender, use fresh, pitted cherries instead of frozen fruit. You can also use an immersion blender, it will probably take a littler longer to get it all smooth. Also, if your dates are not soft, soak them for 30-60 min in hot water prior to blending everything together.
- Guar gum is a thickener, which you can get in whole foods stores
- If you are used to or prefer very sweet ice cream, I would suggest you add a little extra sweetener like agave syrup.
- For this recipe I used coconut milk that didn’t have any non-pronouncable ingredients. Make sure it’s the full fat kind.
- If you don’t have an ice cream maker – no problem! You can blend all the ingredients as described, add the cream to a casserole dish, cover it and place it in the freezer. Now, take it out every 30 min and stir, starting from the edges (that’s where it starts to freeze first). Repeat this step until you reach the desired consistency. This process is quite elaborate but it works and your avoid the formation of ice crystals.
All right, enjoy the rest of the summer. In case you try this or any other of my recipes, tag me on instagram (@meli_loves_veggies #veggiejam). My boyfriend, my dog Bella and I just got back from playing outside and now we are pretty drained. Time for a cozy movie night … with a big serving of cherry ice cream!
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