Homemade Ice Cream

Over the weekend, I was on a mission....a mission to find recipes for safe, homemade ice cream. I went to an adoption yard sale and found an ice cream maker (the kind that you have to put ice and rock salt in the bucket). I have never made homemade ice cream before. I hesitated buying it, because I have heard that a lot of the recipes call for milk and eggs. I felt pretty comfortable that there would be recipes on the Internet, but I wanted to make ice cream that creamy and yummy, not icy. I wasn't sure if we would be able to get the right texture and richness using milk alternatives, etc.

I bought the ice cream maker, and came home and did some research. I came across a book called The Vegan Scoop 150 Recipes for Dairy-Free Ice Cream That Tastes Better Than the "Real" Thing. I looked into it a little more, and knew that I had to get my hands on this book. I called the local libraries and they didn't have it. I was told they could do an inter-library loan, but it would take a week or two to get it in. I decided that I didn't want to wait that long to make some safe ice cream. I found out that The Vegan Scoop was at Borders and had them hold it for me. We went there and I browsed through it and was excited about what I saw. I used a coupon (you can sign up at Borders) which helped out with the cost, but I thought it pretty funny that the book was more expensive than my yard sale find :) Oh well!

With book in hand, and 5 lbs of ripe bananas that I found for a dollar (we froze the rest for smoothies), I was inspired to make safe banana chocolate chip ice cream. The result? YUM!!!!!! I was so excited about how it turned out! Peaches will be ready to pick soon, so I bet you can guess the next flavor of ice cream we will be making...

To me, ice cream is one of the treats of summer and the memories that the kids will have of making it are priceless!

Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

recipe adapted from The Vegan Scoop

This recipe is free of milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish

*it can be soy free if you substitute plain coconut milk and coconut creamer (I saw the creamer at Whole Foods...using plain and not vanilla, etc lets the real flavors of the ice cream come through). It even says in the book that you can experiment with other types of non-dairy milks (Almond, Rice, Cashew, etc.)

*you will need an ice cream maker

Ingredients

3 bananas, peeled and sliced

1 cup plain soymilk, divided *read above to make soy free

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (you can find this at Whole Foods, the brand I got was Bob's Red Mill...this is used as a thickener and helps the ice cream be glossy and creamy)

2 cups plain soy creamer (I used Silk) *read above to make soy free

1/2 sugar (I used organic cane sugar)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Safe chocolate chips (Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips There is a coupon on Enjoy Life website for .55 off any Enjoy Life product). I just dumped in the amount I wanted to use...just eye-balled it :)

Directions

In a food processor, puree bananas and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup soymilk with arrowroot and set aside.

Mix soy creamer, remaining 3/4 cup soymilk, bananas, and sugar in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. This will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably.

Add vanilla extract.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2-3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Fold in chocolate chips right before serving or putting back into the freezer.

Yield: approximately 1 quart

Stay Cool!!!!!