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Homemade Ice Cream 101

Eeeeek!

Y’all, there was salad on my blog yesterday. Salad.

What’s a salad doing on a dessert blog? Never fear, dear readers, I have the perfect remedy for this: ice cream! (Well, maybe the perfect remedy would be chocolate mousse pie. But ice cream is a close second. And I promise to work on that pie!)

I finally tried a mint-chocolate chip version of the Volume Ice Cream.

It was just as delicious as I imagined. I’ll try to get the recipe post up next week. In the meantime, I thought I’d highlight a few of the variations I’ve already blogged about. Some of these posts are from over a year ago, so it was really fun for me to see my evolving photo skills!

sundae

Chocolate Peanut Butter

When I posted this recipe, I actually called it “peanut butter frozen hot cocoa” but the method is the same as that of the volume ice cream.

coffee1

3-Ingredient Coffee

This one’s from a long time ago, and I probably need to re-visit the recipe. I’m going to work on turning it into a healthy “Starbucks Frappuccino” recipe.

pb2

Peanut Butter Banana

Peanut butter and banana: always a classic. And I think this was one of the first-ever photos I took after learning you’re not supposed to use flash with food photography.

serendipity-hot-chocolate

Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

Also known as Frozen Hot Chocolate. Another recipe I need to re-visit. There are just too many!

icecreamsundae2

Vanilla Bean

cake-ice-cream

Cake Batter Ice Cream

Ice Cream Notes:

This ice cream—when made with almond milk—has a very light texture (perfect for summer). But if you want a texture that mimics the richness of true ice cream, you can still get that with this recipe. Just use coconut milk (the kind that comes in a can) as your non-dairy milk.

Also, if you don’t have a high-powered blender like a Vita-Mix, you can still make these recipes. They will just be more like a Wendy’s Frosty than ice cream, in terms of texture.

Published on June 24, 2011

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68 Comments

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  1. Allie says

    Woah-oah-oah, if you get a healthy frappuccino recipe up here, I will be one happy, happy girl. I don’t have a vitamix, but today’s going to be hot, so I just might have to make myself a “frosty.”

  2. Hannah @theflexitarianeater says

    hmmm I think I could be persuaded to do some ice cream taste testing 😉
    as for flavors, I’ve got a couple of ideas! chocolate-raspberry, rocky road (with vegan marshmallows of course!), pecan praline, mocha almond fudge, moose tracks…
    it could also be really fun to “healthify” popular flavors from brands like Ben & Jerry’s. so things like NY Super Fudge Chunk, Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, etc. (obviously this would be a bit more work, but some flavors, like chocolate fudge brownie, really wouldn’t be all that hard. i.e. just take your chocolate brownie and mix in bits of your brownies!)

  3. Qi Ting @ Misadventures of Fat free Baking says

    I just did some flavours! Yesterday I made your Volume ice cream with Chocolate paste, mocha paste (both from the baker resource shop), vanilla extract, instant coffee and jovia. Unsweetened soya bean extract was my non-dairy milk. I let the ice melt for about 15 minutes then blended them for 1 minute in a blender to get really delicious,ice-cream-like slushie. YUM.(Even got my brother jealous and he hates desserts! ) My matcha ice cream is in the freezer right now! Will let you know the results! 😀

  4. Michaela says

    oh yum, I am so craving ice cream right now!!
    Any recipe would be great 🙂
    And yes, your skills have improved so much!

  5. Carlyn says

    I think carrot cake is a brilliant idea because you don’t see that flavor type in normal ice creams! Another idea would be perhaps marshmallow graham w/ vegan chocolate chips or a “milk” chocolate sauce to accompany it! You could mix in vegan marshmallow fluff w/ the almond milk and add crushed up pieces of graham cracker after the blend in the vitamix….yum!

  6. Aja says

    I love these recipes. They all sound so good. I made “ice cream” in chemistry before school got out and it was kind of gross because the bag leaked and salt got all over it. It was weird. This is so much better.

  7. katie @KatieDid says

    I made it with all coconut milk, shredded unsweetened coconut, coconut extract, a little maple syrup and a little salt. UNREAL! using all coconut milk made it heavenly and decadent I really recommend it!

  8. Jenny says

    I’ve made cookie dough ice cream before! 🙂 Kind of had to make it at home, since the only cookie dough ice creams in grocery stores around where I live all had eggs listed in the ingredients (and I’m allergic!).

    I agree – there are too many flavours that you can possibly try! So much fun to get creative. I love raspberry chocolate-chip as well. Classic chocolate is aaallllways amazing, but chocolate chocolate-chip is awesome, too. I’ve had blueberry cinnamon ice cream before that was surprisingly delicious… (Actually, anything with blueberries should be delicious, so I guess it wasn’t “surprising”.)

    Ice cream all day… Would have to watch out for brain freezes!

  9. Chocolate, Cheese and Wine says

    Cherry Chocolate Chip would be great – especially with fresh cherries YUM! I cannot wait to try your hot chocolate ice cream!

  10. Kristin @ STUFT Mama says

    I would LOVE to experiment. Put me to work! ha! I can be your assistant. What a good excuse to eat some ice cream, Love the chocolate peanut butter on today’s post!!! What about a s’mores flavor??? Maybe with some peanut butter in it????? Or cherry almond??

  11. Victoria @ Pursuit of Hippieness says

    I don’t have a great blender, but I’m going to try butter pecan (butter extract and pecans), maple blondie (my FAVORITE ben and jerry’s!), pistachio, chocolate chip cookie dough (with raw vegan dough), coffee heath bar, and s’mores. i would love to do mission to marzipan and karamel sutra too, but i don’t see how i could make those healthy!!! 🙂

  12. Jen says

    Oatmeal raisin cookie dough! (I’ve actually seen this at a homemade ice cream shop before! Drool.) Other ideas…ginger snap, pina colada, pumpkin, green tea (FAVORITE), or something with a fudge/caramel swirl. You can never go wrong with a swirl. 🙂

  13. Lauren @ What Lauren Likes says

    What about a tropical flavour? pineapples, coconut, macadamia nuts, papaya! that kind of thing!

  14. Peanutbutterlover says

    I have been making moose tracks and cookie dough versions for the past couple of weeks. They taste just like the real thing, but so much healthier (thankfully!). I posted my chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream recipe on my blog, but not the moose tracks version yet. Hopefully soon. I would love for you to check them out and leave a comment. Enjoy!

  15. Little Bookworm says

    Love the sound of a mint chocolate version of that recipe! 🙂 The first photo in this post is stunning as well – love your photos Katie!

  16. Eleanor@eatinglikeahorse says

    Thanks for the reminder of the frozen hot chocolate – I need to make it! Coconut ice cream would also be the way forward but I suppose just using coconut milk instead of almond would be the way to do it… plan for tomorrow 🙂

  17. Rachel @ Eat, Learn, Discover! says

    These look amazing! I wish I had a decent blender.

    Favorite flavor – butter pecan. Toast some pecans with agave and honey (amazing by themselves) and blend with creamy vanilla. so good!

  18. Lauren says

    Katie-you have way too many fabulous recipes! I need a chance to actually try them all 😉 And ice cream is perfect for summer. We grilled peaches last night and one of these recipes would have been perfect to go with it. Darn…..guess we’ll have to do it again 😀

  19. Molly says

    I would love to help you try out recipes but I don’t have a vita-mix and my food processor says specifically to not chop ice! Lol. Any suggestions?

  20. Amanda Jewell says

    My absolute favorite ice cream flavors are Cookie n’ Cream and Rocky Road
    so clearly, those are the two you should create 🙂

  21. Taylor says

    I think you should make one similar to ben and jerry’s cherry garcia! I love a chocolate-cherry combination! [:
    P.S.- I adore reading your blog! My sweet tooth is outrageous, and my friends and I loved your snickerdoodle blondies [:

  22. Tara says

    I want to try a pistachio flavor! I have been obsessed with pistachio desserts lately. I definitely will try out some flavors when I get home from my vacation. I know I have some coconut milk that needs to be used.

  23. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga says

    Love all these ice cream recipes in ONE POST!!!

    And most are chocolate or choc with PB. <—I think that life is just better with those things in heavy rotation 🙂

    Flavors I'd love to see…well cookie dough anything is always great but whatever you come up with will no doubt be delish!!

    And I love seeing the evolution of your photography through these various posts and stages of your blog/life!

  24. Kaitlyn@TheTieDyeFIles says

    I don’t have a Vita, though I wish I did…perhaps a Christmas present??) but I do have an ice cream maker (boyfriend birthday present) to go on the KitchenAid mixer (boyfriend Christmas present–isn’t he good to me?) so I’m going to try a few of those in there! I think if I increase servings it’ll be well worth the while!

  25. Emma (Sweet Tooth Runner) says

    I’LL BE TESTER!! I’ve always wanted to be a CCK tester!! I’ll make a shirt with that written on it and wear it when I try your ice cream recipes out! 😀 I’m torn though…they all sound SO good!! Cookie dough, Pb&J mmmm….oh and a Chocolate Brownie one!! That used to be my FAVOURITE Ben&Jerrys flavour before I was vegan!!

    Oooh and it’s sposed to be quite hot here in London this weekend (yaaaay!!!) so it’ll be PERFECT and I am so so so trying this!! Wooooo I am WAY too excited right now!! Eeeee!! 😀

  26. Ruby says

    Oh my goodness! It’s my 16th birthday today and I find this on your blog! YUM! Too perfect! I’m going to go celebrate my cooking up some dessert!

  27. Mina says

    Katie,
    First off, I am a huge fan of your blog and your recipes. I always read your posts and almost immediately go out and buy the ingredients to try whatever genius recipe you’ve just come up with. I’ve been getting really into trying your ice cream variations lately since it’s getting to be really hot, and mine have all been melting a little too quickly or generally been a little to icey/watery.
    I actually came up with a great solution that works for smoothies as well as ice cream: I added about a teaspoon of Xantham Gum to the mixture for the mint “spinach” ice cream and it made a world of difference. You have to let it blend a bit longer for it to properly “work” the Xantham gum, but I was wondering if you had every tried using this, or if there was a reason you hadn’t? Xantham gum is used in a lot of gluten free baking so it was easy enough to find at whole foods.
    It also did a magical job of keeping smoothies/frappucinos blended in a creamy, homogenous consistency.

    Anyways, let me know if there is a specific reason that you do or don’t use Xantham Gum, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

  28. Debby says

    Hey Katie, I just got an ice cream machine and need (well not really) an excuse to try it out. I would love to try making a cookie dough ice cream and one of my favorites is cinnamon so I’m going to get working one those for myself. I saw that there is a coconut milk based cookie dough ice cream on the market but I’ll come up with something.

  29. Marianne says

    Katie – your photography has seriously improved leaps and bounds! I’m just catching up on all the blogs I had to put on the back burner for so long. I’m amazed with what you have done here on your blog. I wish I had the time to really sit down and figure out how to get mine to where I want it to be. And I wish I had a Vita-Mix so I could try out your ice cream creations 😉

    • Chocolate-Covered Katie says

      Wow, Marianne, coming from you that is the BIGGEST compliment! As I’ve told you many times, YOUR photography skills are incredible and I have always admired them.
      Also, all your recent comments make me smile!!

      And p.s. I was SOOOOOOO rooting for your team and was super-upset when they lost 🙁 🙁

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