The sugar-free struggle is real.
Curse Lindsay Ostrom and her good ideas, like sugar-free January. Week 1 went down without a fight. No added refined sugar. No refined flours. Mikaela: 1 Chemically Refined Ingredients: 0
And then the weekend came… And I needed dessert. But after treating my body so well, I didn’t want to ruin it all with artificial crap. Therefore I give you . . . unrefined homemade cherry garcia ice cream! The perfect vanilla ice cream base, lightly sweetened with maple syrup. Load it with chunks of juicy cherries and swirls of dark chocolate??? Hurray!
I should admit that the way I made this cherry garcia recipe, there was the eensiest teensiest bit of refined sugar. I put the darkest of the dark chocolate on my freebie list, and I recently found my most favorite dark chocolate ever. 88% dark, a portion of profits go to endangered species, AND only 5 grams of sugar in half a bar. HIGHLY recommend. But if you want to be utterly impressive and completely remove every gram of refined sugar from this recipe, you can always use Enjoy Life chocolate chips or Davis chocolate chips.
I was super stoked to try out the new ice cream maker that David got me for Christmas. And it was AH-mazing! While I like to think of myself as an organized person, the freezer half of my refrigerator looks like an intense game of jenga that’s holding on thanks to a whim and a prayer. This ice cream maker has a compressor, which means that I don’t have to find space for an ice cream bowl in that embarrassing jenga mess. #win
Five minutes of prep and 40 minutes later and David and I were digging into soft serve . . .
mikaela | wyldflour
About 4 cups ice cream
5 minPrep Time
40 minCook Time
45 minTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk (whole or skim)
- 1/2 cup grade A dark maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 12 oz frozen pitted cherries (adjust based on taste)
- 1-2 oz dark chocolate, chopped
- 1-2 oz dark chocolate, melted
Instructions
- Whisk together cream, milk, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla extract. Freeze according to the directions of your ice cream maker. (I use a Cuisinart Ice 100 Compressor Ice Cream Maker, which took 40 minutes to get this recipe to soft-serve / mix-ins point.)
- Meanwhile, measure out cherries and set aside at room temperature to defrost. Measure out and chop 1 oz dark chocolate (or chocolate of choice, but dark chocolate will have the lowest amount of refined sugar), and set aside. When cherries are soft, use kitchen shears to cut cherries into quarters, or into the chunk size you prefer in your ice cream. Place cherries in a strainer and set aside to drain excess liquid. Shortly before ice cream is ready, melt 1-2 ounces chocolate and set aside.
- When ice cream reaches soft-serve / mix-ins stage, add cherries and chopped chocolate. Use a knife to drizzle in melted chocolate. (This will harden into chocolate swirls.) If your ice cream maker gets overwhelmed, or you accidentally wait to long and the ice cream is hard, just turn off the ice cream maker, move everything to a bowl, and mix-in by hand. If you want soft-serve ice cream, go ahead and serve! If you want harder ice cream, continue...
- Spread ice cream in a 9x5 loaf pan or other container. Drizzle extra melted chocolate on top of the ice cream, if you wish. Cover the ice cream in plastic wrap, pressing the plastic down until it is touching the surface of the ice cream. Freeze a minimum of 3 hours before serving.
Notes
Equipment: David gave me this Cuisinart Ice 100 Compressor Ice Cream Maker for Christmas, and I love it! Because it has a compressor, I don't have to find room in my freezer for the bowl. Prep takes less than give minutes and clean-up is super simple.
Tip: Whole milk will give you an even creamier result than skim milk. But I always use skim milk in order to lessen the fat content!
Have Fun: Get creative with mix-ins! This unrefined vanilla ice cream is a great base recipe for lots of flavors.
Disclaimer: Note that the above links may include affiliate links, from which I make a small percentage. However, I personally use the above products and will only recommend something I continue to use, myself. My opinions are 100% my own. Check out my full policies here.
Comments