Ice Cream in a {Ginger}Snap

July 23, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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I suppose it would be more accurate to say, “GingerSnaps in Ice Cream” but it doesn’t have the same ring to it. And when it comes right down to it, the actual truth is that it is gingersnap dough in ice cream, which totally just doesn’t have a ring at all. And yes, you heard me right: cookie dough ice cream, but not the chocolate chip kind. Nope, the gingersnap kind!


I was inspired by Susan of mighty acorns, who guest posted for me a little while back, and commented on my FB page that her favorite ice cream flavor had bits of “gingernut biscuit” (which I translated into gingersnap, hopefully correctly) and ginger chew (which I unfortunately did not have on hand). She said that it was in a vanilla-flavored ice cream, but I decided to go over the top and make the ice cream itself gingersnap-flavored, too.

Once again, I used a coconut milk base (which actually makes a very delicious and creamy ice cream base, even if you’re not vegan or dairy-free), but of course you can swap in regular milk and cream instead.


 

GingerSnaps in Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 1 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 tsp ginger powder
  • 1 can coconut milk, chilled
  • 1/2 recipe GingerSnap Dough
  • 1/4 cup candied ginger, optional

GingerSnap Dough

  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 3 TBSP palm shortening
  • 1 cup + 2 TBSP whole wheat flour (or 1 cup brown rice flour + 2 TBSP corn/arrowroot/tapioca starch)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1″ knob ginger root, grated
  • dash ground cloves

Instructions

  1. Blend together the coconut milk, molasses and ginger powder. Chill until very cold, and then churn in ice cream machine. When ice cream is very close to the desired consistency, add in the GingerSnap Dough, one piece at a time, followed by the candied ginger. Continue churning until mixed thoroughly, then freeze for several hours before serving. Enjoy within a week.

To make GingerSnap Dough

  1. Bring molasses to a boil; remove from heat and add shortening. Stir together until shortening is completely melted, then add remaining ingredients, stirring well. Roll into small 1/4″ balls and place in a single layer on a pan. Freeze until hardened, then add to the ice cream per instructions. Freeze extra dough for the next batch of ice cream!

The gingersnap dough really deteriorated after a week or so in the freezer, which may or may not be because I used rice flour. Just in case, be sure to enjoy the ice cream right away. Also, next time I try it, I might actually bake a batch of gingersnaps, cut them into chunks, freeze them, and then add them to the ice cream instead of the raw dough.

Also, the molasses flavor was really quite strong in these, so next time, I’ll probably cut it with honey to soften the intense flavor a bit. I love ginger, and molasses is its perfect foil… but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing!

This is not a super QUICK recipe unless you already have a batch of gingersnaps and just add them instead of the cookie dough, although it really doesn’t take long to whip up a batch of gingersnaps (It is my favorite go-to cookie recipe, after all.).

It has several steps, too, so it’s not super EASY, either. But you know what they say… no pain, no gain. Some things are worth it!

Homemade dairy-free gourmet ice cream is definitely CHEAPer than the same thing bought in a store. And that makes it totally worth it in my book.

I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again (because it’s true!), homemade ice cream is definitely HEALTHYer than storebought! You can make ice cream at home with pure ingredients, plus you can control the sugar level.

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Dulce, Dolce, Doce. In a Word, Sweet.

July 21, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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So far this week, I’ve posted some pretty healthy ice cream and sorbet recipes, most of them with minimal or no sugar, not to mention loaded with healthy vitamin- and mineral- rich fruits.

Not today.

Today, it’s time for a little decadence. What is life if you don’t live a little? This particular ice cream is inspired by my most-favorite-ever drink at Starbucks, the Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Thank goodness it’s only available for a limited time each year, because my wallet and my scale can’t handle anymore than that. If you’ve never had a cinnamon dolce latte, it’s a deliciously creamy drink that’s very sweet with a hint of cinnamon and caramel. The combination is luxurious, indulgent… and addictive!

In my head, I imagined a creamy cinnamon-flavored ice cream base with ribbons of dulce de leche swirled throughout. I got close. Very, very close. The ice cream base is creamy and cinnamon-flavored, but the dulce de leche didn’t exactly swirl in ribbons. I chalk that down to my impatience - I couldn’t wait until a.) the dulce de leche was cool enough, and b.) the ice cream was frozen enough, so the warm dulce de leche just melted into the ice cream. I am pretty confident, though, that if you are more patient than I, and have nearly-frozen ice cream, and very cold dulce de leche, that you will achieve Cinnamon Dulce Ice Cream nirvana.

Of course, I used dairy-free products because of my son’s allergies to milk, but you should be able to substitute regular heavy cream for the coconut cream (no need to whip), regular milk for the coconut milk beverage, and canned dulce de leche (available under the brand name Goya in the Hispanic section of many grocery stores, or the Nestle brand La Lechera here at Amazon.com) for the “leche de coco”.

 

Cinnamon Dulce Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • Ice Cream:
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage (or other non-dairy milk)
  • 1 TBSP honey or agave nectar (if you want to keep it 100% vegan)
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup “dulce de coco”

Dulce de Coco

  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  1. To make the ice cream, place the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator until at least half of it solidifies (several hours). Place the solid portion in a mixer, and beat with the whip attachment until it forms the consistency of heavy whipped cream. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients until well blended (or use stick blender); fold coconut whipped cream into the liquid mixture. Pour into ice cream machine, and follow manufacturer’s instructions. When ice cream is almost to the desired texture, drizzle in 1/2 cup of dulce de coco. Remove from ice cream machine and store in freezer.
  2. To make dulce de coco, combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan, and whisk over medium high heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, and continue whisking frequently. Allow to boil for at least 10 minutes, up to 20 minutes, until mixture is thickened and significantly reduced (by as much as half). Cool completely in refrigerator before adding to ice cream.

Not the QUICKest ice cream in my repertoire, especially having to make the dulce de leche from scratch. I don’t begrudge one minute, though, once I’ve tasted it!

It’s also not the EASY-est… but once again, no regrets!

And again… not so CHEAP, at least compared to other homemade ice creams. But compared to store-bought dairy-free ice cream? Definitely cheaper, by more than half!

And… not really very HEALTHY, to be sure, although for as sweet as it is, there really isn’t a ton of sugar involved. The dulce de coco recipe calls for 3/4 cup, but then you use less than half the amount, so it’s really not a terrible amount of sugar. For an ice cream, recipe, anyway.

 

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Ice Cream Even Baby Can Eat!

July 20, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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Ice cream that baby can eat? Ice cream that is completely devoid of cream of any sort? Ice cream without sugar? Creamy ice cream? Ice cream that is all those things and also delicious?!?!

Why yes, my friends. And once again, you need go no further than the humble banana. (Maybe I should have called this Banana Week instead of Ice Cream Week!) Except this time, instead of just exploiting the banana’s attributes to make a regular ice cream even better - whether by flavor or by texture - we’re just going to use the banana. Just the banana, that’s it.

OK, you can add in some things if you want. For instance, cocoa comes to mind, or chocolate chips. Or maybe a big spoonful of peanut butter (or non-peanut substitute). Coconut, maybe? Some berries or berry syrup?

All right, now I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. First, let’s make the “ice cream”.

Baby’s First Ice Cream, aka Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • slightly overripe bananas*
  • splash of vanilla
  • freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Peel the bananas and slice them into 1/2″ rounds. Place the rounds in a single layer on a pan and freeze for an hour or two. Remove from the freezer and put into a blender (or put in a bowl, and use an immersion blender, in which case, don’t freeze them rock hard - they should still be a tad moist). Blend, blend and blend some more until you have a creamy ice-cream-like consistency. Add water, a tablespoon at a time, if necessary to help the blender run. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg. Serve immediately soft-serve style, or place back into the freezer for a harder ice cream. I found the ice cream tasted better the next day after the flavors had some time to blend. *There are no specific quantities. Each banana makes about one serving, so adjust to however many servings you want to make.

 

Instead of the vanilla and nutmeg, consider other flavor combinations, such as:

  • dried ginger and candied ginger
  • cinnamon and cardamom
  • almond extract and coconut flakes
  • grated semisweet or dark chocolate
  • small chunks of fresh mango
  • a drizzle of honey or maple syrup
  • a tablespoon or two of peanut butter
  • a tablespoon of cocoa (you may want to add a little honey or sugar, too, to offset the bitter)

Take the simple to the sublime by topping it with:

Bet you never thought ice cream could be so QUICK!

Or so EASY!

Or so CHEAP!

Or so HEALTHY! I didn’t feel the least bit guilty offering it to my Certain Little Someone just now as a mid-morning snack.

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Ice Cream Week Continues with Berry Sorbet

July 19, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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Would you believe that this is yet another recipe whose pictures are on that blasted memory card that is who-knows-where?! I have yanked out my hair, searched through every possible hiding spot in this residence, even crawled around on my hands and knees and I can’t find it anywhere. Ugh. Oh well, here’s a picture from the source:


We’re coming to the end of berry season on the east coast here, but the good thing about sorbets is that they often start with frozen fruit anyway, so all you need is a bag or two of frozen berries from the grocery. However, if you happen to have some fresh local berries like I did earlier this month, then so much the better!

When I set out to make my berry sorbet (I used strawberries), I was actually kind of shocked at how much sugar (or corn syrup, for goodness’ sakes!) people threw into their sorbets. Most fruit is sweet enough on its own; it doesn’t need to be doctored up quite so much. Of course, the tart factor might be increased after some time in the freezer, but even so, I found this recipe to be plenty sweet enough, especially when I served it with a sprinkling of homemade granola and a few chocolate chips.

I used this no-sugar-at-all berry sorbet recipe, and it turned out great! It only uses a tablespoon of honey, which means that it is not even an indulgence. It calls for coconut water - I just used the bit of coconut milk left over from a can after I had refrigerated all the cream out of it. Of course, if you have coconut water, you can use it, or you can use plain water. You can try using milk or cream instead, but then it won’t technically be a sorbet anymore. And… we have again a banana in the ice cream! I really think the bananas help to make a nice creamy consistency, and the flavor goes very well with the berries in this recipe.

Easy Sugarless Berry Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 4 cups fresh or frozen berries
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 1 banana, frozen
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk, coconut water, or water

Instructions

  1. If berries are fresh, wash them, pat them dry and then freeze for an hour or so. Combine all ingredients and blend well in a blender, food processor or with a hand blender. Churn in an ice cream machine until you have reached desired consistency (optional). Freeze in a freezer-safe container for several hours, or eat right away soft-serve style.

If your berries are already frozen, this is one of the QUICKest ice cream recipes around. You can even eat it immediately if desired, since all the main ingredients are frozen to begin with.

It’s also one of the EASY-est, especially since you don’t really even need an ice cream machine (although I think it helps with the texture, too).

It’s CHEAP during berry season, but otherwise, not so much. Frozen berries are available for a good price year-round at Trader Joes.

This is such a HEALTHY ice cream, you don’t even need to feel the list bit guilty about enjoying it! It’s an additional serving of fruits, after all!

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SRC: Roasted Banana Ice Cream

July 18, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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It’s time again, folks, for the Secret Recipe Club, something I’ve looked forward to all month long! If you weren’t around for the last one, the Secret Recipe Club is where we are each secretly assigned another blog to browse, choose a recipe, make it and post about it. Kudos to Amanda, who organized this great event and manages it so well every month!

I do apologize, but this is another series of pictures I took that is on a memory card in a location yet to be determined. Which stinks, because those pictures were pretty good if I remember correctly!

My assigned blog this month was Join Us Pull Up a Chair (love the name!). I did indeed pull up a chair and enjoy myself browsing through Heather‘s collection of recipes, pulled from her “stacks and stacks” of magazines (I can so relate, Heather!). Although I drooled (at least mentally) over many of her recipes, I finally decided to go with her Bananas Foster Ice Cream Recipe, which is, in fact, what got me started on Ice Cream Week this week (Thanks, Heather, for the inspiration!).

I have decided that bananas in ice cream really add such a creamy quality, even after the ice cream has been sitting in the freezer for a few days. Most homemade ice cream tends to be rock hard, but I find that ice cream with bananas can be so creamy and delicious no matter when you decide to dig into it. It’s too bad that bananas have such a distinctive flavor, or I would add them to every batch of ice cream!

The good thing about this ice cream recipe is that the bananas are the star, so you can let their flavor shine unabashedly. I stuck to Heather’s basic recipe, but I used coconut milk (because of Baby Boy’s allergy) and added some chocolate. Because as good as banana ice cream is, it’s even better with chocolate.


Banana Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 3 medium bananas, peeled
  • 1/3 cup raw sugar
  • 1 TBSP butter, cut in pieces
  • 1 1/2 cups milk (or coconut milk)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Slice bananas into 1/2″ pieces and stir together with sugar and butter. Bake in a casserole dish at 400F for 40 minutes, stirring once, until bananas are browned and cooked through.
  2. Remove from oven, and add remaining ingredients, except for chocolate chips and coconut oil. Blend well with an immersion blender until smooth, then cool for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
  3. Pour into ice cream machine according to machine’s instructions.
  4. When the ice cream is close to the desired consistency, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring each time. When melted, stir in the oil. Pour the melted chocolate into the ice cream mixture while the machine is continuing to churn. Once all the chocolate has been added, remove ice cream into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours before serving. Or eat it soft-serve as it is (I dare you to try to restrain yourself!).


Roasting bananas adds a little time to this recipe, so it’s not the QUICKest one in my repertoire. If you have a little extra time, however, it’s totally worth it, both for the texture and the taste.

It does have added steps of melting chocolate and roasting bananas, but it’s still pretty EASY. Roasting bananas and melting chocolate chips are not complicated tasks.

It’s pretty CHEAP, though, especially if you have some extra bananas that need eating before they go bad (which to be honest, is rarely a problem around here because the 4 people in this house go through bananas like crazy!).

It’s a pretty HEALTHY ice cream recipe: not THE healthiest, but fairly healthy. I did reduce the sugar by just a bit, but then I totally ruined that by adding chocolate chips. Chocolate has antioxidants, though, so it’s all good.



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ICE CREAM {hold the cream}

July 17, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make. (Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

Since peaches are at their peak (at least around here), I figured peach sorbet would be the perfect recipe to begin our ice cream adventure. This one is pulled from my allergy-free recipes blog. It’s not just for those with food allergies, though: if you love peaches, you will love this sorbet, guaranteed. It is so luscious and delicious, you won’t even miss the dairy, guaranteed.

Here’s what I said about this recipe last year:

This particular recipe, made with peaches, resulted in a sorbet so smooth and creamy, you’d swear it was really ice cream! And, despite a lot less sugar than most recipes call for, it’s perfectly sweetened and bursting with lots of peach flavor. A lot of credit goes to the fact that the peaches are almost as fresh as you can get - we picked them right off the tree over the weekend.

You can fiddle around with the amount of sugar, depending on your taste, but I thought it was plenty sweet, and I think I even used less sugar than is written here. So haul out the ice cream maker and get busy! Your efforts will be well rewarded in the end.

And here’s the recipe:


Creamy Peach Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 4 cups peach slices
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup sugar

Instructions

  1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until peaches are thoroughly crushed and smooth and ingredients are well combined. Refrigerate until cold. Place in ice cream maker, and follow ice cream maker directions. Freeze for several hours before serving.


Sorbet is a pretty QUICK type of ice cream, because it mostly involves blending the ingredients together and then freezing (using a machine for the best texture). You do have to add in a few hours’ freezing time, but that’s true of any ice cream recipe.

Some types of fruits might require a little more effort, but peaches are EASY to make into sorbet, so this recipe is an excellent choice.

Right now, peaches are super CHEAP, so it’s a perfect time to make this recipe! Lately, I’ve been buying a peck of seconds peaches every week at the farmer’s market for $3.50! I haven’t made ice cream yet this year, but that’s on the docket for this week’s batch of peaches.

Use a little less sugar (try half a cup) if you want an even HEALTHY-er treat. Depending on how sweet your peaches are, you may be able to get away with even less. Even as it stands, though, this is a pretty healthy dessert or summertime snack.

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With a Cherry on Top

June 14, 2010 By

Earlier this spring, I was thrilled to find a practically brand new ice cream machine (electric with a gel bowl - no cranking, ice or salt for me!) at a thrift store for $10! It may have been used a few times, but most of the packaging was still there and it looked perfectly brand new. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for an ice cream machine. A few times, I’ve almost bought one new - and they’re not all that expensive - but I just never did. I guess I wasn’t (and still am not) sure that I would use it often enough to justify spending money and taking up space.

I decided this weekend to put my ice cream maker to the test and see how I did. I have very little experience with homemade ice cream: there was one time when I was a child, that my Sunday school teacher had her class over to her house to make ice cream. All I remember from that occasion was that it took a long time! Other than that, my closest encounters with homemade ice cream have been science experiments in kindergarten and elementary classrooms, where you make a simple ice cream either in a bag or in a ball that you roll around.

My first quandary was how to make ice cream without any egg. You know me, I like things simple, and I did not want to deal with making a custard and cooking an egg. I just wanted to mix it up and put it in the freezer! I also did not want any raw egg - yuck! If you’re looking for the same thing, here’s a great article by Allrecipes.com that explains the different types of ice cream and has some very helpful user comments at the bottom. Unfortunately, I found this article after I already made my ice cream. Oh well, I will put it to good use next time.

Anyway, so I ended up making what the article refers to as “Philadelphia style” ice cream, which is to say, no egg, only I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. And I started with this recipe, omitting the egg and reducing the cherry mixture by about half. All in all, it turned out very well, and even my DH said that it was better than homemade ice cream that he remembered. He also doesn’t like cherries (haha!) but he said it didn’t have too strong of a cherry flavor, so it was good. If you like cherry flavor, I’d recommend going with the proportions in the recipe (although you can still reduce the sugar, I think - mine was very sweet), or adding in some fresh chopped cherries after churning.

I have a lot to learn about homemade ice cream, and I’m also anxious to try my hand at frozen yogurt, sorbet and other ice cream variations. In the meantime, here’s my very first experimental recipe.

Not-Very-Cherry Ice Cream
1 cup ripe sweet cherries, pitted and halved
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Follow the instructions for your ice cream maker. For mine, that meant freezing the bowl the day before. I also made the cherry sauce the day before: Place cherries, sugar and water in a double boiler and cook until cherries are soft. Puree in a blender or with a stick blender. Chill. Mix remaining ingredients. When cherry sauce is cold, add to milk mixture. When ice cream maker bowl is completely frozen, pour in ice cream mixture and churn for required amount of time. If desired, add fresh chopped cherries at this time. Remove from bowl and place in a freezer-safe container and freeze until desired texture.

This was delicious served with homemade chocolate sauce and a fresh cherry on top!

Homemade ice cream is not exactly QUICK, although if you have an electric machine, the actual hands-on time is minimal. You have to plan ahead in order to freeze the bowl and make sure your mixture is properly chilled before trying to churn it into ice cream, so it’s not as instant as picking some up from the store or going to an ice cream shop. However, when the machine does most of the work, the only active time required is probably about 10-15 minutes max.

It is pretty EASY, though. I’m discovering that there are tricks and techniques to getting the best texture, but really, you can’t go wrong with frozen cream and sugar! No matter if your ice cream is rock hard or soft-serve, the taste is the big thing, and that’s not hard at all. Well, I should qualify that I suppose: I personally think it would be very hard to make ice cream with a hand-crank machine. Hence the electric one!

Whether it’s CHEAP or not requires consideration. I try to spend $2 or less on a carton of ice cream in the grocery store, which these days is about 1.5 quts. My ice cream maker makes 1 qt, so each recipe is slightly less than what I pay for in the store. I can guarantee that I spent more than $2 on this ice cream recipe, considering the cherries, whole milk and cream. However, the total I spent probably ended up being $3 or $4, which is definitely cheaper than regular price ice cream. Also, I prefer to buy Breyers or Harris Teeter’s all natural ice cream, which goes on sale far less often than other ice creams, so is harder to come by at a good price. Homemade ice cream is all natural, so I figure that makes it a pretty good deal.

It’s definitely HEALTHY-er than most ice creams out there, which are full of artificial flavors and colors, plus high fructose corn syrup, trans fats and any other number of chemical additives. Plus, with homemade ice cream you can limit the amount of sugar, and add in a lot of fresh fruit, so the end product is almost nutritious, instead of being a waste of calories.

Find more yummy summery recipes at:

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Birthdays and Ice Cream

June 2, 2010 By

They just go together, right? No birthday celebration is complete without ice cream… although, just yesterday, we did happen to celebrate my sister’s birthday and realized too late that there was no ice cream. Poor sister! My husband, however, did have ice cream at his birthday celebration - in case you can’t tell by the candles in the picture above, he turned 31.

Oddly enough, my husband prefers his ice cream plain, without any toppings whatsoever. He does love caramel and butterscotch flavors, though, so on occasion, he’ll use a little of either of those. Most of the time, though, it’s just him and his ice cream.

Not me. I like a little ice cream with my toppings. And even though it was his birthday, I decided to offer a variety of toppings to our guests who were helping us celebrate, to enjoy with their ice cream. Or ice cream to enjoy with their toppings, as they saw fit.

My brother says that I am the only one he knows who makes their own ice cream toppings. I know, however, that I am not the only one who does, because recipes for various sauces abound in the blogosphere. Why do I make my own ice cream sauces? I guess I have multiple reasons:

1. We don’t eat ice cream very often, and like I said, my DH doesn’t ever eat toppings with his. Therefore, I never think to put it on my grocery list, and even if I did, I wouldn’t want to spend the money on something that would likely go eventually to waste.

2. Ice cream toppings are not good for you. Neither is ice cream, really, but at least with that I can easily get all natural kinds without artificial flavors or colors or high fructose corn syrup. And, now that I have an ice cream maker, I can even make my own! Homemade ice cream toppings are at least a smidgen healthier than their storebought counterparts.

3. This goes with #1, I guess, but those little jars are downright expensive! I don’t like to spend money on stuff I feel guilty eating.

So I make my own ice cream toppings. And you know what? It’s quick. It’s easy, It’s cheap. And even relatively healthy!

The possibilities are endless, but this is what I did for my DH’s birthday:

1. Chocolate Sauce

I used a recipe from my vintage Fannie Farmer cookbook, one of my all-time favorite cookbooks and a great resource for basic sauce recipes. It calls for baking chocolate, but I substituted 3 TBSP cocoa powder and 1 TBSP coconut oil for each ounce of unsweetened chocolate. I also reduced the sugar by half - and it was plenty sweet!

Rich Chocolate Sauce (adapted from Fannie Farmer)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (or 6 TBSP cocoa, 2 TBSP coconut or other oil)
1 TBSP butter
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup cream
a few grains of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients, except vanilla extract, in double boiler and cook and stir until well blended and slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

This chocolate sauce will thicken upon cooling, so it’s probably best to serve it warm.

2. Strawberry Syrup

You can use any berry to make this syrup. I actually didn’t have any apple juice at the time, so I just used water and about a teaspoon or so of honey, and it was perfect. Peaches would also be delicious.

3. Butterscotch Sauce

Butterscotch is one of my DH’s favorite flavors, and even if he doesn’t like ice cream toppings, since it was his birthday, I made it in his honor! I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Warning: don’t cook it too long or it will get too thick and won’t pour easily (but it will still be delicious!). Closet Cooking also has a great Caramel Sauce recipe which I’ve used before, omitting the corn syrup.

4. Whipped Cream
Whipped cream is so easy to whip up (if you pardon the pun) in a jiffy, and is available for a great price at warehouse stores, so there is no excuse to use an aerosol can or a tub of fluff. If you must, I believe the aerosol can actually has some real cream in it, as opposed to the tub of whipped topping that has very little real food in it, being mostly chemical in origin, so please go with the aerosol. But really, it takes about a minute or so to whip up some heavy cream with a tad of sugar, and it tastes soooo much better. And is better for you!

5. Chocolate Chips
Real chocolate is best, although I will admit that for some reason I had vanilla chips this time. I don’t even know why I bought those because I really do prefer real chocolate chips with real ingredients in them. At any rate, they make great additions to an ice cream sundae bar.

6. Bananas
Bananas turn a sundae into a split! They also add a little nutritional value, which doesn’t hurt.

7. Chopped Candy
This was my indulgence: chopped Heath bars left over from some special occasion or another months ago. I love toffee, and it went perfectly with the ice cream. But it’s not healthy, so we’ll just pretend I never said anything, OK!?

There are lots of other great toppings you can collect from different corners of your pantry: nuts (candied or not), granola, chopped cookies, brownies, crumbled graham crackers, dried flaked coconut, etc. Really, the options are limited only by your imagination!

This is a great QUICK dessert idea when you have guests coming over with short notice. It’s a particularly great option if you have kids on your guest list!

It’s so EASY, really! Plop the ingredients in a pot on the stove, stir, cook a few minutes, and you’re done! You can make all the sauces ahead of time, and warm them up if necessary just before serving.

It’s definitely CHEAPer than buying all the toppings at the store, since most of the ingredients are readily available in your pantry and fridge. The chocolate sauce and butterscotch sauce will keep for a few weeks in your fridge, so you can continue to use them for ice cream, or get really creative and use them as toppings for fresh fruit, pancakes, or waffles.

Making your own toppings is much HEALTHY-er than purchasing them. No artificial flavorings, colors or preservatives, no high fructose corn syrup, and only as much sugar as you want to use. Furthermore, homemade sauces are made with real, fresh ingredients, which have much more nutritional value than canned processed ones.

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Guilt-Free Dessert. Really.

August 4, 2009 By

Bet you don’t believe me. But it’s true - I have found a guilt-free dessert. A frozen, creamy, sweet treat - it even has a little bit of chocolate - without any sugar, and no unhealthy fats either. Besides which, it takes minutes to whip up and does not require any special machinery (unless you count a food processor). Still don’t believe me? Too good to be true, you say? Well, read on.

I have been hanging onto this little recipe clipping from a Woman’s Day magazine for at least a year. And actually, the recipe on the clip that I wanted was for strawberry sorbet. But I’ve never made it because, well, to be honest, strawberries are expensive, you know, and it required a lot of strawberries. To be frank, I’m just too cheap for my own good! But I just noticed the other day that under the recipe for strawberry sorbet was a recipe for banana chocolate sorbet and I was instantly intrigued. Reading on, I was stunned at the simplicity, ease… and yes, frugality, of the recipe.

So I immediately made it and it was great. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, being very skeptical, but it actually was delicious. Everything a sorbet should be.


Guilt-Free Banana Sorbet
3 bananas
2 TBSP of water
1/4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

Peel and slice the bananas into 1″ chunks. Place the chunks onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze them until solid, about 1.5 hours.

When banana chunks are solid remove them from the freezer and place in food processor. (You may need to do this part in batches, depending on the size and power of your processor.) Add 2 TBSP of water and process at a high speed (I used the highest on mine) until the bananas are no longer chunky but smooth and creamy. You may need to add a little more water to help the processor along. Shave the baking chocolate into the bananas using a grater, and pulse until thoroughly blended.

(Don’t do what I did: with one batch, I didn’t have time to process the bananas right away, so I took them off the pan and put them in a bag to use later. That batch was not quite as sweet as the other, and the only thing I can think of is that the bananas defrosted a tad and then re-froze again and lost some of their flavor. So process the frozen bananas right away.)

Serve immediately or freeze.

See how QUICK? You’ll need to plan in some time for the freezing, but other than that, it takes a few minutes to chop the bananas and a few minutes to process them.

So EASY, if you can operate a food processor, you can do it. I like that it doesn’t require an ice cream maker because I don’t currently have one, mostly because I don’t have room for one.

Super CHEAP. Bananas are quite possibly the cheapest produce, especially if you buy them at a warehouse store as I did. I believe I paid a little over $1.30 for 3lbs, which is a great price.

And HEALTHY, too, of course. The biggest thing is that there is no sugar in this recipe. If you want to, you can add some sugar or honey, but really, it’s sweet enough without them. And bananas are the unsung heroes of the produce section. They are good sources of potassium, vitamins B6 and C, and fiber. They are carbohydrates and as such, an excellent healthy source of quick energy. They also contain serotonin (bet you didn’t know that), which improves your mood, so not only do they give you energy, but they cheer you up! Bananas are also good for all different kind of digestive issues, so they are often recommended both for diarrhea and constipation. In short, they can pretty much solve any problem you have (or so it seems!).

So go ahead. Be healthy. Eat dessert.

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