My Favorite Nice Cream Maker

So what’s the best ice cream maker?? One that you use, of course. As the weather is heating up around here, I’ve put my maker base in the freezer to have it ready whenever I want.

Which one do we use around here? It’s a small electric one that doesn’t use ice or rock salt or makes a mess, which I love!! No worrying about having to have ice and salt on hand every time you want to make nice cream. The base doesn’t have Freon or anything, it’s just like a freezer pack in a bowl shape. The small size is a plus too, cuz how many of us really need to make huge amounts of sorbet at a time on a regular basis? If you’ve made your own at home, you know that it is soft at first, but if you freeze it for long it becomes hard (although Raw for $10 a day (or less)’s blog had a creamy-soft-smooth-when-frozen-longer nice cream recipe which I have yet to try).

You want some recipes, you say? Of course!!!

One site I recently stumbled on is called Rawmazing.com, and they had just finished a raw ice cream cake contest with 29 entries. Pics are posted, as well as links to every entrant’s blog or website. Sunflower Lord has a great e-book out for $10 (I think) with 20 or 30 raw ice cream recipes (Love this!!). And if you google, I’m sure you can find some other great recipes. Or get creative. Tristen came up with Carrot Ice Cream, which I would never have thunk of.

Here’s a base I frequently use, cuz it’s just too easy.

When I make my nut milk, I’ll double the recipe and not add all the water at first. Then, I pour half into a container, make the remaining into milk as usual and put it away, then pour the 1^st reserved half back in the blender. I add a bit more sweetener, sometimes more nuts or coconut, and whatever flavor I want (fresh or frozen fruit, cacao powder, extra vanilla or almond, etc.), some ice, and blend it. (This is great at this point for a milk shake.) Then I pour it into the maker base, plug in the top, and wait 10-15 minutes. That’s all it takes (which is great, because we don’t always practice patience around here LOL).

Here’s some more basic recipes, but get creative—add whatever superfood, fold in nuts or fruit or raw vegan cookie dough when frozen, top with fudge, maple syrup, agave, etc.

Cantaloupe Sorbet

1 cantaloupe, frozen in chunks

1 frozen banana or some

other sweetener if you like

Raspberry Sorbet

2 bags frozen raspberries, or 2 lb. fresh, then frozen

3 T. agave/ honey

Strawberry Sorbet

2 bag frozen strawberries or 2 lb. fresh, and freeze

3 T agave/honey

Mango Sorbet

1 bag frozen mango

or 4 mangos, frozen

3 T agave/honey

With the sorbets, you could use either a little water or nutmilk to help blend, though I prefer to allow half of the fruit to thaw, blend it, then add the rest of the still frozen fruit and sweetener. Put it in your maker and wait 15 minutes. That’s quicker than picking lettuce and veggies from the garden, washing, chopping, making a dressing, and mixing. Also, please note that the fresh, then frozen fruit has all been washed, peeled, seeded, and/or cut into chunks. Sometimes I reserve a few berries and mix those in by hand or add to the maker so there’s berry chunks in the sorbet. That’s nice too. Hmm, fresh veggies . . . how bout a green smoothie sorbet!! Blend the greens, add the fruit n blend, add the frozen b-na chunks, agave . . . blend and freeze. Cool!! Probabally not collards or kale—too strong for ice cream. Spinach or leaf lettuce??

Creamy Chocolaty

Nice Cream (this is from the Raw on $10 a day or less blog)

1 avocado
2 bananas
2 T. agave or honey
4 T. cacao powder

1 t. vanilla or ½ bean
pinch salt

Just blend. You can fold all kinds of things after it's hardened up a bit.

I was going to post more creamy recipes, but instead thought I’d post something special I just made up:

Black Forest Nice Cream Cake

Dark almond-cacao cake base:

1 C. ground almonds

¼ C. cacao powder

2 T. maple sugar

¼ C. dates, pitted

1 C. fresh shredded meat from a young coconut

1 T. agave

Process the almonds, cacao, maple, and dates in your processor until “grainy.” Add the coconut and process about 5 seconds, pouring the agave in as you do so.

Gently press this into a plastic-wrap lined pan or tub (I used 5” deep cardstock taped into a 7” circle and set into another pan and lined with plastic), and put in the freezer while preparing the next layer. If you want a thicker cake, double the recipe.

Creamy chocolate nice-cream layer:

2 avocado
4 bananas, frozen into chunks
4 T. agave or honey
8 T. cacao powder

1 T. vanilla or 1 bean
pinch salt

frozen cherries

Blend or process everything except the bananas and cherries until smooth. Add the frozen bananas and process smooth. Pour into your ice cream maker until frozen. Fold in the cherries and pour on top of the cake layer. Return to freezer.

Vanilla coconut cream:

½ C. pulp from a young coconut

½ C cashews, soaked

1 T. vanilla or 1 whole bean

1 T agave (if desired)

Blend until smooth. If this is too liquidy, you can add powdered dried coconut to help thicken, then pipe “flowers” with a frosting tip around the top and in the center of the cake. Put a frozen cherry in the center of each “flower.” Allow to set for a couple hours, cut, plate, and eat.

If and when I get a pic before this is eaten, I'll come back and post it.

And remember, Nice Cream is HEALTHY. Today Ro and I had sliced banana and strawberries on chocolate-coconut nicecream and topped with walnuts, hemp and chia seeds, and a quick fudge sauce made with 1 T oil, 1 T agave, and 1 teasp. cacao powder. We both did a happy dance. ((Giggle)).

Have a nice (cream) day!!!

~~~Rowan and Sharilyn

P.S. This formating is driving me CRAZY, so if the spacing is off in some areas of the post, I appologize!!