Gingerbread Ice Cream

By Kathy C.

By Chocolate Covered Katie
This healthy ice cream recipe is rich, smooth, and insanely creamy; and the sweet gingerbread flavor offers a great way to get you into the holiday spirit.
This recipe might seem to be high in fat, but remember the fat is almost completely heart-healthy fats from the nuts, with very little saturated fat and NO unhealthy trans fats. Thanks to the blackstrap molasses (if you use it), this ice cream recipe is a good source of both iron and calcium. I usually divide the recipe into 2-3 servings but went with 4 for the nutrition facts, as a 1/2 cup is the standard serving size for ice cream.

Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size 123g (1/2 cup)
Calories 218
Fat 14.8g (Saturated 2.8g)
Carbs 19.5g
Fiber 1.2g
Sugars 8.4g
Protein 4.9g
Calcium 19%
Iron 15%
An equal-sized serving of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream has 330 calories, 22 grams fat (14 grams of which are saturated), 26 grams carbs, 6 weight watchers points plus, and 26 grams of sugar!

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw cashews or macadamia halves (120g)
• 1 1/3 cups milk of choice (320g)
• 3 1/2 tbsp blackstrap or regular molasses (50g)
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• scant 1/4 tsp salt
• just over 1/16 tsp pure stevia, or 3 extra tbsp sugar of choice
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preparation

Step 1

In a bowl, completely cover the nuts with water and let sit 5-8 hours. Drain, then pat dry very well with a towel. Combine all ingredients in a blender, blending until all cashew bits have disappeared and the mixture is completely smooth.
If you own a Vita-Mix: Pour the blended mixture into two ice-cube trays and freeze until solid. Once they are frozen, pop the ice cubes into your Vita-Mix by pushing a knife down one side of each section. Blend on high, using the tamper until completely smooth with a soft-serve texture. Scoop the ice cream into individual bowls using an ice-cream scoop for authentic presentation. Eat immediately or freeze up to an hour for the perfect ice-cream texture and consistency. The best texture is achieved with a Vita-Mix, but you can still get a pretty good result with an ice cream maker. (If you don’t have an ice cream maker either, you can still turn the blended mixture into popsicles! Also: a reader did have success with a food processor by thawing the ice cubes a little extra before blending, and it turned out like soft-serve.)
For the ice-cream-maker method: Pour blended mixture into a large container and freeze 30 minutes or refrigerate 6 or more hours. Pour chilled mixture into the ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions. Once a smooth texture is reached, scoop into individual bowls using an ice-cream scoop for authentic presentation. Eat immediately or freeze up to an hour for a firmer texture.

Any of the following milks works in the ice cream recipe: Silk Almondmilk, homemade cashew cream, canned full-fat coconut milk, Earth Balance soymilk, Alpro soy cream… I’m sure many others will work; I just haven’t tried them all. (It’s probably best to use a milk that contains some fat.) Due to the lack of preservatives and stabilizers in this ice cream, it tastes best on the day it’s made. However you can freeze for up to a month: it’s best to portion the ice cream into individual bowls before freezing. Then remove a bowl from the freezer 20-30 minutes before eating and it will thaw back into smooth ice cream.