Cherry Ice Cream
Yield: 8 cups
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tsp agar powder OR 2 Tbsp agar flakes
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 cup cashews OR blanched almonds
- 1 cup dates
- 2 cans coconut milk
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup honey OR sorghum molasses OR 3/4 cups organic cane sugar
- 4 tsp vanilla
- 3 cup cherries pitted, fresh or frozen
- 1/4 cup black cherry concentrate OR tart cherry concentrate
- 1 cup cherries chopped, (add after blending for extra cherry bits–totally optional)
Instructions
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SOAK agar in 1 ½ cups water, stir and bring to boil.
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SIMMER 1 minute.
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COOL 1 minute.
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BLEND remaining ingredients until smooth.
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ADJUST flavor and sweetener as needed.
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ADD agar mixture to blender and blend well.
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ADD cherry pieces for extra flavor and chew.
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POUR into flat container (glass casserole dishes work) and freeze serveral hours or overnight.
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SERVE. Thaw slightly and eat as is, OR re-blend with a little milk for soft serve ice cream.
Recipe Notes
There are LOTS of variations!! If you don’t have frozen or fresh cherries, you can blend 2 c. dried cherries instead. Adjust sweetener as necessary.
1. STRAWBERRY Ice Cream: Replace fresh or frozen cherries with 3 c. frozen or fresh strawberries, cut cherry concentrate down to 2 Tablespoons, omit almond flavor, and change the cherry pieces to strawberry pieces.
2. MANGO Ice Cream: Replace fresh or frozen cherries with 3 c. frozen mango OR 1 c. mango nectar, omit cherry concentrate, omit almond flavor, and use mango pieces instead of cherry pieces.
3. MAPLE NUT Ice Cream: Replace frozen cherries with 1 c. soy milk or water, replace almond flavoring with maple flavoring, use maple syrup instead of honey, omit cherry concentrate, and add chopped large pieces of toasted walnuts or pecans instead of chopped cherries.
4. BLACKBERRY or RASPBERRY Ice Cream: Make a blackberry or raspberry syrup (make by heating the berries, press out the seeds and sweeten slightly) and use 1 c. of syrup instead of 3 c. frozen cherries, omit cherry concentrate, omit almond flavor, and omit cherry pieces.
5. MINT CAROB CHIP Ice Cream: Replace 3 c. frozen cherries with 1 c. soy milk, omit cherry concentrate, add 2-4 T. carob powder, use one drop of peppermint flavor or peppermint oil instead of almond flavor, and use 1/2 c. carob chips and 1/2 c. toasted walnuts instead of cherry pieces.