I’m taking a quick break from my Azores saga to talk about ice cream… because it’s always time for ice cream… and this ice cream base gives you yet another reason to love it. This is a relatively healthy custard ice cream base that is great on it’s own (or pairs great with pie!), but you can get creative and add your own flavors and stir-ins to make it yours.

And since Thanksgiving is only  few days away, now is the perfect time to impress the fam with your ice cream abilities, while secretly skipping the extra calories.

Don’t let the egg yolks in this recipe scare you off, even though they are packed with cholesterol, it’s not all bad. And this is where all the vitamins live.

This ice cream base uses almond milk – which is where the majority of the volume comes from – a much healthier alternative than cream. The end result is super soft and creamy, you’d never know it was almond milk if I didn’t tell you!

The secret to this ice cream base is the super-thick custard you make before putting it in your ice cream machine. The custard gets it’s major thickening power from arrowroot powder. It’s a natural thickening agent that is available at most grocery stores (you might need to look in the natural food section or the spice section) – this thickener is way healthier than adding more egg yolks to create a custard this thick.

Almond Milk Ice Cream

7oz Sweetened condensed milk

1 Tbs Butter

4 Egg Yolks

2 Tbs Arrowroot Power

1/4 tsp Salt

1.5 C Almond Milk

1/3 C. Cream Liquor

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

With a whisk, mix the egg yolks, arrowroot, salt, and sweetened condensed milk together in a sauce pan – beat until smooth. Add the butter and turn heat on medium. Whisk gently until the butter has just melted.

Immediately and slowly add a stream of Almond Milk  while whisking.

Add the salt. Continue to stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens – about 5-8 minutes. All of a sudden you’ll feel it start to thicken – keep stirring for another 3-5 minutes until the custard leaves trails as it falls off the whisk.  Turn off heat and add the cream liquor and vanilla extract and stir again.

Chill the custard over night.

Churn in your ice cream maker and add any other mix-ins or flavors. I’m making rum raisin ice cream to pair with apple pie on thanksgiving.

 

Mix ins for Rum Raisin (pictured here):

1/4 C. Raisins soaked in 1/4 C. Dark Rum for at lest 4 hours

Mix ins for Cookies + Cream:

1 C. Oreo Cookie chunks + crumbs

Mix ins for Cranberry walnut:

1/4 C. Craisins + 1/4 C. chopped walnuts