Thursday, August 5, 2010

Minimally Sweetened, Fresh Mint, Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe

I've been trying to cut back on sweeteners.  It is recommended that you get no more than 25g of extra sugar (so not counting fruit) a day.  25g is pretty much one bowl of ice cream.  I have been doing pretty good overall.  There is a little bit of sugar (about 3-4g) in the piece of toast I have each morning (Dave's Killer Bread) and then my bowl of ice cream in the evening.  However I'd like to do better.  So I decided to make a minimally sweetened ice cream.  I figured strawberries would be good for it because you can macerate the strawberries in a bit of sugar to bring out their natural sweetness.  I also thought some fresh mint would be yummy.  I like to mix strawberry ice cream and mint ice cream in the same bowl so I figured making an ice cream with them together would be good too.  The ice cream turned out yummy. It probably would have been even better with more sugar, but overall it was a success.  Here is the recipe:

Minimally Sweetened Fresh Mint Strawberry Ice Cream
* Start this in the morning if you want the ice cream in the evening
* This makes about 5-6 generous servings which is about 12-14.5 grams of sugar per serving

1 lb of strawberries
1/2 cup of evaporated cane juice (3/4 cup if you want fully sweetened)
fist full of mint leaves
1 cup whole milk
2 cups of cream
  • Warm the milk and 1 cup of cream on the stove.  Remove from heat, put the mint leaves in and cover. Let them seep for a couple hours
  • Hull and chop the strawberries and put them in a bowl.  Mix the evaporated cane juice in and let them sit for a couple hours.
  • Pull out the mint leaves and press them through a strainer back into the milk to squeeze out all their mintiness.
  • Put the strawberries, minty milk, and cream in a blender and blend.  It is up to you how much you want to chop up the strawberries.
  • Put the mixture in the fridge for a few hours. 
  • Pour it into your ice cream maker following your machine's directions.
  • Eat it!  
For more ice cream making tips see my previous post.

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