Paleo Berry Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream!?!?  We sure do in our house, but since we stopped eating dairy, it's been an ongoing challenge to find the right combination of coconut milk and nut milk to make a batch without the over powering flavor of coconut.   About the only *successful* batch I've made is double chocolate (chocolate with mini chocolate chips) because the raw cocoa covers up the coconut flavor so well.  This afternoon though, the kids specifically requested "no chocolate".

Inspired by The Spunky Coconut's Ice Cream recipe book and her many fruit flavored ice creams, we used what we had available in our fridge on short notice.  It's different than any thing in her book and was a huge hit!

First I made my own coconut milk because we didn't have any in a can and for a thickening agent I used a banana (assuming the flavor would be masked well with the frozen berries like it is in the smoothies we make) and a little xantham gum.  Our sweetener was just a spoonful of raw honey and the berries themselves!  I had no guilt or concerns giving my kids TWO scoops of this delicious treat after dinner, on a school night!

HOMEMADE COCONUT MILK

2 c. shredded coconut
4 cups of hot, filtered water

Using a high powered blender (like a Blendtec or Vitamix), pour 4 cups of hot (not boiling, but pretty hot) water into the blender.  Add 2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut.  Blend for about 3 minutes on high until the mixture is foamy and creamy.  Strain the mixture with a fine mesh strainer, followed by a nut milk bag.  (I didn't really need to do the last step because the fine mesh strainer got all of the coconut fibers the first pass through).

This will make about 3 cups of coconut milk and leftovers stores easily in the fridge in a glass mason jar.  It will be hot before making the ice cream and that's ok because the frozen berries will bring the temperature down quickly.

MIXED BERRY ICE CREAM

2 c. Homemade coconut milk (or full-fat canned milk)

1 c. almond milk

2 c. frozen berry mix (I used a blend of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries)

1 ripe banana

2 T. raw honey

2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. xantham gum (optional)

1 c. frozen berries (to be added to ice cream maker for chunks of fruit in ice cream, optional)

Using a high powered blender again, pureé all of the above ingredients until the berries are well blended (about 2 cycles of the ice cream setting on my Blendtec).  The frozen berries quickly brought down the temperature of my freshly made coconut milk.  However, if you are using fresh berries and the mixture remains warm after blending, I recommend cooling the mixture in the refrigerator or freezer for a couple of hours before putting into the ice cream maker.

Fill an ice cream maker (I use Cuisinart's 1.5 qt ice cream maker) about 3/4 full with the cooled mixture. If you have leftovers, it makes a great smoothy on the spot - my baby gobbled it up in his sippy cup. Let the ice cream maker run until the mixture stops turning, about 30 minutes.  You can add in 1 more cup of frozen berries at this point for chunks of berries in the ice cream - my kids loved finding blueberries on their spoons while eating their scoops!

You can serve immediately or put in the freezer for a few hours to get nice hard scoops.