This Vanilla Cherry Ice Cream (AIP/Paleo) is free of dairy, gluten, and processed sugar! Make it with fresh cherries for a summertime treat!
Oh how I love CHERRIES! Do you? They are one of the few pleasures of summer for me, living in the steamy south. I love eating them on salad (see Spinach Cherry Summer Salad) and in desserts! (See Black Forest Cake and Cherry Carob Ice Cream.)
Special Equipment
Before we get any further, though, there is one piece of equipment you will absolutely need to accomplish this recipe – an ice cream maker. I’m talking about the electric kind. I don’t know how you would do this with the hand crank kind. Maybe it’s possible? I don’t know. This is the kind I use. (Well, I use an older version of this model. It still works great!)
Variation
Once upon a time, in a land far away (my hometown in Montana), we had a particularly hot summer. This one night, my sibs and I couldn’t get to sleep because it was so dang hot. (We didn’t have air conditioning.) I went downstairs, and threw myself on the mercy of my parents. To my utter astonishment, they understood how miserable we were, and my mom sent my dad over to Dairy Queen to get us some cherry ice cream sodas! At night! When we should have been sleeping! (Parents of young children, take note. It’s ok to bend the rules every once in a while.) After we had cooled off with some ice cream, it was back to bed, and happy dreams. I’ll NEVER forget that ice cream soda.
If you’d like to try that here, put some ice cream in the bottom of a glass. Maybe add some cherry-flavored seltzer water, and let it foam up. Eat it with a spoon, or slurp it through a straw.
Caveat
I’d love to tell you that you won’t even taste a hint of coconut in this recipe. I would be lying. You WILL be able to taste some of the coconut flavor. I’m sorry. We have certain realities when we are AIP, amiright? Please accept my apologies in advance. I did my best to cover it up, but… 🤷🏼♀️ Coconut can be real jerk sometimes.
Happy summer, everybody! As always, I’m wishing you great love and deep healing.
💗,
Wendi
Vanilla Cherry Ice Cream (AIP/Paleo)
Course: DessertCuisine: AIP, Paleo, DF, GFDifficulty: Medium4
servings20
minutes3
minutes20
minutesThis Vanilla Cherry Ice Cream (AIP/Paleo) is free of dairy, gluten, and processed sugar! Make it with fresh cherries for a summertime treat!
Ingredients
14 can 14 can Savoy Coconut Cream or other brand that is 70% coconut extract (Note: this is not the stuff on top of a can of coconut milk.)
18 18 fresh cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 TBSP 1/2 grass-fed gelatin
2 TBSP 2 pure maple syrup
2 tsp 2 alcohol free pure vanilla -OR- double strength pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp 1/4 sea salt
Directions
- Freeze your ice cream maker insert overnight, or in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.
- Place coconut cream and half the cherries in a blender. Process until thoroughly pink. Then place in a cold saucepan.
- Sprinkle gelatin over the pink mixture. Let it sit for 2 minutes to “bloom.” Place saucepan over medium heat, and gently whisk until ALL gelatin has melted. (This is important. You don’t want clumps of gelatin in your ice cream. Ick.) Slowly whisk in maple syrup, vanilla, and sea salt until everything is incorporated, about 2 minutes. Take saucepan off the heat, and let cool for 15 minutes.
- Take the ice cream maker insert from the freezer, and place inside the maker. Stir the rest of the cherries into the saucepan. Transfer contents of the pan to the ice cream maker. Add the bowl scraper, if your machine has one. Turn on the machine and process for 20 minutes. Serve immediately for best results. It will be sort of soft serve.
Notes
- You’ll need an ice cream maker. This is the kind I use.
- This non-dairy ice cream is best served fresh. It tends to get dry and flaky in the freezer after it is made.
- Yes, you will be able to perceive the coconut flavor. See my caveat above.
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Wendy,
No apologies needed. You are right, coconut flavor is what it is – you can’t escape some realities on the AIP – so it is better to focus on the blessings!
We began doing AIP for my DD when she was 16 – after 6 years of GF/DF/SF. Thanks to her diet, exercise, oils, and prayers to a gracious God – her initial diagnosis of systemic scleroderma was changed to “diffuse” scleroderma. The point? This is a long haul approach with no promises, and count your blessings. Sometimes the results take a long time (8 years of GF/organic/AIP) – but, generally, they do come.
Thanks for all that you work so hard to bring to us, Wendi. It’s tough to create recipes with such different ingredients – especially when people expect everything to taste like what they grew up with. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. I remember when I went through *terrible* recipes by less-than-honest money-grubbing bloggers at $20 a pop searching for something to feed my babies (another had “pre-cancerous cysts” in her chest wall). It was crushing to watch our finances crumble with so little to show and nothing to enjoy. I am so glad that you are delivering excellent recipes – I wish that I had been able to find you 12 years ago!
J, I am floored by your beautiful comments. Thank you so much. It IS hard to come up with recipes that resonate, with ingredients that can be difficult. I appreciate you taking the time to offer encouragement! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 💗, Wendi
Wendy I use dehydrated fruit to add more fruit flavor to my coconut based ice cream. Just get dehydrated cherries and blend them to a powder, toss it in. I’ve tries it with blueberry and some others, very nice addition..
Hi, Maggie! I’m sorry for the delay in responding. I was on vacation. This a great tip. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thank you for this recipe! I have yet to try it until I track down some of that coconut cream. What I do have is Grace Pure Creamed Coconut, but it’s solid (100%) and needs to be diluted with water. Not sure how I would go about that. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81TzdoENHbL._SL1500_.jpg
I also tried your cucumber salad and it was so delicious…thank you again 🙂
Ohhhh. Yes, definitely wait until you get coconut cream! 👍🏻