My last ice cream recipe of the summer | Orcas Island

I suppose if you're not into making ice cream as much as I've been this summer, you might not care that I've been fine-tuning and perfecting my strawberry ice cream recipe, and I don't blame you. However, I write the recipes for myself as well as you, and I want an easy place to find it should the need arrive—even if it's fall or winter when the urge to make ice cream strikes again. I want to be prepared. Besides myself and my husband, I've tested the ice cream on my sugar-obsessed grandchildren, and they gave it the thumbs up. We did a larger than usual bit of childcare this summer, and it was always fun to have a stash of delicious (relatively healthy) ice cream in the freezer. Not sure if I should admit this or not, since it might not qualify as 'good' grandparenting, but I held an 'unlimited ice cream and cake day' event at our house, and it elicited much delight and appreciation from the participants, who were all under the age of eight.

The ice cream recipe is much like the last strawberry recipe I posted, with a couple of tweeks. It may have a couple of extra ingredients, but it's still easy to make. I made it with my Vitamix so I can't really say how a regular blender or a food processor would handle the task of blending the ingredients, but with a little extra care and attention, it should work. And I used my old Donvier non-electric ice cream maker. I'll post the recipe at the end of the page.

Escape to Orcas Island

The view on the road to our cottage.

We weren't able to travel this summer as we didn't feel comfortable leaving our dog, Callie, because of her health issues. Feeling the need to get away for a few days, we decided to take Callie, who was doing well, on a little trip to Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. The trip there, including the one-hour ferry ride, took about five-and one-half hours. (It should have taken about four except for my husband's abnormal need to get everywhere early. Traffic, you know.)

The view from our cottage deck

We stayed in a lovely VRBO cottage located down a private, steep, narrow, gravelly road with a hairpin turn, so as you can imagine, it was pleasantly quiet and peaceful. Although isolated, the cottage was near everything we wanted to do.

Moran State Park.

We like to hike, so the first place we headed was Moran State Park, where we picked an 'easy' trail around the lake. You know, for Callie.

Moran State Park.

While hiking, we made a wrong turn somewhere and added an extra mile to the trek, but Callie managed well. We only hiked about 4-1/2 miles, but my step app said I had climbed 18 flights of stairs. Yikes. Although steep and uneven, the trail was beautiful, and we were pleasantly tired out from our hike.

The second day we took it easy and explored the town of Eastsound.

Gluten-free sourdough bread from the Barn Owl Bakery.

While we were there we stopped into the food co-op, and purchased a sourdough, gluten-free bread (baked by the Barn Owl Bakery), which was a revelation. (More about the bread another day.) We also took to the road in search of the home and studio of Anthony Howe, an artist who creates large metal kinetic sculptures that are fantastic and unique. I knew he had closed his property to tourists (and stalkers), but I was hoping for at least a roadside view of some of his work. We did glimpse a few pieces, but it was frustrating not to be able to enter the property to see the incredible creations up close. It was the possibility of seeing Howe's work that drew me to Orcas Island.

Crescent Beach.

Our last activity of the day was an exploration of Crescent Beach, which is, of course, shaped like a crescent. I have what I'll call a strong predilection for collecting rocks, and the beach was covered in possibilities, but I controlled myself and only took three small samples — and no driftwood since that was forbidden by the signs.



Here's our tired pup resting after two days on the go.

A view from the trail at Turtleback Mountain, south access.

On our last day we had a ferry to catch, but we didn't want to waste the morning so we headed to Turtleback Mountain for a last hike. After the first interesting part of the climb, the trail became wider and easier to manage, except it was soooo steep. We did have spectacular views, though. I kept thinking that it would sure be a lot easier to go back down, but I was wrong. I have a modest fear of heights, and once we turned around for the descent, and I was confronted by the steepness of the trail, going down was a challenge! We only had time for 2-1/2 miles, but my step app said I had climbed 27 flights. No wonder it felt so steep.

As lovely as it was to be away for a few days, it was good to be back home — and find a stash of strawberry ice cream in the freezer.

Strawberry ice cream update

• 1 cup cashews, soaked 4 hours and drained
• 1-1/2 cold rice milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup, rounded, packed, soft, pitted mejhool dates
• 3 very ripe, very cold bananas (Refrigerated ahead of time.)
• 2-1/2 cups frozen strawberries, divided
• 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks
• juice from 1/2 lemon

1. Set out 1/2 cup of berries to slightly defrost while you follow the rest of the steps.
2. Place the cashews and rice milk in the blender and blend until creamy.
3. Add the vanilla, dates, bananas, 2 cups strawberries, 1/2 cup mango and lemon juice  to the jar, and blend until the mix is creamy and smooth. If the mixture is too thick to blend, you may have to add up to an extra 1/4 cup of rice milk, but only add if absolutely necessary.
4. Thinly slice the slightly defrosted strawberries and stir into the blended mix. Work quickly to keep everything as cold as possible. (If your mix has warmed from the blending, refrigerate for an hour or so until cold.)
5. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's directions. I use a low-tech Donvier.
6. When finished, the ice cream will be the consistency of soft-serve. Pack into a container and store in the freezer to harden. It can take several hours for the ice cream to reach a firm consistency. After longer freezer storage, let it sit out for 10 minutes to soften a bit for scooping.

I made mango ginger ice cream with chocolate chips

I hadn't seen or even thought about my ice cream maker for seven years. Granted, two of the years we were living in a rented house in Seattle, and much of our stuff was still in storage back in Madison. And for five of the years we were still traveling back to Madison for the summer, so not doing much summery cooking (like ice cream making) here at our new Seattle home. Still, seven years seems like a long time. But, last week, the thought of making ice cream became an obsession, and I asked my husband if he had any idea if the ice cream maker might be packed away in the basement. Did we still have it? Did it get sold in our Madison estate sale? He had no clue but said he would look. I think my need to make ice cream was partly inspired by the remaining Edward & Sons ice cream cones I had received as samples and previously reviewed. I needed something to put in the cones!

This is a photo of the box, but my ice cream maker is actually red.

I walked into the kitchen later, and the Donvier box was sitting on the counter — with the original price tag of $49 and the garage sale price that I paid, of $8, still stuck on the box front. My Donvier, hand crank, no ice, no salt, no electricity ice cream maker. Woohoo! (This is actually my second Donvier. The first cost $5 at a garage sale but I gifted it to a friend who really wanted it, when I found a red one. Who can resist a red ice cream maker?)

The Donvier in action.

A stainless canister chills in the freezer, then fits inside the plastic case to hold the ice cream mix. The handle gets turned occasionally, and miraculously, 20 minutes later, there is ice cream. Once I had the canister chilling in the freezer, the next step was finding a recipe. I really wanted to try using a natural sweetener — dates to be specific — instead of sugar or syrup. I just watched a video on NutritionFacts.org about the food value of various sweeteners, and it was kind of disappointing, since all my favorites ranked as basically useless, empty calories, when it comes to nutrition. The only two sweeteners with nutritional value were molasses and date sugar, but molasses-flavored ice cream was not what I wanted, and I didn't have date sugar. I did have dates. Now, I can hear you all saying  "but it's DESSERT, it's a TREAT, shut up and enjoy life, why don't you?" But, if a food can be both delicious and healthy, why not go for it? And there ARE chocolate chips!



I searched my blog for an ice cream recipe to try, and found one from June, 2009 for ice cream made with cashews, banana, mango, ginger root and chocolate chips. It was sweetened with agave syrup.The original recipe is here, and is recommended if you prefer a sweeter ice cream, or if you are using a regular blender rather than a high speed one. The directions make it easier to get a smooth mix with regular blenders.

For the current version of the recipe, I used a Vitamix to blend my ice cream, and added all the ingredients to the blender jar at once. The ice cream was just as good as I remember. It comes out of the ice cream maker with a texture like soft-serve, but firms up in the freezer.

The finished ice cream was placed into a plastic container in the freezer for a couple of hours to let it harden a bit. It was still pretty soft when I served it the first time, but firm enough to make ice cream cones. After being in the freezer overnight, it had hardened and needed to be left out for five to 10 minutes to make scooping easier. The ice cream never got icy, even after a few days. The grand kids, who eat sweet, dairy ice cream, never questioned the taste or texture, just gobbled it up. So there. If I can serve the kids a healthier treat, why wouldn't I?



Mango ginger chocolate chip ice cream

• 1 cup raw cashews (soaked 4 hours or overnight, and drained)
• 1-1/2 cups unsweetened rice milk
• 1 ripe banana (at least 1 cup of slices)
• 2 cups frozen mango chunks
• 2 large strawberries
• 1 to 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root (use the lesser amount if serving to kids)
• slightly rounded, 1/2 cup pitted medjool dates, tightly packed
• 2 Tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Place all ingredients except the chocolate chips into the jar of a high speed blender. Blend until the mix is totally creamy and smooth.
2. Stir in the chocolate chips. Work quickly to keep the mixture as cold as possible.
3. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's directions.
4. Enjoy! 

Note: If the dates are very dry, you can let them soak in the rice milk in the refrigerator for an hour or more to soften. 

I received free product (cones). I wasn't paid. All opinions are my own.