Strawberry Ice Cream

This month’s Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free (an event created by Naomi Devlin of the wonderful blog Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried) is all about Family Traditions and is hosted by Carol of Simply …. Gluten-Free.  When I saw the theme, I talked to my husband about it for suggestions, because, like with the second installment of Gluten-Free Holiday,  I was at a complete loss – our holiday family traditions as a couple have changed in the years we have been together.  This is our sixth (!) holiday season together and we have tried all sorts of different dishes over the times we have spent the holidays just the two of us, which has been about half of them over the years.  We were just starting to settle into some traditions when I switched to allergy-friendly eating.  As as  result of my change in diet, for both Thanksgiving and Christmas last year and this year, we went the grain-free route with chicken or turkey, roasted root vegetables and dark greens.  My husband does not mind eating gluten-free and dairy-free as long as we focus on naturally gluten-free foods, hence skipping the stuffing and rolls altogether.  Last year, dessert centered around two pints of So Delicious coconut ice cream, which we really like but is still sweeter than I would like to be eating (we did get two pints to last from Thankgiving, through Christmas, New Year’s and finished them off at Valentine’s).  To solve this, husband got me an ice cream maker for my birthday this year and I have been playing with combinations of stevia and other sweeteners.

Looking back on the various holiday meals we have had when we were discussing blog events centered on holiday traditions, we realized ice cream was almost always included in dessert – often as the main event, like the first Thanksgiving we spent together which involved chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (which sent me into a deep slumber with total brain fog upon awakening – I am starting to think food coma can be a warning for food intolerances), Neapolitan ice cream our first Christmas together (spent with his family) and gelato and sorbet in more recent years prior to cutting gluten, dairy, eggs and refined sugars.  Now the ice cream is gluten-free, vegan, refined-sugar-free and fairly low on natural sugars, but the tradition has continued!

While pumpkin ice cream was the obvious choice for Thanksgiving, we went back and forth what to eat for dessert this Christmas.  Ultimate, we settled on the Peach Blueberry Cobbler from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook for Christmas Eve but decided to continue the ice cream tradition for Christmas day, which settled me posting about ice cream for this blog event since, really, it is about our only tradition that has survived the years and diet changes.

I know my last submission for Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free was ice cream as well but this one is so very worth it – Strawberry Ice Cream.  I know, totally not seasonal, but a few days ago I had the worst craving for strawberry ice cream – I have not had any in years.  In fact, I have not had strawberries this year so far, because I only eat them when they are available locally, and the ones this year were not great.  I rationalized this non-local and totally non-seasonal purchase by buying frozen strawberries and telling myself if I was craving strawberries, I should listen to the craving once.  Initially, I wanted to make Neapolitan ice cream, but laziness and craving plain strawberry ice cream won out.  This recipe is so simple, and very satisfying.

Now, I need to find some non-ice cream recipes to submit to Go Ahead Honey, because ice cream is very tricky to photograph and make look pretty.  Still, I promise the fresh strawberry taste, not too sweet and slightly vanilla-y, is far better than either photos here.  Since this ice cream is so indulgent but low in sugar, I am also submitting the recipe to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday over at  Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free as well as Gluten-Free Wednesday.

Strawberry Ice Cream (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Refined-Sugar Free)
Makes 6 servings

• 20 oz frozen strawberries, which equals about 4 cups of strawberries, defrosted
• 14 fl oz can coconut milk, chilled for at least two hours (I used organic full-fat coconut milk from Thai Kitchen)
• 1 Tbsps gluten-free vanilla extract (I like this one)
• 15 drops vanilla stevia (if using regular liquid stevia, increase gluten-free vanilla extract by a 1/2 tsp)
• 1-2 Tbsps agave

Blend all ingredients until completely smooth (note, if you have a high-speed blender, you can get away with not defrosting the strawberries completely, or even partially).  Pour mixture into your ice cream maker and churn according to directions. I found this batch of ice cream took 20 minutes in my ice cream maker.

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