Replacing refined sugars with natural sugars makes this vanilla date ice cream borderline healthy, right? No added sugars, and incredibly delicious.
Vanilla Date Ice Cream (No Added Sugar)
Ingredients
- 5 large egg yolks
- 300 g Medjool Dates pitted
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- roughly chopped pistachios optional
Instructions
- Put the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer.
- Whisk the yolks together and set aside.
- Add half of the dates to a food processor with the milk. Run until well combined, 3-4 minutes. Rough chop the remaining dates.
- Warm the milk & date mixture with the vanilla and rough chopped dates until it just lightly simmers. Use a whisk to break up the chunks of dates. (If using a vanilla bean, slice lengthwise, scrape out the specks of vanilla, and add the bean and specks to the milk mixture.)
- Temper the egg mixture with the milk/date/vanilla mixture.
- Return to the sauce pan and cook until thickened, stirring slowly and constantly. It should get to 170F.
- Remove from heat. Add the cream. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.
- The next day, add your chilled ice cream to your ice cream maker. Churn (stir setting) until it is the thickness of soft serve ice cream, 20-25 minutes.
- Transfer to a container you can freeze, cover with parchment paper, and freeze at least 4 hours.
- Optional: Top with roughly chopped pistachios before serving!
Nutrition
Can I use less cream and more milk?
Yes, you can use 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of cream. The texture will be less like ice cream, and more like gelato. Also delicious, and a choice I make every once in a while to reduce the fat in the recipe!
What do I use to churn the vanilla date ice cream?
I use the KitchenAid mixer ice cream attachment. I think it works great, and does not require a separate appliance like most ice cream makers. However, it does take up quite a bit of room in the freezer. So plan ahead when you want to make ice cream!
If there is no added sugar, then is it sweet?
You must be thinking that if there is no added sugar, then it isn't sweet. But that isn't true at all! Dates are considered a whole food, but are 80% sugar. So take precaution if trying to minimize your sugar intake.
What's the difference between ice cream, gelato, sherbet, & sorbet?
I get a version of this question every time I post or serve ice cream, and it's such a great question!
The difference between ice cream & gelato is the milk to cream ration. For ice cream is 1:1, and gelato is 2:1.
Sorbet does not have dairy at all. Instead, it is fruit and water based. Sherbet has some diary, but is still fruit and water based like sorbet. It is also less than 2% fat.
More ice cream...
Looking for a dairy-free ice cream? Try this dairy-free coconut hojicha ice cream. Also, check out this matcha ice cream & my personal favorite, hojicha gelato. Either way you go, you'll enjoy these delicious, frozen treats. I'll take ice cream over other sweets any day!
What if I don't have an ice cream machine, will I still be able to make the ice cream?
It works best in an ice cream maker, but you can use a different method. Freeze it flat in a zipper bag, then break it up into small chunks and blend it in a high-speed blender. I have tried it this way before (using a different flavor ice cream) and it was OK. The texture wasn't as smooth, but it did work.
Thanks for this recipe. I made it today and it was fantastic! I did reduce the dates to 200g and it was just right for us. Definitely a keeper recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Therese... thank you for taking the time to share!
I haven’t tried this yet but planning to very soon. What if I only have dried figs? Can I just rehydrate in water? Or should I rehydrate in the milk to not lose sweetness?
I've never made this recipe with dried figs, so I can't say for sure... especially because there are different kinds of dried figs. That being said, I think rehydrating them in warm milk and using that milk in the recipe would be my best guess. I'd love to hear how it goes if you give it a try!
I made this recipe for my baby while looking for no added sugar recipes which is hard to find!
I think I've done it 10 times now and seriously, best ice cream ever!! I'm even making it again tonight. Its perfect for snack after playing in the park
Its our family favorite ice cream, we don't buy ice cream for us, parents anymore!
Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much for sharing, Ana! You just made my day with this comment. I'm so glad you and your baby love the recipe... enjoy!
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but am looking forward to it. Do you run the risk of leaving the mix in the freezer too long and freezing it solid?
Hi Heather. Great question! Once you run it through the ice cream maker, you should be OK to leave it in the freezer for weeks. It does progressively get harder, but you shouldn't notice a difference for the first week. Hope this helps!
I do not have the time to refrigerate the cream mixture overnight. Id there a minimum Time it must be chilled before churning?
The best way to know it is ready to churn is if you can check the temperature. It should get down to 39 degrees Fahrenheit (about refrigerator temperature). Once you put the base in the fridge, you can stir it every 30 minutes to help speed up the cooling. You can also cool it over an ice bath. I hope this helps!
This is a lovely recipe and I enjoyed it a lot- I had a safety question (since it contains eggs) how long do you typically cook the egg/date/milk mixture on the stovetop until it thickens? I used a thermometer and saw that it reached well over 170F but wasn't sure if it thickened a ton.
Thanks again for the delicious "sugar free" recipe! I'm definitely going to be making this many times in the future.
I'm so glad to hear it, Michelle!
Here is a bit about the science from eggsafety.org... "While light cooking will begin to destroy any bacteria that might be present only proper cooking brings eggs to a high enough temperature to destroy them all. For eggs, the whites will coagulate (set) between 144 and 149° F, the yolk between 149 and 158° F, and the whole egg between 144 and 158° F."
In short, the temperature is all that is important when killing the bacteria, not as much the thickening. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
Thanks for sharing! It was so good! I did a double batch but didn't end using all of the dates. We hardly ever eat sugar so it was plenty sweet!
That is awesome! Glad to hear you made a double batch and didn't need all the dates... thanks for sharing, Brianna!