Almond Joy Ice Cream (gluten-free/dairy-free, of course)

Sooooooooooooooooo, Blaine and I are both battling a virus. First one we've had this year. Nicholas got sick earlier this week and I kept trying to hold off a scratchy throat, but it won yesterday... Therefore, it was decided that sore throats need "ice cream" and it was the perfect opportunity to try out our new Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker.

A number of gluten-free/dairy-free bloggers talk about how wonderful this machine is and so I had to have one. Williams-Sonoma offers it with an extra freezer bowl.

Ingredients needed to make Almond Joy dairy-free ice cream!

After mixing the basic ingredients together for Vanilla Coconut Milk Ice Cream, I turned on the machine and poured it into the freezer bowl.

...and impatiently waited for 15 minutes

Chopped organic almonds, Enjoy Life's semi-sweet chocolate chips and organic coconut flakes waited for the ice cream to thicken, so they could be added!

At the 12 or 13 minute mark, it was finally thick enough to add the "goodies"

And, of course, it wanted to be taste tested!

Still not thick enough after 15 minutes, so we let it continue for about another 3 minutes or so... The instructions indicate it will take 15-20 minutes to freeze.

It is a soft set freeze, but when you combine the really frozen part with the soft part, it looks a bit soupy in the bowl - which goes into the freezer.

I took the bowl out about every 30 minutes to stir it up for the first couple of hours as it hardened in the freezer.

OH MY GOODNESS - THIS IS YUMMY!

The recipe for our first ice cream making is from the Nourishing Gourmet ~ a great site!
Click on the recipe title to go to her blog.

Vanilla Coconut Milk Ice Cream

2 - 14 ounce cans of full fat coconut milk
1/3 - 1/2 cup of honey
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Combine all of the ingredients well. I usually have to use a whisk to get the honey to combine with the coconut milk. Make into ice cream according to the directions on your ice cream maker. "Ripen" in the freezer for a few hours and serve. Will last a week or two in the freezer. (How does she get it to last that long?) I like to use an alcohol based vanilla extract as it seems to help keep the ice cream from getting as hard.

To this, we added (approximately):

1/4 cup chopped organic roasted almonds
1/2 Enjoy Life gluten, dairy and soy free chocolate chips
1/2 cup organic coconut flakes (We decided 1/4 cup, next time)

Don't add the "extras" until ice cream is starting to thicken - you don't want everything to go to the bottom of the freezer container.

Our thoughts: We love the flavor. We used a 1/2 cup of honey, but will try it with 1/3 cup next time. I think there could be a little less chocolate chips and coconut. Overall ~ really impressed and happy with the results! Excited to make my own dairy-free ice cream!

So many possibilities, so much exercise that will have to be added to my life to compensate... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Note: I used a glass container to store my ice cream in, but think it allowed it to become too hard (had to let it soften a bit when I wanted some), so still experimenting with containers. Also, I did stir the mixture after putting it in our freezer every 30 minutes for the first couple hours.