Ice cream!!!

So, by request, I will share my ice cream recipe. Honestly it's kind of cheating because I just reworked the recipe that came in the instruction book for my ice cream maker, but it's still delicious. And it's SOOOOOOOO much cheaper than buying the specialty dairy free ice cream at the store. Well, unless you make some ungodly amount of it like I did when I first got the machine. It's a bad idea to mix a pregnant lady, an ice cream machine (a new one, at that!), and a challenge. I'm just sayin'. I'll just put the basic vanilla recipe here, but you can add pretty much anything you like to it. My favorite so far is chocolate covered cherry ice cream. Ricky's is Oreo. Nadia's is, well, whatever you put in her bowl is gone before you get the other bowls served, so I'm not sure she has one. Anyhow, the recipe:

1 cup soy or almond milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch salt
2 cups coconut milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk to combine "milk", salt, and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. (I usually just put it in a leak-proof tupperware container and shake it--because Nadia can help more that way--and I put it in the fridge for a while and repeat until the sugar dissolves.) Stir in coconut milk and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours. Follow instructions for your ice cream maker. Add candy, fruit, or other add-ins when ice cream has thickened--about 5 minutes until the end of the cycle.

Ok, so that's the short reworked version of what my instruction book for my Cuisinart says. I do the shaking method, then add the coconut milk and vanilla, shake more, then refrigerate. You CAN put it in the machine right away, but I have not had good luck with that. It seems to always turn out too soft. So, the chilling is an important step.

Also, a can of coconut milk (13.5 oz) is roughly only 1 and 2/3 cups, so I just top it off with the almond or soy milk that I was using instead of opening another can. You CAN use rice milk, but I have found the consistency is much lighter with it, although I don't know if that will vary by machine ( I think I used the first machine I bought with it, not this one). Both the soy and almond milks give a really good ice-creamy texture. Ricky loves it and has recently been requesting an ice cream. This is the guy who wouldn't touch most of the commercial soy ice creams I tried with a 30-foot pole.

Excellent things to add are: Oreos, fresh or thawed cut strawberries, Reese's cups, 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies--or more if you like, chopped cherries with chocolate chips, or whatever else you can chop into small pieces and put in ice cream. Just make sure you chop things small enough that they won't get stuck too much on the paddle of the machine.

Well, I guess now I'm making ice cream tonight. I'll try to get pictures on here, but I can't seem to get them to load right now.