If you’re on a diet:
You will love this recipe because it makes a gigantic serving for only 40 calories. (Seriously, the serving is huge.) Who eats a 1/2 cup serving of ice cream anyways? 😕
If you’re not on a diet:
You will love this recipe because you can up the calories by making it into a brownie sundae, by pouring on chocolate syrup, or by opting for the peanut butter version. Yes, there is a peanut butter version.
Above: a sundae with a Chocolate Workout Brownie.
Highly recommend those brownies. As for the ice cream: it could not be easier to make, and there are unlimited variations—you can add coffee, mint extract, fruit, chocolate chips… I haven’t even begun to try out all the combinations I’ve dreamed up for this incredibly versatile recipe.
Volume Ice Cream
(Makes 1 huge serving)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract (or about 1/4 of a vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise and scraped out)
- 1/16 tsp salt (trust me)
- sweetener (such as 1-2 stevia packets or 1-2 tbsp sugar)
- 1 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened Silk. See below for substitution notes.)
- optional: add-ins such as fruit, peanut butter, or extracts
Mix the ingredients together in 1 or 2 shallow plastic containers. Freeze. (You could also use an ice cube tray.) Once frozen, pop the blocks out of the container (I thaw for 30 seconds in the microwave first) and blend in your Vita-Mix. (If you don’t have a vita-mix, you’ll probably have to thaw longer, but you can still get a yummy ice milk.)
This ice cream—when made with almond milk—has a very light texture (perfect for summer). For a creamier texture that’s more like real ice cream, try using at least 1/4c canned coconut milk (or maybe even creamer?). You can, of course, also sub other non-dairy milks for the almond. But if you do this, play around with the amount of vanilla extract, sweetener, and add-ins. (For example, an already-sweetened milk will probably need less added sweetener.) To make it look like real ice cream, scoop out with an ice-cream scoop.
Warning:
This is an extremely voluminous recipe, so if you’re like me and need to watch that you don’t get full before you’ve taken in enough calories, I recommend eating this as part of a sundae or adding some extras to the basic recipe. ‘Cause it will fill you right up!
Recipe of The Day:
Deep Dish Cookie Pie (Vegan, GF)
Here is a flavor I came up with:
Pumpkin Pie
Add pumpkin from a can, and pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and I always add a little guar gum or anthem gum to make it thicker!
YUM!
I LOOOVE this recipe!! Instead of using Silk almond milk, I used Almondie’s almond butter. Yes, I know it’s butter and not milk… but the beauty about this is you can make almond milk with it too! Just mix 2tbsp of almond butter with 8 ounces of water and there’s your glass of pure, raw almond milk! Thanks for sharing this recipe!!
Oh wow, I am definitely going to have to try that!
I LOOOVE this recipe!! Instead of using Silk almond milk, I used Almondie’s almond butter. Yes, I know it’s butter and not milk… but the beauty about this is you can make almond milk with it too! Just mix 2 tsp of almond butter with 8 ounces of water and there’s your glass of pure, raw almond milk! Thanks for sharing this recipe!!
How long do you mix it in the blender for?
Until it turns to ice cream… maybe 20 seconds on high? But it only works in a Vita-mix (or blendtec or something like that). It won’t turn to ice cream in a regular blender.
Hi Katie!
I just had Voluminous Vanilla Ice Cream (with strawberries) for dessert and blogged about it here http://surfnrunnr.tumblr.com/post/11853804552/strawberry-almond-icee-i-tried-katies-recipe
Mine turned out more like an icee/slushy lol but it was still good! I LOVE your blog, you are such a genius. I also tried your baked oatmeal recipe which is the simplest one I could find online but it kinda of failed ha. I will try again later. Also, I plan on making your healthy chocolate chip cookies soon!
Congratulations on deciding to work fulltime on your blog! I’m sure you have lots of opportunities coming up.
-Geri
Hi Katie!
I just had Voluminous Vanilla Ice Cream (with strawberries) for dessert and blogged about it here http://surfnrunnr.tumblr.com/post/11853804552/strawberry-almond-icee-i-tried-katies-recipe
Mine turned out more like an icee/slushy lol but it was still good! I LOVE your blog, you are such a genius. I also tried your baked oatmeal recipe which is the simplest one I could find online but it kinda of failed ha. I will try again later. Also, I plan on making your healthy chocolate chip cookies soon!
Congratulations on deciding to work fulltime on your blog! I’m sure you have lots of opportunities coming up.
Aww, I’m so excited you made it!
As for the ice-iness… did you put the vita-mix on HIGH power? (Also, maybe try thawing the strawberries a little more, pre-blending?)
Katie– I didn’t read all of your responses (192!) so sorry if this is a duplicate. for ice cream, I use chopped frozen banana’s as my “base”. I blend those w/raw cacao, or with pb, or w/strawberries, or with…. well you get the picture. The frozen banana provides a rich creamy base that can easily be flavored any way you like and it’s ready to eat immediately… my favorite part!! I wonder if you kept ice cube trays frozen w/the milk of your choice on hand if you couldn’t add your flavorings as you blend so you don’t have to wait either?
Yes, definitely! 🙂
Katie, your link on “For ice-cream tricks, see: How to make it look like ice cream.” isn’t linked anymore :(. Are we missing anything good? 🙂
I’ve made something very similar to this, only I use cold (not frozen) Almond milk, and I’ll throw in frozen fruits. Ex. I’ve made peach, strawberry, blueberry, etc. I just use whatever frozen fruit I’m feeling and vitamix instantly 🙂
Wow, thanks for letting me know! I have no idea why it did that… I found the post and re-published it, so the link should work now!!
*crosses fingers*
(Let me know if it still doesn’t work for you. It’s working for me now, but it wasn’t before.)
perfect thanks! guess if I had been able to read that post I wouldn’t have had to mention the frozen fruit rofl Tho I tend to use an over-abundance of fruit so I don’t get the soupy ice cream 🙂
This, unfortuantely, was a disaster…. I mixed it up fine but when it came to the stupid blending part I was so lost. I don’t have a vitamix, so I didn’t know what the heck setting to use. I feared it would be a smoothie consistency, but even worse, it’s like chunks of small ice =( Oh Katie.. I butchered your recipe.
Oh no Lauren! As I stress in the recipe, you NEED a vita in order to get ice cream texture 🙁
Hi Again!
I am really confused is T tablespoon? because if it is wouldn’t the peanut butter “icecream” have more calories because a tablespoon of pb has about 90 calories?
Can you also use skim milk for the almond milk?
sorry, I don’t know because I haven’t tried it.
I find a better way to give it an ice-cream like texture is to take 2 bags one (large one small), put all the ingredients in the small bag and to fill the other one all the way up with ice and 1/2 a cup of salt. Then put the small bag in the larger one and shake till its the texture you want. I find it more effective 🙂
I am so in love with these recipes. But I was wondering, what does the salt do?
It’s for taste 🙂
I started out reading comments, hoping to get my question asked….and then I scrolled down through and saw how MANY there were…and gave up! lol I have teen boys – and a vegan ice-cream addict hubby (oh, okay, I am, too.) My recipe has tons of calories, so this one appeals to me as I try to lose weight. But there is no WAY I’m going to be able to fix this for myself and leave them out. Do you think it could be multiplied and put in the ice cream freezer that so many commenters were loath to use? (It’s really not as scary as it seems…)
Yes, you definitely can! Here’s a similar recipe that uses the ice cream maker: https://lett-trim.today/2011/12/07/four-ingredient-ice-cream%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I tried this recipe last weekend and it turned out really icy, I tried blending it but my blender couldn’t process it at all, any ideas??
As written in the recipe, you NEED a vita-mix to make this recipe into ice cream 🙁
oh phooey, ah well guess i will have to get one so i can make all your fabulous ice cream recipes!!
oh my god this was AMAZING Katie! I used to eat ice cream ALL the time when I was little, and it was always a comfort food. I hate eating the overly processed diet ice creams, not only because some are loaded with god knows what, but also because they don’t taste good and you get the littlest portion! This was HUGE and amazing! I’m going to start making this in different flavors just to keep in the freezer whenever I want to have some! 😀