Grape-nut Ice Cream
A simple maple and date-sweetened non-dairy ice cream dessert featuring crunchy grape-nut cereal - a luxuriously creamy frozen treat with flavorful crunchy bits of goodness!
Equipment
- high speed blender
- ice cream maker, food processor/blender/ice cube trays
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 cup dates* pits removed, soaked in 1 cup hot water for 30 minutes
- ¼ cup rolled oats soaked with dates (above)
- 1 cup raw cashews soaked in hot water for at least 30 minutes
- 1½ cups Oat + Nut Milk
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- dash of salt optional
- ¾ cup Post's Grape-nuts cereal
Instructions
To make the custard base.
- Drain the water from the soaked cashews and rinse well.
- In a Vitamix or high-speed blender, combine the dates and oats with soaking water, drained soaked cashews, plant milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt (if using).
- Blend until very smooth, hot, and creamy – about 4-5 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready when it’s thick enough to coat the back of your spoon or spatula.
- If your blender isn’t powerful enough to heat/thicken your mixture, pour the ice cream base into a saucepan and heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon or spatula, about 5-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your ingredients, the level of flame/heat on your stove, and the conductivity of your saucepan.
- Place the covered blender (or transfer to a glass container) and store in the refrigerator until completely chilled, about 2 hours.
To make the ice cream.
- If you have an ice cream maker, *** plug in your ice cream maker and turn it on.
- Pour the cooled maple-date custard into the frozen insert and place the lid on top (or follow your machine’s directions) to begin creating your Grape-nut Ice Cream. See notes*** below if you do not have an ice cream maker.
- Once the ice cream maker sounds sluggish (30-40 minutes) and is super cold and thick like soft-serve ice cream, pour in the grape-nuts cereal. Allow it to process until fully incorporated, about 1 minute.
- You can enjoy your ice cream now or transfer it to the freezer for 1-2 hours to firm it up more. If you leave your ice cream in the freezer too long and becomes too hard, simply place it on the counter for 10-15 minutes until you can scoop it out.
- Enjoy your grape-nut ice cream as is or dress it up with your favorite ice cream toppings.
Notes
* I like using dates and maple syrup in this nostalgic Pennsylvania ice cream recipe. But you can use any other sweetener, including agave or sugar. Also, many ice cream recipes use more sweetener, but I only use half a cup of maple syrup in addition to the dates. You can increase the amount of maple syrup if you prefer your ice cream sweeter.
** I use raw cashews because they are neutral in this ice cream. Use whatever raw nuts you prefer or have on hand.
*** No ice cream maker? No problem!
- Option 1: Pour the liquid ice cream base into ice cube trays and freeze until almost frozen, but not rock hard, about 2 hours. Then use a high-speed blender to blend until smooth. You may need to add a splash of milk and the tamper to help it along. -
Option 2: Pour into a freezer-safe container, cover, and place in the freezer. Stir every thirty minutes or so until it gets hard enough to scoop out for ice cream.
Enjoy!