I Scream You Scream!!! Ice Cream! Lemon Cardamom Ice Cream.

mmmmmmmmmmm…………..

La La La!! Yes this makes me sing!

Ice Creamy Dreamy, I am in love with my new ice cream maker!!  No, it is not essential to have an electric ice cream maker but our summer eating sure has become sweeter!  We have had an old fashioned hand crank ice cream maker for a long time.  It rocks for sure but it takes an awful lot of planning time.  Since learning about all of Liesl’s dietary restrictions finding really good ice cream (that doesn’t cost an arm) is tough.

No longer!  Now we whip up dreamy ice cold treats in a matter of 20 minutes from beginning to end!!

I was inspired by a cookbook written by one of my favorite bloggers over at thespunkycoconut .  Kelly’s new ice cream book rocks (as do all of her books) and it has opened up a whole new world of ice cream making possibilities.  We have made a few of her recipes and of course, since I am unable to follow recipes, we very quickly have ventured out into our own recipe making!

What I have discovered is that you can really make anything into ice cream or sorbet.  We really just put anything we would love in a smoothie then add a little bit of guar gum to make it silky and lovely blend then put in your chosen ice cream maker.

We were heading  friends’ home for dinner.  Being from India, they made some amazing Indian food (by the way I still need those recipes Nan!) , so I stuck with that idea and we made a light and lovely Indian inspired ice cream.  If you want rich and creamy use full fat canned coconut milk, this time I used the coconut milk from the carton (much lighter).

Lemon Cardamom Ice Cream

4 cups So Delicious Coconut Milk (this is not the canned version this is the kind in cartons found in refrigerator section)

1 cup frozen or fresh mango

1/2-3/4 cup coconut sugar (sweeten to taste with whatever sweetener you prefer)

1/2 tsp guar gum

1/2 tsp lemon extract (or 2 tsp lemon zest if you have it)

2 tsp ground cardamom

Blend till smooth – taste – then refrigerate till you are ready to put it in your ice cream maker

Here are our trusty and simple ingredients. Just toss them in the blender and taste till you like it!

Here it is all blended up and ready for the fridge till we want to make it into ice cream. (it already tastes sooo good)

Here it is! My beautiful cuisineart ice cream maker. And yes I did buy this color to match my counter tops. I am strange like that.

The top is open on this version. This makes it easy to add things and to sneak tastes the whole time it is freezing!

I like my ice cream directly from the maker like a soft serve but if you have extra, store it in shallow containers in the freezer.  I also like to put it in small single serve containers to eat later.

yum! eat it soft serve style or freeze in a shallow container and scoop out later into dishes or Cones!!

*tip* frozen things do not taste as sweet as they do melted so you may need to add a little more sweetener than you think

*also the more sugar the easier it is to scoop your ice cream later on – I know one blogger who adds 1-2 T vodka to all of her ice creams to keep them scoopable!