Peppermint choc chip- my all time favourite ice cream (well, in equal first position with boysenberry anyway). Seems my little man takes after me requesting a peppermint choc chip ice cream cake for his 6th birthday. I normally use a delectable recipe from Isaac Mizrahi, making a lower-casein version of the custard with real cream from grass fed cows, and raw goats milk. I use hopper natural food colouring or spinach juice if it’s not green enough and depending how minty the fresh mint was I have been known to add some peppermint essential oil. So this is what I made for his birthday this year.
However we had a few extra intolerances to be mindful of this year, dairy eggs and sugar to name a few. So I needed to create something special they could have as well. I didn’t want any gorgeous people missing out so came up with a great alternative- an avocado based version. No eggs, dairy or sugar, yay!
A little more straight forward that making custard, chilling, churning in the ice cream maker and refreezing too- bonus!
You’ll need:
1 medium avocado (or 2 small avocados)
1/3 cup coconut cream
1/4 cup filtered water
1 generous tablespoon chopped fresh mint
Peppermint essential oil to taste (I used around 7 drops, start at 4 and adjust to taste)
1/4 cup xylitol*
pinch of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 scoops Stevia (I have the nirvana brand currently- it has a little scoop inside). Optional- to taste
1/3 cup dark chocolate, chopped (I used a no added sugar carob buttons in this case to accommodate the the allergies but would normally use a good dairy and soy-free dark chocolate)
Instructions:
Blend the xylitol in a food processor until very fine like icing sugar (or it can be a little grainy in your ice cream)
All the rest of the ingredients apart from the dark chocolate and blend until smooth.
Scrape down the sides, taste and adjust sweetness and peppermint to your liking. Blend once more until well combined.
Scoop into a container (for health glass and stainless steel are ideal) and pop into the freezer to set for 1-2 hours.
Remove from the freezer, scoop into lovely round balls and pop back into the freezer to set a little more or eat immediately for a softer ice cream.
To serve we drizzle ours with a homemade junk-free “ice magic”, or magic shell if you’re not an Aussie.
This ice cream keeps okay but will become really hard after being in the freezer for awhile. If so you may want to allow it to sit at room temperature to soften for awhile so it’s just as enjoyable.
* If you’re not vegan, or don’t need to be sugar free, I usually prefer raw honey or maple syrup as my sweetener of choice.
* This recipe first appeared on my old blog site in 2014.