When it gets hot, we think of Nice Cream. And when it's hot here in the Okanagan, it's cherry-picking time. So it's a no-brainer to make Chocolate Cherry Nice Cream, our dairy-free version of ice cream. Give it a try, we think you'll like it!
Chocolate Cherry Nice Cream (serves 2-3)
- 1 frozen bananas
- 1½ cups cherries
- 3 dates, chopped
- 3 tablespoons raw cacao
- 6 drops liquid stevia (I like Green Drops Vanilla Crème Stevia)
- ¼ cup almonds, chopped
Put the fresh fruit (if you’re using it) in the freezer for 1-2 hours before you make the ice cream to chill it really well but not frozen. You may need to stir it around after an hour, so the fruit on the edges of the container don’t freeze hard.
NOTE: we usually use frozen fruit because it makes it so quick, but the texture may have a little bit more of an “icy” quality than with well chilled fresh.
I always keep 4-6 bananas in the freezer in hot weather so I’m ready to go with this recipe, but f you don’t have any bananas frozen already, for a quick ice cream, slice the bananas and freeze on a parchment covered baking sheet for at least 25 minutes.
Put the frozen sliced bananas, or slice whole frozen bananas with the cherries, dates, cacao and stevia in a food processor and pulse and blend together until the mixture looks like soft serve ice cream. (1-2 minutes). I stop and push the sides down several times
Add the almonds and blend until well mixed in.
For a firmer ice cream texture, you can put it all in the freezer for 30-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes so the edges don’t ice up.
NOTE: you can replace the cherries with any fruit and omit the cacao if you want the straight fruit flavour.