We love making gelato at home because we can give it a healthier twist with natural, plant-based ingredients. For today’s recipe, we’ve gone with a summer classic: salted caramel ice cream. We made it vegan and sugar-free, with just three healthy ingredients. Let us show you how we did it!
While classic caramel ice cream contains white sugar, double cream, eggs, butter, and whole milk, we made ours with just coconut milk, ripe bananas, and soft dates. First we mixed coconut milk with bananas to make the ice cream base. Then we blitzed dates with water and salt to make a smooth caramel sauce. Finally, we tossed the date caramel into the frozen ice cream and it was done!
Our caramel ice cream is not only dairy free and egg free but also less fat and sugar compared to the classic. Salted caramel ice cream is certainly a decadent dessert, but it’s so easy to transform into a healthier treat when you use the right combination of ingredients.
Fats and sugars make ice cream delicious, soft and creamy. In our recipe, we relied on coconut milk for richness and ripe bananas for sweetness. By weight, coconut milk has half the fats and saturated fats than double cream, making it a healthier choice. Bananas have only a tenth the sugar of white sugar and become incredibly creamy when blended and frozen.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make this ice cream without it. We’ll give you step-by-step instructions how to stir the gelato by hand. It’s a simple process that requires very little work: give the ice cream a good stir every 4-5 hours while it freezes. When we did, we started the recipe in the morning, stirred the ice cream throughout the day, and made the caramel swirls before bed. Then we let it freeze overnight, ready for the next day.
Now that you know how healthy and easy to make this vegan caramel ice cream is, we hope you make a big batch of it. It will keep you happy during the hot summer days without sacrificing your diet. Let’s begin!
And if you want to try some more healthy and delicious homemade ice cream recipes, check out this Coconut Jackfruit Ice Cream, Pistachio Banana Nice Cream or Vegan Lavender Ice Cream.