When summer comes and you need a dessert that isn’t loaded with sugar, cinnamon ice cream sweetened with only dates is the answer. Just a handful of simple ingredients and a quick churn in your ice cream maker will give you a delicious treat that you can feel good about eating.
Date Sweetened Ice Cream Recipe
I’m always looking for new ways to serve my family flavorful, truly nutritious food. When it comes to desserts, most times, sweet treats aren’t considered healthy. Either they are loaded with sugar and denatured ingredients marketed as “wholesome” or artificial sweeteners and preservatives.
No thanks, I think we will pass.
Making desserts with life-giving ingredients isn’t tricky. It just requires a bit of thinking and planning. For instance, you can replace commodity flour with freshly milled flour. Use fresh fruit instead of flavored pie fillings. Swap butter for hydrogenated oils. Or substitute highly processed sweeteners for raw or natural options such as agave or dried dates.
Dried dates are delicious. And completely versatile. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you may know that I love making ice cream. When I discovered you could easily sweeten ice cream with dates, I was overjoyed.
This cinnamon ice cream recipe pairs perfectly with the caramel-like flavor of the dried dates. Normally dates need to be soaked in water for a bit to soften them. But in this recipe, you can toss them into the warm milk and cream, while the custard cooks, making the process of creating date sweetened ice cream so simple. Once the ice cream base is finished cooking, toss everything into a blender and puree until smooth. It is quite straightforward. The date sweetened ice cream can be served in a bowl, cone or coupled alongside your favorite fruit pie.
Is There Ice Cream Made Without Sugar?
There are plenty of homemade ice cream recipes that can be sweetened without refined sugar. Agave nectar and maple syrup are good substitutes for sugar in ice cream. Another great option are dried dates.
Are Medjool Dates Healthy?
Dates originate all the way back to biblical times and are considered to be the world’s oldest cultivated fruit. This ancient food is packed full of fiber, antioxidants and vitamins and may be a healthy fruit that you will want to add into your diet. Fairly low on the glycemic index, dates can be used in sugar free dessert recipes, used to sweeten granola, made into fruit bars, tossed into smoothies or eaten as a delicious snack. Read on to learn about the health benefits of dates.
What are the Benefits of Eating Dates?
Are dates good for you? Below are just a few reasons to love dried dates.
- Full of fiber to help support a healthy digestive system
- Reduces inflammation
- Great natural sweetener
- Rich in antioxidants
- High in calcium which improves bone health
- Excellent source of potassium
How to Make Homemade Ice Cream Sweetened Only With Dates
Delightfully sweet and extra creamy with a punch of cinnamon spice, this medjool date ice cream recipe is about to become your new favorite dessert! If you make this date ice cream recipe and love it, come back and give it a 5 star rating! Share in the comments below what is your favorite part of this homemade ice cream.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. In any case, I only link to products we actually use on our homestead and that I believe can truly benefit to you. See my full disclosure here.
Makes: About 1 quart
Ingredients
2 cups heaving cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups (225 g) dates, pitted and chopped
5 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
In a saucepan warm milk, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, chopped dates and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly, pour half of the warm milk mixture from the saucepan into the eggs yolks, whisking constantly until combined. Return the tempered eggs to the saucepan. Over medium low heat stir the mixture constantly with a whisk until the custard has thickened. The consistency should be able to coat the back of a spoon.
Once the custard has thickened to the appropriate consistency, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. During the meantime, pour the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream into a blender.
When the custard mixture has cooled, pour into the blender. Puree on low for about 30 seconds. Switch to high and process until only small specks of date pieces remain (about 45 seconds). Cool mixture in the fridge until throughly chilled.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, about 20-25 minutes. Scoop up soft serve style or place into your freezer for a firmer consistency.
FAQ
Which Ice Cream Maker is the Best?
When I first started making ice cream at home, I used the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment. For a couple of years the attachment worked beautifully but eventually the blue freezing liquid inside the frozen bowl began to leak, rendering the tool unusable.
I now have the Cuisinart ice cream maker and have been quite pleased with the results. The ice cream maker can freeze ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet in 20-25 minutes. It is compact, making it easy to store and I find it fairly quiet when it runs, compared to other ice cream machines I have used previously.
How to Make Homemade Ice Cream Easier to Scoop?
Refrigerator freezers tend to make homemade ice cream hard. To avoid this many ice cream recipes call for a bit of alcohol or a splash of a liquid sweetener such as corn syrup. I personally prefer not to use either of those in any of my ice cream recipes. My recommendation for this cinnamon ice cream is to remove the tub from the freezer 10-15 minutes prior to serving. Allowing the ice cream to thaw a little will make it easier to scoop.
What to Serve With Cinnamon Ice Cream?
- Sugarless Apple Pie
- Blueberry or apple crisp
- Fruit Cobbler
- Cinnamon crisps
- Brownie
- Graham crackers
More Naturally Sweetened Recipes
Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sweetened With Dates
Date Sweetened Chocolate Truffles
Cinnamon Date Sweetened Ice Cream
When summer comes and you need a dessert that isn’t loaded with sugar, cinnamon ice cream sweetened with only dates is the answer. Just a handful of simple ingredients and a quick churn in your ice cream maker will give you a delicious treat that you can feel good about eating.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heaving cream
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups (225 g) dates, pitted and chopped
- 5 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a saucepan warm milk, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, chopped dates and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly, pour half of the warm milk mixture from the saucepan into the eggs yolks, whisking constantly until combined. Return the tempered eggs to the saucepan. Over medium low heat stir the mixture constantly with a whisk until the custard has thickened. The consistency should be able to coat the back of a spoon.
- Once the custard has thickened to the appropriate consistency, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. During the meantime, pour the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream into a blender.
- When the custard mixture has cooled, pour into the blender. Puree on low for about 30 seconds. Switch to high and process until only small specks of date pieces remain (about 45 seconds). Cool mixture in the fridge until throughly chilled.
- Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, about 20-25 minutes. Scoop up soft serve style or place into your freezer for a firmer consistency.
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