Friday, April 23, 2010

Chocolate Cherries Ice Cream


Courtesy of Beautiful Living Food in Vermont http://beautifullivingfood.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup of cashew pieces. (soak them for 4 or 5 hours)

  • 1/4 cup of packed, pitted dates cut in half. (soak for 30 minutes )

  • 1/2 cup of reserve water from soaking the dates

  • 1 1/4 cups of pitted and coarsely chopped fresh cherries

  • 1 cup of firm young Thai coconut meat (I used one large coconut)

  • 1 cup of coconut water

  • 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon of agave syrup

  • 1 scraped vanilla bean

  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (or 2 vanilla beans)

  • 2 pinches of sea salt

  • 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

  • 1 capful of cherry extract (Boyajian brand)

  • 2-3 tablespoons of raw cacao powder

Add all the ingredients into the Vitamix and blend until smooth. Pour into a container and chill in the fridge until nice and cold (several hours or overnight).

Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker (according to the manufacturer’s directions). It takes about 30 minutes to reach a nice soft serve consistency. Stick ice cream into the freezer for a couple hours for a firmer texture that you can scoop with an ice cream scooper.