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The Best Low Sodium Vanilla Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! That chant typified summer, yet ice cream is a treat we can enjoy all year round in so many forms, flavors, and desserts. Desserts are often frowned upon by those people on a diet. Which is why I hate diets and the denial aspects of diets. When I went low sodium, it was to change my entire food lifestyle overall. Desserts are part of it. Especially when we are making better choices with ingredients. So today I am offering up my recipe for the best low sodium vanilla ice cream.
Low Sodium Treats
When you start on a low sodium journey, there are a lot of moments when you find out that foods that were your favorites have to come off of your menu dues to high sodium amounts. So we really celebrate when we can hack the sodium out of a recipe and add an item back to the mix. Today is the day to add ice cream back!
With 3 kids we have a busy house. In our house the whole family is low sodium. My wife and I stay busy and do not have time at all to be short order cooks, nor do we have money to buy salted and unsalted pantry items. So every recipe we post here (minus any cocktails) are all kid approved.
Reading ingredient labels is a must for those of us living the low sodium life. We have passed this skill on to our kids to help them be more involved in our overall family health. Being able to physically able to do things to impact health has also helped our children to cope with the fact that their dad has gone through these major challenges that for the most part are out of everyone’s control. They love to help daddy take care of his heart.
We also love the kids to be included in the entire process of cooking. From choosing and purchasing the ingredients, to choosing recipes We also have the kids pitch in in the kitchen. It gives them a better understanding of ingredients and flavors. It helps them to expand new tastes and new flavors which is a great thing. They are able to broaden their pallet and form their own opinions rather than being picky eaters. We headed off to our local Cub Foods to do the shopping.
Dairy Milk Is The Best Choice For Low Sodium
As a dad I love the serving milk to my family, knowing the wholesome beverage is remarkably simple and contains just milk, vitamin A and vitamin D. Remember the old commercials? Milk, it does a body good! Milk is great fuel for our kids for soccer, baseball, and skiing. In their hectic rush to activities, I can make sure they are getting the essential nutrients (like potassium, vitamin D, calcium and high-quality protein) that can help them grow strong.
Adults need milk too. Did you know dairy milk protein is a complete protein? Most plant proteins are incomplete, which means they’re missing some of the amino acids your body needs. There is one simple reason I will always stick with dairy milk. It is lower in sodium.
The sodium in milk runs 100-115 mg per 8 oz cup (ranging from non-fat to whole-fat strength). Being a heart transplant patient, requires me to be an many medications that deplete my bodies stores of essential minerals like calcium, vitamin D, and potassium. Dairy milk is the top food source for these vital nutrients. So if I can take less pills and supplements, I am all for it. To get all the facts for yourself you can visit the Milk Life here.
Making Ice Cream Is Easy
I always thought that making ice cream at home would be hard to do. Growing up we had relatives that had these huge hand cranked contraptions that seemed to require endless amounts of ice, salt, and manual labor with all of the churning and cranking to make it. Progress has happened since then. There are home ice cream makers that are electric, so no more hand cranking (like this one I have here).
To make it more fun for everyone, they have cool ice cream makers inside of a sports ball (like soccer) that allows for the churning of a pint of ice cream by literally kicking it around the yard. Which would work here in the summer, but not so much if you want ice cream in the winter. A bit too cold to play soccer in the snow drifts. An ice cream base is five simple ingredients: eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla.
The new ice cream makers allow you to get all fancy with ingredients. You can add candy bits or chocolate chips right into the churning process. We like to set up a toppings bar and let each person create their own. They can decide on a cone or bowl, and all the goodies to put on top.
To Make The Ice Cream
When you make the base for an ice cream, you can make it with or without egg yolks. When you use egg yolks it is a bit richer in flavor and texture if that is your favorite ice cream. If you prefer your ice cream more like soft serve, or a bit more liquid-ey, you can go without. You will gain a few sodium points off as there is sodium in egg yolks. This recipe will use the eggs in the base since the sodium is low enough to afford the egg’s count.
You will be making a heated milk/cream mixture and then whisking in the eggs and sugar slowly as to not to scramble the eggs in your ice cream. Once it is thoroughly mixed, you will pour it into a bowl and place that bowl into an ice bath to chill it down before adding it to the ice cream maker. Then churn it per the instructions on your ice cream maker. To get other great milk recipes, check out the Milk Life website.
The Recipe For The Best Low Sodium Vanilla Ice Cream
The Best Low Sodium Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups Heavy Cream
- 2 1/4 cups Whole Milk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract or 2 Vanilla Beans sliced lengthwise and scraped
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 3 egg Egg Yolks
Instructions
- Combine the cream, whole milk, and vanilla beans into medium pot. Start to heat mixture over low heat.
- Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together in a small bowl until fully combined.
- When the cream mixture reaches 95 degrees or feels warm to the touch, remove from the heat. Carefully, add ¼ of the cream mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly until blended. Do not add all of cream mixture at once to the eggs. You want to slowly add heated cream a little at a time to temper the yolks. Whisk the tempered yolks into remaining warmed cream mixture. Return pot to medium low heat.
- Cook the ice cream base over medium low heat until it reaches 185 degrees or is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean pods and scrape vanilla beans into ice cream or add pure vanilla extract. Pour ice cream mixture into bowl to cool.
- Fill a large bowl with ice. Place the container of ice cream in the ice bath. Stir often and let cool.
- When the ice cream base has cooled, pour into ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions.
- When finished churning, serve immediately for soft-serve, or transfer to airtight container. For a more firm ice cream, allow ice cream to harden in freezer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Nutrition
