Nearly every 4th of July throughout my childhood, Mom slid our paperback copy of the Ben & Jerry’s cookbook off of its spot on the bookshelf, flipped through the pages, and pulled out the ingredients for their egg-free vanilla ice cream recipe. While she beat the sugar and heavy cream with our hand-held mixer, Dad drove over to the grocery store to brave the crowds and pick up a box of rock salt and big bag of ice.
When Dad returned, he finagled our antique ice cream maker out of its cabinet in the garage, maneuvering it Tetris-style past the parked cars, rod of Mom’s fancy dresses, and two bicycles hanging upside down from the ceiling. He carried it out to the backyard, setting it down near one of the grated drains, before pouring Mom’s ice cream base into the metal container and placing that in the center.
After nestling alternating layers of ice and rock salt around the edges in between the metal container and the wooden bucket’s sides, we gathered around the machine, perched on little plastic step stools, and quickly planned out our turns. Dad took his place at the hand crank first, easily turning it round and round, to ensure a smooth start. My younger brother grabbed it next, placing his hand directly over Dad’s and continuing to push the handle at the same speed in the same direction. Dad taught us very early on that seamless transitions were the key to perfectly smooth and creamy ice cream!
I took over after my brother, hunkering down on the little step stool and turning the crank around and around in a circle. By the end of my turn, the ice cream had begun to thicken, and pushing that handle required a lot more effort! With their bigger muscles, Mom and Dad took the last two turns, and about 20 minutes after we started, Dad hoisted the metal container out of the wooden bucket and carried it into the kitchen on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch the salty water droplets from the melted ice!).
After removing the lid and scraping off the plastic paddle in the center, Dad served us each a big bowl of that fresh, homemade ice cream. As smooth and creamy as soft-serve and with its classic vanilla flavor, that ice cream tasted a hundred times better than anything we bought from the grocery store!
This year, the county fair ended on the 4th of July, and since the fairgrounds sit directly across from the grocery store, we decided to avoid the massive crowds of cars and people and skip buying ice for our antique ice cream maker. However, my brand new electric ice cream maker arrived in the mail the day before, so we still whipped up homemade ice cream! Instead of Ben & Jerry’s indulgent version full of heavy cream and sugar, we made my healthier recipe…
This Ultimate Healthy Vanilla Ice Cream! Mom and Dad were completely surprised by how perfectly it turned out. Even with no heavy cream or sugar, they agreed it was still just as smooth and creamy as their favorite cookbook recipe (or anything you’d order from an ice cream parlor!), and it had the same sweet, rich vanilla flavor. And because it’s surprisingly full of protein, nobody felt guilty serving themselves a second scoop!
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HEALTHY VANILLA ICE CREAM
To make this healthier ice cream, you’ll start with Greek yogurt and 2% milk. If you’ve been around Amy’s Healthy Baking for a while, you already know how much I love Greek yogurt! Its thick texture is perfect for this ice cream base, and with around 21g of protein per cup, it gives your frozen treat a big protein boost too!
As for the milk, I highly recommend using 2% instead of trying to substitute something else. Ice cream requires some fat to give it that smooth, creamy texture.
{Nerd alert — here’s why!}
Traditional ice cream is a combination of sugar molecules, fat molecules, air molecules, and frozen water molecules. Think of them as tiny spheres of various sizes. If too many frozen water spheres are touching, the ice cream has ice chunks form, which makes the ice cream taste hard or grainy. Adding the other types of spheres — sugar, fat, and air — reduces the chances of those frozen water spheres touching, which makes your ice cream smooth and creamy!
Since you aren’t sweetening this ice cream with sugar (more on that in a minute!), it’s very important to make sure you include fat in the ice cream base. You can use higher percentages of milk (i.e. whole milk) if you prefer, but do not substitute nonfat or 1% milk. I also recommend against substituting almond or cashew milk because both of these have a very high water content, which will increase the chances of your ice cream having those ice chunks and grainy texture.
Instead of refined sugar, you’ll sweeten this ice cream with one of my favorite ingredients instead: liquid stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly, and it’s very concentrated. A little goes a long way — you just need 1 teaspoon! This is the kind I buy because I love its sweet flavor and don’t notice any bitter or strange aftertastes like some stevia products can have. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
{Another nerd alert!}
Finally, there’s one more important ingredient in this ice cream base. Eggs act as a natural “glue” that helps hold together the different spheres and therefore create that perfect smooth, creamy texture. Because we’re skipping the eggs (I’m impatient and don’t want to heat my ice cream base — I just want to eat my frozen dessert as soon as possible!), you’ll use a different “glue” called xanthan gum. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. Do not skip the xanthan gum. Your ice cream will taste icy and hard without it.
Remember how I explained that air spheres are a crucial part of ice cream? Because they keep the frozen water spheres separate for that smooth, creamy texture? That’s why it’s important to use an ice cream maker for the best result! This is the one that I have, and it’s really affordable and so easy to use. I bought it online, and I can already tell I’m going to use it just about every week this summer! (I have another new recipe coming for you in the next few weeks!)
{One last nerd alert!}
The ice cream maker plays two key roles. Firstly, by rotating and churning the liquid ice cream base, it incorporates more air spheres into the ice cream. Secondly, it rapidly chills the liquid ice cream base, much faster than a no-churn ice cream preparation method. That’s why your ice cream will be ready to eat just 25 minutes after you start mixing together the ingredients! (If you don’t have an ice cream maker, I included instructions for that no-churn method in the Notes section, but remember your ice cream will turn out a little grainier and harder!)
So to recap…
Special “glue” = smoother, creamier ice cream
More air molecules/spheres = smoother, creamier ice cream
Faster chilling = less time for those water molecules/spheres to stick together and form ice chunks = smoother, creamier ice cream
Now that we’ve covered all of those nerdy ice cream chemistry things… (I was an organic chemist before a baking blogger!)
Who’s ready for dessert?? 😉 And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees that I’ll see the notification from you! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy vanilla ice cream!
The Ultimate Healthy Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 cup (240mL) 2% milk (see Notes!)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp liquid stevia
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- The night before you plan on making your ice cream, place the bowl of an electric ice cream maker in the freezer. Freeze for at least 12-16 hours.
- Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute or until very frothy.
- Working quickly, remove the ice cream maker bowl from the freezer. Place it on the ice cream maker, attach the paddle and the lid, and turn it on. With the ice cream maker turning, pour in the milk mixture. Let the ice cream maker churn for 15-20 minutes or until the ice cream is frozen and has reached your desired consistency. For the best texture and taste, serve immediately.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream
♡ Healthier Cookies ‘n Cream Ice Cream
♡ Healthy Chai Spice Ice Cream
♡ Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream
♡ Lightened Up Mini Hula Pies
♡ Healthier Brownie Bark Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches
♡ Ligthened Up Blueberry & Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches
♡ Skinny Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches
♡ Mango Almond Popsicles
Thanks for the recipe. I was looking for one with lower fat and carbs than one with heavy cream and sugar. I made it using SweetLeaf vanilla stevia and whole milk Greek yogurt. Plus I added a few drops of liqueur for flavor. First, It came out too sour tasting so we had to add some sugar. Then, I guess due to the xanthan gum there were these gummy bits throughout the ice cream. Could that be because I wisked it by hand instead of using an electric mixer?
This is a great recipe. I didn’t have any liquid stevia so I warmed the milk (whole milk is what I had) and dissolved 1/2 cup of Monkfruit granulated sugar substitute in it but followed the recipe otherwise. It’s delicious and will make again.
Can coconut milk be substituted, can’t do yogurt or milk?
This is an excellent article! I appreciate how you explained the science behind the nessesary ingredients for smooth, creamy ice cream. Without that informataion, it would have been easy to ignore the recommendation for using a milk with higher fat content. Thank you!
I’m so glad you found this helpful, Cynthia! Thanks for taking the time to share. It really means a lot! 🙂 If you end up making this recipe, I’d love to hear what you think of the ice cream too!
Can I use sweetened vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt instead of plain to give a bit more sweetness? Thanks for sharing this fabulous recipe!!
We’re happy to share, Carly! Yes, using sweetened vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt would work as a replacement if you’re looking to make this a little sweeter. We’d love to hear what you think of this ice cream if you give it a try! 🙂
I made this today and absolutely loved it! I’m going to try it again with the stevia link recommended, since the stevia I had in house did make it a bit bitter. Do you think just using a sweetened protein shake like the fairlife protein shakes could work to substitute for the milk and sweetener?
Yay! I’m so happy you loved it, Carly! We’ve never tried adding/substituting a protein shake, so I can’t tell you with certainty how it would work. We would love to hear how it works if you do try it though! I’d probably recommend substituting the shake just for the milk and still including some (if not all!) of the sweetener. Protein shakes are rarely as sweet as ice cream bases are meant to be! I can’t wait to hear how it goes if you decide to try it with the protein shake!
Do you have any ice cream recipes which do not require an ice maker? I’ve been trying a few I’ve found online but would enjoy seeing what recipes you have.
We really appreciate your interest in our ice cream, K! We have several ice cream recipes! In most (if not all!) of our ice cream and frozen yogurt recipes, including this vanilla one, we’ve included a “No Ice Cream Maker Method” in the Notes section. I know it can be easy to miss! 😉 We know not everyone owns an ice cream maker, so we try to make the recipes possible for those people to enjoy too! The ice cream won’t be quite as velvety smooth without an ice cream maker, but it’ll still taste refreshing and have the same flavor! I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try any of our ice cream recipes!
I was happy to find this recipe. However, I think it’s appropriate to call this frozen yogurt, since that’s what it is.
It tastes exactly like frozen vanilla yogurt with stevia. If that sounds up your alley, you’ll love this. Over all, it’s a decent sweet treat. I don’t know that I’ll make it again but I’m glad we tried it!
It means a lot that you tried our recipe, Colleen! That doesn’t sound like how it’s supposed to turn out, so we’d love to help figure out why, if you’d like. In order to do so, we have some questions for you!
Was it just the flavor that was off, or was the texture not what you expected from homemade ice cream either?
Did you make any substitutions or modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section?
What are the exact products + brand names of the Greek yogurt and stevia that you used?
Have you used this stevia product before, whether in baking recipes or anything else?
Once we know your answers to all of those questions, we’ll have a better idea of the culprit! 🙂
WOW!! I had to purchase the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker but I’m so glad I did. The only ingredient I didn’t have the first two times I made it was the Stevia Original liquid so, I used what I had on hand (liquid Stevia Vanilla Cream) and it was delicious both times. I’ve also made the Ultimate Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream and OMG! My husband is a chocoholic and loved it! Tonight I will make it using the Original Stevia liquid (just received it from Amazon) and am looking forward to trying it again.
BTW – you did say we can eat it every other night, right? lol
I’m so happy to hear you and your husband both enjoyed our ice cream recipes, Patti! I’m happy to hear the vanilla cream liquid stevia worked well for you, too. We really appreciate you taking the time to let us know! Oh, and I’m all in favor for enjoying this ice cream as much as possible! 😉
Hi Amy I haven’t made this yet but thank you for this recipe. I’m wondering if I don’t have an electric mixer if it’s okay to just use a Vitamix?
I really appreciate your interest in our recipe, Daron! We haven’t tried using a Vitamix, so I’m not personally sure and don’t want to lead you astray. If you do end up making this ice cream, I’d love to hear what you think of it!
Hi Amy, many thanks for sharing your recipe, I would like to replace xanthan gum with eggs. How many eggs should i put in your recipe and is it yolk only?
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Simon! The issue with eggs is that you’d need to cook the milk mixture since it isn’t safe to eat raw eggs. It’s a bit of a hassle to do (and I don’t always have the best luck when doing that either!), so I typically avoid eggs in my ice cream recipes for that reason. 😉