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
I tried making this today (doubled the recipe) but me and my family just didn’t like it. We couldn’t get over that tangy bitter taste of the greek yogurt which is to bad because I really wanted to make healthy ice cream. Any advice?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Kevin! That tangy flavor isn’t how this ice cream is supposed to turn out, so I’m happy to work with you to figure out a way to eliminate that! 🙂 To make sure we’re on the same page, did you use 1 teaspoon of vanilla creme stevia or the granulated sugar alternative in the Notes section? And did you make any substitutions? The more detail you can provide, the better I’ll be able to give you tips on how to sweeten the ice cream!
Thanks so much for your reply Amy! I made no substitution’s just doubled the measurements. So 2 tsp of the vanilla creme stevia. For the yogurt I used Fage Total 0% .
You’re welcome Kevin, and thank you for the information! I’d recommend adding more vanilla creme stevia, somewhere between an additional ½ to 1 teaspoon to start. (You can always add more, but you can’t exactly remove it from the mixture once it’s in the bowl!) Taste the mixture before you add it to the ice cream maker. It should taste overly sweet! This is because our taste buds on our tongues are numbed/less sensitive when we eat frozen foods, so they need a higher sweetness level when they’re at room temperature (or only as cold as when they’re in the refrigerator!) to make them taste “normally” sweet when frozen. That should help make the ice cream taste right! 🙂
Oh ok got it Amy! will definitely try that!
I’m excited to hear how it goes Kevin! 🙂
Can I use regular liquid stevia and vanilla extract instead?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Casey! If you’re using the same brand of liquid stevia as the vanilla creme stevia that I use, then that should be fine. The taste may be slightly different, but it will still be very similar. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this ice cream!
Amazing Recipe! This is definitely one of my favorite recipes to make! 6 ingredients, and a batch lasts nearly an entire week for me!
I did cheat it a little though, and went with the splenda route :(. Not the worlds best sweetener, but I found that using a 1/4 cup of it works well in this recipe.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the ice cream Jake! There’s nothing wrong with using Splenda — don’t feel bad! 🙂
I got that same problem with the tangy flavor from the yogurt that Kevin mentioned. The only things I changed about the recipe: I used whole milk instead of 2%, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.
It was nice a smooth and creamy, but the flavor was too much like the greek yogurt. I used Oikos 0% nonfat plain.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Dale! Did you read over the solution Kevin and I came up with? Hopefully that works for you as well! 🙂
Well I could add more Stevia like you said, but I think the taste as is already has enough of that particular flavor it has. Mostly I was asking because Kevin had even followed the exact recipe but didn’t get the same results as you.
Kevin didn’t actually follow the recipe exactly as is — he doubled it. Halving or doubling recipes can often change the taste and/or texture of the end result. 🙂
I don’t have xanthan gum on hand I was wondering if there is another substitute I could use that would stull give that same creamy and smooth consistency?
I really don’t recommend substituting for it. I’d love to hear what you think if you try this ice cream Diana! 🙂
Made the ice cream! Followed all the directions. I did use Fage yogurt and it was tangy a bit so Ill add more sweetner next time. But I’m thrilled it worked. Btw save those halo and enlightened pint containers bec it stores it perfectly. I do wonder how would using the sweetener Swerve work (just wondering haven’t bought it yet). Yea!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this ice cream Mary! Great tip about saving those small pint-sized ice cream containers — thanks for sharing! 🙂
I have now made this a few times and it really came out well. The texture is very creamy, like the ‘full fat’ versions but without all the calories. Last time I also mixed a couple of spoonfuls of Matcha powders so it became Matcha ice cream and my Chinese and Japanese friends were well impressed. Amy, do you think I could add fruits such as bananas or strawberries into the vanilla mixture to turn it into fruit flavoured ice creams? Thanks.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying this ice cream Chi-Chi! I love your idea of adding matcha. How fun! 🙂 You could probably add mashed banana or strawberry jam to the mixture without any problems, but I typically recommend avoiding “chunks” of fruit because they turn really icy and hard. I’d love to hear how your ice cream turns out if you try that!
5 star as it’s creamy, yummy and healthy
You’re so sweet — that means a lot to me Chi-Chi! Thank you!! 🙂
I’m getting ready to try this recipe after much reading and research. I use a lot of Greek yogurt in my diet and can understand the concern with the flavor the plain yogurt introduces. I am leaning towards substituting the Plain for Vanilla Greek yogurt and leaving out the Stevia. What are your thoughts? Thank you!!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe! You can definitely substitute vanilla Greek yogurt for the plain. However, I think you’ll still want to add some stevia (not the full amount!) because frozen things taste less sweet when frozen than when simply cool from the refrigerator. So if you like the sweetness of the vanilla Greek yogurt eaten straight from the fridge, you’ll want to add a bit of sweetener to make it taste like that same level of sweetness when frozen. Does that make sense? I think ¼ to ½ teaspoon of vanilla stevia should be great! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this ice cream!
I can’t wait to try this recipe but I was really hoping to make mint chip. Any suggestions??
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Rhonda! You could easily add a bit of peppermint extract to the ice cream base before putting it in the ice cream maker, and then you could sprinkle in chocolate chips during the last 2-3 minutes of the ice cream making process. I haven’t personally tried adding mint extract to ice cream, so I’m not entirely sure how much. However, because it’s really potent, try adding a scant ½ teaspoon — then taste the mixture to see if you need to add more! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear how your ice cream turns out!