Making Nutrient Dense Kefir Cultured Ice Cream
Let’s learn how to make kefir cultured ice cream
It’s utterly delicious & completely nutritious!
Making Nutrient Dense Kefir Cultured Ice Cream
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In a recent post I talked a lot about the benefits of milk kefir & I wanted to share one of my favorite go to recipes on how I like to use my milk kefir which is making ice cream
I am going to share a few different variations & show you how you can easily customize this recipe based on your flavor needs & preferences
This recipe originally came from the book GAPS Stage By Stage with Recipes by Becky Plotner
GAPS stands for Gut & Physiology Syndrome or Gut & Psychology Syndrome
While they may sound slightly different they really aren’t. Both books share slightly different information but they are essentially talking about the same thing. One talks more about the physical symptoms associated with a leaky gut & the other talks about the psychological symptoms. If you are at all interested in this protocol I advise grabbing both books.
GAPS was developed by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride as a treatment to help heal & seal a leaky gut through nutrition. It is the theory of the DR Campbell-McBride that the majority of our illness, including allergies, autoimmune, arthritis, depression, fatigue, as well as many of our hormonal problems & neurological diseases all stem from a leaky gut & unhealthy gut flora.
The books share a diet protocol teaching you how to heal with certain foods, mainly high quality animal fats & proteins. The backbone of the protocol is meat stock & plenty of home made fermented & cultured foods.
This protocol consists of an 6 stage introduction diet which is essentially an elimination diet which you slowly re add foods & monitor your symptoms. Then after you complete the introduction diet it is advised you stay on full GAPS for at least 1 year to get that systemic inflammation addressed & get that gut microbiome in a healthy state so it can fully support you.
Learn more about the GAPS protocol HERE
While trying to get to the root issue of some of my own health concerns I came across this diet protocol & while I am not currently following the protocol I still enjoy many of the foods. This recipe is one of my favorites.
Making Nutrient Dense Kefir Cultured Ice Cream
This recipe can & does take some time to make but don’t let that discourage you. I like to have a jar of cultured cream in the fridge ready to go for when I’m craving a healthy treat.
The first step to this recipe is culturing the cream & for that you will need some kefir cultured milk. Kefir is a fermented milk beverage similar to yogurt made from grains. These grains are not grains like wheat but rather they are made up of active bacteria, yeast & protein. There is also something called water kefir grains you can get but this recipe requires the milk kefir grains
In the blog post about milk kefir I went over a lot of information so I will ask you to head over HERE to read all about milk kefir
To make kefir cultured cream
Prepare the cream by warming it up in a heavy bottomed pot on the stove until it reaches 180F. Then remove from the heat & allow it to cool to 110F. I like to place my pot directly in a sink full of cold water to cool it down. This step is only required if you are using pasteurized dairy, if you have raw dairy you can skip this step.
Place 4 TBSP of already prepared kefir cultured milk into a quart sized jar. Kefir grains do not like cream & only prefers milk which is why you can’t just put the grains directly in the cream. I like to coat the sides of the jar by putting a lid on the jar & turning it on its side until the sides are fully coated
Fill the jar with the cooled down cream to the shoulder of the jar. Stir & place a piece of paper towel over the opening & fasten. I like to use the metal ring from the jar without the seal
Place the jar in a dark corner of your kitchen & after 3 days it should be ready to use. It will become very thick & the whey should start to separate. If you see any signs of fuzziness, pink or gray hues in the cream, that’s mold & you will need to discard the cream.
Base Recipe:
2 cups of kefir cultured cream
1 TBSP Vanilla (or more to taste)
6 TBSP raw local honey or maple syrup
Egg yolks from pasture raised chickens
Instructions:
Add your egg yolks to a blender or food processor & blend on low to emulsify the eggs for 10 minutes. I’ve found when following this recipe that 8 egg yolks will produce a nice scoopable ice cream & the more egg yolks you add the more scoopable the final product will be
Add the vanilla, honey & any other ingredients (see variation ideas below) to the blender/food processor.
Add the kefir cultured cream. Depending on what flavor you’re making, the amount of total cream used may be different. I usually fill my blender/food processor to just over the 1 liter mark. The ice cream maker I use has a 1.5 liter capacity, but if you fill it to capacity it tends to spill over.
Blend the ingredients until fully combined
Place the mixture in the fridge for a few hours ideally overnight. If the bowl of your ice cream maker isn’t already in the freezer, put it in there now, the bowl will need to chill for at least 24 hours. I’ve found the colder the ice cream mixture is before you place it in the bowl the better the ice cream turns out
Once the mixture is chilled, blend up again if needed, sometimes the mixture can separate when chilling and then put it into the ice cream maker as per the manufacturer's directions. Churn for 20 minutes
Remove the ice cream from the maker bowl to ensure you don’t scrape the sides when you dish the ice cream out. You can skip this step if desired & place it back in the freezer, whatever works best for you
Flavor Variation Ideas
Lemon:
Base recipe
Juice of 2 Lemon
Pinch of fine sea salt
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
Instructions: Same as original
Berry:
Base recipe
2 cups of berries (fresh or frozen)
¼ cup sweetener of choice
Instructions:
Make blueberry syrup by putting berries in a pot, adding some sweetener & cooking for at least 15 minutes. Mash the berries to your liking
Follow the same instructions as the base recipe making sure you add the berry mixture & other ingredients before you add the cream
Fruit:
Base recipe
2 cups of fruit of your choice (fresh or canned)
Instructions:
Follow the same instructions as the base recipe except add the fruit to the blender/food processor after you emulsify the eggs but before adding the sweetener & cream. Turn on the blender/food processor until the fruit is in small bite sized pieces or alternatively you could cut up the fruit first
Add all other ingredients before you add the cream
Chocolate:
Base recipe
⅓ cup cocoa powder
Pinch of sea salt (optional)
Instructions: same as original
Chocolate chip:
Base recipe
½ cup chocolate chips
Pinch of sea salt (optional)
Instructions: same as original
Notes:
Maple syrup is not GAPS approved
You could try using kefir cultured milk instead of cream to make an ice milk instead of ice cream
You could skip cooking the berries but you will be left with the seeds which can add a hard texture I’m not fond of
Be cautious of extracts, I once tried to make a mint chocolate chip that tasted way to much like mouthwash & needed to be discarded
If using chocolate chips the mini ones seem to work best
Comment down below & let me know what flavor you are going to make? Did you make one of the variations or did you come up with something new & equally delicious?
Be sure to come back next week & learn how to make a shea butter lotion bar
Until next time, may you find Peace wherever you are!
Watch the video & tutorial HERE
Image of YouTube thumbnail
Sources:
Book: Plotner, Becky (2018) GAPS, Stage by Stage, with Recipes. Florida: The Dancing Rhino LLC pp 203-205