Bionic Ice Cream

eggs in cream by Francesca Tronchin

So, scientists have set out to make a healthy ice cream, they tell me. I hope they have as much fun testing their as we have ours. See, the way we make it, ice cream is full of good, healthy fats. It’s rich with real, whole RAW cream and egg yolks, and flavored with homemade vanilla and just a nip of pure maple syrup for sweetness. We’ve been having this treat as our once-a-week dessert all summer and long into fall. It’s been different each week because we mess around with toppings and add-ins. One week we’ll steep mint leaves into the milk and have mint. The next week, fresh peaches from the farmer’s market will cradle a scoop. Chocolate chips are always welcome. I’ll post my recipe below, but let’s take a quick look at this new “bionic ice cream” scientists hope to deliver.

First big mistake: Take the good stuff out

Why would you want to mess with ice cream? Well, if you perceive fat from egg and milk sources as evil, and if you’ve abandoned less-processed sugars for highly refined ones, and if the food is full of artificial colors, flavorings and preservatives, you have an end product that is not health-promoting. That “food” (and I use the term loosely) needs improving upon.

Second big mistake: Put the fake stuff in

But real ice cream, made at home in your own kitchen with real food? That’s about as functional as it gets. No need to add probiotics because raw cream is full of them. No need to add antioxidants because pastured chicken egg yolks already contain them.

Third big mistake: Mess with the food only as a marketing ploy

Mass produced, hyper-processed ice cream really is bad for us. We really can just say no to eating it. But real ice cream is a healthy food when eaten in reasonable serving sizes and as an occasional treat. There’s just no reason to mess with it. Oh, wait…money.

Gruen and his colleagues chose the added ingredients because they have been shown to contribute to a person’s health and also because they are familiar to consumers.Gruen said people buy a food for two reasons: either because they really enjoy the food or because it’s good for them. If the researchers were to add foreign, albeit beneficial, ingredients, consumers might pass right by the treat. “We’re trying to hit the big three, so to speak, of what consumers know about,” Gruen told LiveScience.

(Emphasis mine.) The “big three” Gruen refers to are probiotics, antioxidants and dietary fiber. So, in other words, childhood obesity is a serious problem, but you can feel good about feeding your kids this dreck because it has these scientific-sounding words that you’ve been told are good! Yeah? NO!

With the recipe we make, there is a whopping big total of 1 tablespoon of maple syrup per serving. That’s not a lot for a dessert (it’s less than some breakfast cereals, for heaven’s sake) and it really is enough. I want to encourage you to try this recipe with this morning’s pastured chicken eggs, cream skimmed from this morning’s milking and real Vermont maple syrup. This recipe makes a quart, which is eight half-cup servings. If you’re used to eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, a half cup of this gem will probably satisfy you.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
4 egg yolks from pastured hens
1/2 cup real maple syrup (we’re not talking maple topping here, folks)
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
1 tablespoon potato starch
3 cups whole, raw, fresh cream

Whisk egg yolks and blend in syrup. Drizzle in vanilla while whisking. Sprinkle starch evenly over the top of eggs and blend in. Whisk in cream. Pour into bowl and let rest, covered, in the refrigerator for an hour or more. Pour into ice cream freezer and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. When frozen, scoop into a glass bowl, cover and store in freezer. I take the bowl out about 10 minutes before serving to make scooping easier.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop, a fellow ice cream lover!