Back in her blogging days, Amy Green shared this wonderful recipe for low sugar dairy-free chai ice cream with us. She was, and probably still is, a gluten-free and low sugar recipe expert, who happened to be pretty fabulous at making things dairy-free, too. We were sad when Amy decided to close her blog permanently, but thankfully, we are able to keep a few of her popular recipes alive. Like this wonderful frozen dessert.
This Dairy-Free Chai Ice Cream is Amazingly Low in Sugar
Amy understands the dynamics of ingredients, and knows how important sugar is for softening ice cream, particularly when there isn’t any eggs or dairy. So she incorporates a couple ingredient tricks to keep it perfectly melty.
- First, she uses a combination of canned coconut milks (do NOT use drinkable coconut milk beverage!). The fat content is essential for a creamy result in this recipe. There is subtle coconut flavor to this ice cream, but it’s very complementary to the chai spices.
- Second, she adds a little gelatin. This helps to bind the ingredients, preventing ice crystals, and also “tenderizes” the finish. Don’t worry if you are vegan, we have a gelatin-free option below!
- Third, she uses a little sugar, in the form of agave nectar, to keep this dairy-free chai ice cream from setting up too solidly. Sugar-free sweeteners just don’t work the same. That said, you can substitute maple syrup if you prefer!
Special Diet Notes: Low Sugar Dairy-Free Chai Ice Cream
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, peanut-free, and soy-free.
For vegan low sugar chai ice cream, you can substitute agar powder for the gelatin.
- 1 (14-ounce) can lite coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 3 regular or decaf chai tea bags
- 1 (14-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- ¼ cup agave nectar
- 5 drops plain or vanilla liquid stevia, or to taste
- Pour the lite coconut milk in a small, heavy bottomed saucepan. Sprinkle with the gelatin and let it soften for several minutes.
- Place the pan over medium heat, and let it cook, stirring occasionally, until the gelatin dissolves and the milk is very warm.
- Remove the pan from the heat and steep the tea bags in the mixture for 5 to 8 minutes.
- Once the tea has finished steeping, gently squeeze the bags to extract as much flavor as possible.
- Strain the tea mixture into your blender, and add the full-fat coconut milk, agave, and stevia. Blend until combined. Taste, and blend in more stevia if needed.
- Refrigerate the mixture for 2 hours or overnight.
- Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s direcitons.
- Pack the soft serve ice cream into a freezer-safe container, and freeze for 4 hours or more for hard-packed ice cream.
More Low Sugar Dairy-Free Desserts
Vegan Apple Pumpkin Crumble Bars
Sugar-Free Chocolate Avocado Mousse
Allergy-Friendly Cookie Dough Cupcakes
