Recipe: Goat Milk Ice Cream

​This recipe has saved me more times than I can count from the hopeful question often posed near dinnertime: "What's for dessert?" When I answer "ice cream" I get a smile and a cheer from my 4-year-old daughter (and husband).

It really is the perfect dessert recipe. Easy. Fresh. Homemade. Using our own milk from our herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats makes it that much sweeter because of the naturally high butterfat content in the milk. Throw in a couple of fresh eggs from our chickens and we have Goat's milk ice cream. It takes no time at all and provides all the health benefits of raw milk and raw egg yolks in a tasty, creamy dessert.

Ingredients for Ice Cream Base:
4 cups cold, raw goat milk (or other milk of choice)
1/2-3/4 cup sugar (or 1/2-3/4 cup maple syrup)
3 raw egg yolks from pastured hens
pinch of sea salt

Flavor Ideas:
Vanilla Ice Cream - add 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Ice Cream - add 1/3 - 3/4 cocoa powder, the more you add the more of a dark chocolate flavor you will get
Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream - replace 1 cup of milk with 1 cup pureed pumpkin (or canned pumpkin) and add 2 tsp pie spice and 1 tsp cinnamon. This flavor is inspired by a post I saw by Renee Kohley on her recipe blog Raising Generation Nourished. It is absolutely divine!

Directions:
Dump all ingredients together in a blender or blend in a bowl with an immersion blender. That's it. No cooking or tempering of ingredients necessary. I like to blitz it with the immersion blender right in the plastic ice cream container I will store it in for even easier cleanup! Pour the ice cream mixture into your ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer's instructions. It is okay if you see a slurry of sugar at the bottom of your bowl, just pour/scrape it into your machine anyway. I have used coarse sugar and have seen the granules at the bottom of the bowl after blending, just get it all into your ice cream machine anyway. It works, I promise. Magic happens in the ice cream machine and my ice cream has always come out perfectly smooth and delicious.

Notes:
If I whip this up right before dinner and put it in the ice cream machine, it is usually done and ready to eat soft-serve style after dinner. If you want a firmer ice cream, place it in your ice cream storage container and freeze for 2-3 hours. I have a sturdy plastic ice cream tub with a silicone lid sold specifically for storing ice cream, and it works great. I have also reused clean plastic yogurt tubs to store the ice cream. It often doesn't last more than a few days in our house, so storage isn't much of an issue around here!
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This ice cream is all natural and does not have any gums, fillers, or additives. Because of that, it will need a good 15-20 minutes to thaw at room temperature before it softens and is easy to scoop. I often take the ice cream out of the freezer right before dinner, and it is ready to serve by the time we have finished eating. My family likes it more on the soft-serve side, so I have found that leaving it out for up to 30 minutes is just fine.