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Ice cream. My absolute favorite guilty pleasure.
There’s literally nothing better than creamy delicious ice cream, but when it’s homemade, ohh is it just heavenly! Ice cream is one of those desserts I try to eat sparingly (keyword here being “try”), but this recipe is one you can actually feel GOOD about eating! Not only are there delicious chunks of sweet strawberries in every single bite, but this recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free and has zero refined sugars! Talk about a win-win.
Now enough talk about ice cream because the true star of this dish are the STRAWBERRIES.
Plain old strawberries, in my opinion, when chopped up and added into ice cream tend to have a sour, bitter taste to them and who wants to enjoy strawberry ice cream like that?? For this recipe, I roasted the strawberries with Alessi white balsamic reduction along with a little honey which really enhanced the flavor of the strawberries and created a delicious syrup to be incorporated into the ice cream. I am simply in love with mixing strawberries and balsamic together, I mean there is just something about that tangy/sweet combo that pairs so well for that perfect dessert!
Alessi offers such a wide variety of balsamic reductions such as raspberry, coconut, ginger, dijon, chocolate (you know, just to name a few), but the best part is they don’t have any of those unwanted fillers or thickeners in them! Just a few simple ingredients, tons of flavor and zero chemicals. I don’t know about you, but that’s how I like to enjoy my food!
Alessi’s balsamic reductions are so versatile that they really will compliment any dish whether it be super fancy or a quick weeknight meal that was thrown together in 30 minutes. I like to drizzle them over salads or cheese plates because they aren’t gloppy or heavy likes some reductions can be and they also make great marinades for meat or chicken dishes.
Balsamic is such a staple item to always have on hand in your home and Alessi really hits a home run with their wide variety of products and flavors!
So after roasting the strawberries with the balsamic reduction and honey I let them cool for a bit before adding them to my ice cream which allows the syrup to thicken up nicely. I don’t know about you, but I love getting big chunks of strawberries in every bite while eating my ice cream, so I just used a potato masher to mash up the berries, but you could also purée them in a food processor or blender if you wanted to avoid getting those big chunks. This doesn’t change the flavor at all so feel free to make this all your own!
Making this ice cream couldn’t have been easier either! You simply just throw all your ingredients into a blender (except for the strawberries), mix until smooth, fold in the strawberries along with their syrup and add everything to your ice cream maker. Just remember to stick the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer about 24 hours before making this so that it will be nice a cold. You definitely don’t want to forget that part!
If you don’t have a blender you can also use a hand mixer to blend everything together.
Oh and if you’re wondering how this ice cream is dairy-free, well I used canned coconut milk which is just as rich and creamy as heavy cream that is typically called for in ice cream recipes. Make sure when you shop for your ingredients that you purchase CANNED coconut milk and not the kind you would find in the drink section.
Those are two totally different things and wouldn’t work as well when making ice cream. You could also substitute the honey in this recipe for any sweetener of your choice. I just thought that honey would be the perfect pairing with the strawberries and balsamic and I must say this definitely did not disappoint!
And there you have it, perfectly sweet and creamy strawberry ice cream that you can enjoy splurging on! Hope you enjoy this dessert as much as we did!