Diabetic-friendly vanilla blueberry ice cream

Disclaimer for diabetics

I’ve titled this recipe as diabetic-friendly. This means it hasn’t spiked my own glycemic index. Since diabetics react differently to foods, I highly recommend that if you’re a diabetic, you should absolutely monitor your blood sugar after trying some of this ice cream.

This vanilla blueberry ice cream is so good!

Sometimes alternative versions of popular foods aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. This ice cream isn’t the case. I tried a nice big spoonful when it came out of the ice cream machine, and oh my gosh!!! I was so happy!

You see, I love many many desserts, and I used to indulge in lots of them, often. My favourite dessert was ice cream, but I hadn’t had any since my diabetes diagnosis 2 1/2 years ago. You can imagine how much this great tasting diabetic-friendly ice cream made me feel. 😃😋

Desserts for diabetics

I’m by no means perfect when it comes to food choices, but I am extremely cautious when it comes to foods that can affect my blood sugar. I’ve removed all sugary drinks (including fruit juices), most desserts, pasta, most breads, etc. from my day-to-day meals.

I do, on occasion, have a treat day where I’ll have one of these foods, in moderation. Even better is when I can cook or bake a diabetic-friendly version of one of these treat foods so that it doesn’t impact my body negatively. In addition to this ice cream recipe, I’ve also made quick almond flour and pecan muffins without refined sugar, crispy almond cookies without refined sugar and a few others. I’ll keep learning and testing so we can add more diabetic-friendly recipes here in the future.

A handy freezer tip… Take this ice cream out of the freezer early

This ice cream comes out of the ice cream maker creamy and delicious–ready to eat as is. Obviously it’s quite a big portion, so unless you’re sharing it with others, straight out of the maker, you’ll need to freeze some. I don’t know the science behind it, but I believe the type of sugar used in this recipe (monk fruit erythritol blend), makes the ice cream freeze up to quite a solid state in the freezer. It doesn’t really scoop out with the perfectly textured ‘bark’ like you get with regular refined-sugar ice creams.

My tip is to take the ice cream out of the freezer about 25-30 minutes before you intend to eat it, to allow it to soften a bit before you scoop it. Another idea, so you can enjoy this treat with less wait time, is to pre-portion single servings of the ice cream into small freezer-safe containers. When you feel like having your ice cream, just pop open the lid on your single-serve container, wait about 15 minutes, grab a spoon, and dig in!

Ice cream…year-round…of course!

Just as I feel about BBQ season… that it’s year-round (even through the cold, snow, and ice of our Canadian winters), I feel the same way about ice cream season. I may have paused that ritual for a while, but now that I have a delicious, safe, and healthier ice cream recipe, I intend to pull out our ice cream maker often, and return to enjoying this dessert year-round. If you’re a diabetic, and even if you’re not, we hope you give this recipe a try, and make today yummy!

Print Recipe

Diabetic-friendly vanilla blueberry ice cream

With this ice cream, you won't feel like you're settling for a lesser version of a wonderful dessert. You won't miss the refined sugar. It's that good!

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Cooling and Churning4 hours hrs

Total Time4 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: banana muffins for diabetics, diabetes, Ice cream

Servings: 4 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk homogenized or 3 1/4% fat
• 1/3 cup monk fruit erythritol blend sugar
• 1/8 tsp fine salt
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

• Prepare your ice cream maker ahead of time according to the manufacturer instructions. In our case, we used the Breville Smart Scoop™ ice cream maker. There’s no need to pre cool the unit in the freezer, since the unit has it’s own compressor.
• Place all the ingredients in a sauce pot, and whisk a bit to incorporate.
• Heat the pot on medium, whisking occasionally until small bubbles form on the edges of the cream mixture. Don’t let the mixture reach a boiling point! Take it off the heat.
• Pour the mixture into a bowl, cover it lightly with a paper towel or lid, but make sure not to seal it completely as the lid might pop from the heat.
• Place the bowl in the fridge (with a heat protector underneath) for a couple hours or until the mixture is completely cooled.
• Pour the ingredients into the ice cream bowl and start churning.
• Once the the ice cream reaches 2/3 of the churning time, add the blueberries and continue to churn.
• In about 45 minutes (depending on your ice cream maker), you’ll be rewarded with creamy delicious vanilla ice cream with blueberries.

Notes

• Churn the ice cream longer for a harder consistency
• Place the ice cream in a sealable container and put it in the freezer for future cravings. The better the seal, the longer it’ll last in the freezer.
• Keep in mind that because of the monk fruit sugar blend, the ice cream will become harder in the freezer than regular ice cream. Take this ice cream out of the freezer about 25 to 30 minutes before you plan on eating it. Freeze it in portions for quicker thawing.
• Feel free to substitute the blueberries with other favourites, like pecans, sugar free chocolate chips, etc.
• We recommend using an ice cream maker for this recipe.