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It seems like an oxymoron, right?  Paleo ice cream. For those times when you need something sweet, and in particular a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, this is your answer. There are certain times when eating ice cream is an obligatory part of life (for some of us, anyway), and being Paleo does not excuse you from that obligation. I’m not saying you should eat ice cream every day, or even once a week, especially if you’re trying to lose weight.  But for those special times, this is what you do.

You’re going to need an ice cream maker, which you can buy for about $70 at Bed, Bath & Beyond (and that’s for a nice one).  This is the one I have and it works great.  But if you do the math, which I did when I was standing in the aisle at BB&B, you only have to make 18 $4 pints of ice cream to justify this purchase. The other easy justification is that the ice cream you’re going to make in this fine piece of machinery isn’t going to give you the crazy sugar buzz and stomach cramps you might get from the Ben & Jerry’s.

To make your own ice cream, first put the ice cream maker bucket in your freezer for a day to let it get really cold (we just keep ours in the freezer now).  Then you take a can of coconut milk and put it in a blender with 1/4 cup of sweetener. I like to use coconut sap (or its evaporated counterpart, coconut crystals), which comes from the nectar of the flowers of a coconut tree. See my post on the low-glycemic, probiotic-feeding sweetener.  You could also use honey if you want. Either way, I’m not going to lie and tell you that you’re not getting a whole lot of pretty simple carbohydrates in one sitting, so I hope it’s worth it to you. Like I said, I use 1/4 cup of sweetener, which makes it pre-tty sweet. You could definitely use less.

Blend the coconut milk, sweetener, and whatever else you want to add to it and dump it in the ice cream maker bucket. I’ve added things like frozen blueberries, cocoa powder, vanilla, baked sweet potatoes, candied nuts, beef sirloin (ha! just kidding), chai seasoning, raw eggs to make it custardy, lemon juice, you name it. It takes about 20 minutes for it to become ice cream, and it will serve about 3 people, depending on their burning desire for some creamy, delicious ice cream.

To recap:

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

1 can coconut milk
1/4 C. sweetener
Anything else you want to add

1. Blend ingredients.
2. Place in ice cream maker.
3. Wait 20 minutes.
4. Enjoy!