During dinner this past week our middle daughter asked: “Mommy, we don’t know what heaven will be like, how do we know we will like it?“
My heart tugged and I said: “you’re right honey, we don’t know what heaven is like“… “I think you get to do your most favorite things in heaven all the time, like sing and dance and go swimming and be with people you love and have dogs all around you and eat ice cream“.
She giggled and asked: “can the people all be dogs?”
(This girl really loves dogs!) I replied emphatically: “yes, I think they can if you want them to be!!”
She then asked: “and I can eat ice cream whenever I want?”
…”Yep, I sure think you can!“, I replied.
I cherish these innocent talks with our girls. We talk about heaven occasionally, because they understand that their poppy Burton (my father) is in heaven, and we regularly speak of him as their guardian angel. And, we have talked about our loved ones being in heaven with our beloved animals. I always try to keep the conversation light and happy because I know at the heart of the matter is some fear of the unknown and sadness surrounding mortality.
So, we joked about how we would eat our favorite foods and just do whatever the heck we wanted all of the time! She has my fondness for ice cream, so of course we elaborated on the topic of “ice cream heaven”!
The next day on facebook I get this message from Kristi:
“Just made Chai Peanut Butter ice cream. I think this will be served in my Heaven. OMG! YUM!!!”
I chuckled to myself and the coincidence gave me a little shiver.
Let’s have a little taste of heaven on earth. Today I am sharing that celestial Chai Peanut Butter Ice Cream…
Chai Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 14 oz can regular coconut milk (not lite)
- ½ cup natural peanut butter can substitute almond or cashew butter if you prefer
- 1 cup plain or vanilla non-dairy milk
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar or other unrefined sugar, (see note)
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- ¼ tsp allspice see note
- ¼ tsp ground ginger see note
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- Pinch or two ground cloves see note
- ¼ tsp rounded guar gum
Instructions
- In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend until thoroughly mixed, stopping to scrape down the blender bowl once or twice, if needed. Transfer the mixture immediately (see note) to an ice-cream maker (follow the directions of the specific model, this is the one I use), and churn until the mixture is of soft-serve consistency.
Notes
- Adult-Minded: If you generally like more spices in such sweets as gingerbread, pumpkin pie, spice cookies, and cakes, you can round the measures of the spices cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, and ginger, and add a pinch more of cloves.
- Ingredients 411: If using vanilla nondairy milk, you might want to adjust the 3⁄4 cup measure of sugar, starting with a little less, because vanilla milks are sweeter than plain. Keep in mind that the room-temperature ice-cream mixture will taste sweeter than when frozen.
- Savvy Subs and Adds: Coconut sugar has a caramel flavor, and likewise a caramel-type flavor with undertones of coconut. It is a delicious and lovely sugar; however, if you can- not find it, try Sucanat or another unrefined sugar in its place.
Enjoy this heavenly dessert, and I wish you a sweet day!
Kathryn says
Loving the flavour!
Jamie says
The recipe looks good! Ate there any nutrition facts or serving sizes? I’m just huge into counting calories right now and dont want to go over or under. Just curious! Does it make just enough for one person or more then one?
Dreena says
Hi Jamie, thanks for the note. I don’t have the nutritional analysis for this recipe. If you need it, you can enter the recipe details into an analysis site, like this one: https://nutritiondata.self.com/
Hayley Woods says
Oh man, those pictures have me drooling! What a great recipe!
Erin says
Can you make this with just maple syrup as the sweetener (instead of the coconut sugar)? Also, what role does the guar gum play? Could it be omitted?
Dreena says
Erin, if you use all maple syrup, reduce the other liquid slightly or it will be thinner overall. Also may be a little darker. The guar gum gives some mallowy texture to the ice cream. Most commercial non-dairy ice creams contain guar gum or other similar ingredients that help the ice cream be a touch softer and more mallowy. But, I have made it without, and you can omit it if you prefer. Enjoy!