Delish.  This is officially our favorite ice cream!

Probiotic GAPS Strawberry Ice Cream (approx. 6-8 servings)

1 – 10 oz package of frozen organic strawberries

1 quart homemade creme fraiche

1 T. vanilla (make your own here)

1/4 c. raw honey

3 organic egg yolks (or eggs from a source you trust – please note that I would not use conventional eggs for this purpose!)

***To make the creme fraiche:  Take 1 quart of cream – preferably fresh, raw cream – in a quart Mason jar.  Add 1/4 c. kefir (from a previous batch) and stir well.  I ferment mine uncovered in the dehydrator at 90 degrees for 24 hours, as per GAPS protocol.  I know Dr. Natasha says 105 degrees, but with kefir cultures, I’m afraid I’ll kill them.  I have personally not reacted poorly to doing it that way. If you are on GAPS and don’t have a dehydrator, you can do it the same way you’d make kefir – whatever your method.  And you could use yogurt if you don’t have kefir cultures.  I just happen to do mine this way.  If this is new to you, here’s a great post from Loving Our Guts on making GAPS/SCD yogurt.

If you aren’t on GAPS, you could substitute the creme fraiche for either coconut milk or fresh cream.  Just know that it won’t have the same probiotic effect.  Which happens to be part of what I think makes this sooooo great.  Not only is it incredibly nourishing…happy bacteria are always helpful too!  🙂

Anyhow…I digress.  Blend all ingredients in a blender.  Pour into the ready-and-waiting barrel of your ice cream maker (we have a Cuisinart 2 quart ice cream machine and I love it!) and operate according to directions.  In 30 minutes you will have the best strawberry ice cream ever.  Easy peasy.

On a side note…even if we weren’t on the GAPS Diet (which does not allow for any processed foods like store bought ice cream)…I would prefer this anyhow.  Store bought ice cream often contains propylene glycol – which is otherwise known as antifreeze.  This allows it to be so nice and scoopable.  I’m breaking out my copy of “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon for the second time today…synthetic ice creams also contain such “luscious” ingredients as:  “Diethylglycol (more antifreeze and paint remover, used in place of eggs); Piperonal (used in place of vanilla, the chemical is otherwise used to kill lice); Benzyl Acetate (used for strawberry flavor, it is a nitrate solvent); Butraldehyde (used in nut flavored ice cream; one of the ingredients of rubber cement) and Ethyl Acetate (used to give ice cream a pineapple flavor – and also doubles as a cleaner for leather and textiles; its vapors have been known to cause chronic lung, liver and heart damage).”  (Pottenger Price Nutrition Foundation)  YUM, huh?  I would hope that after that lineup…making your own sounds pretty darned attractive.   It sure does here.  I think feeding my children antifreeze is unacceptable.  And after almost 40 years of being chronically sick myself, I refuse to partake in anything with ingredients like that anymore.  Health, and quality of life, are too important to me.

P.S.  I have only recently gotten over my raw egg phobia, after doing a great deal of my own research over a long period of time.  When you hear that they are bad your whole life…it takes some undoing.  And knowing that the eggs come from our own hens, which are healthy, helps me.  If you are at all uncomfortable with this…you can lightly cook the eggs with the honey on the stovetop – use a whisk – until well blended.  Let that cool and then put everything in the blender from there.  Just know that you will lose the enzymes from the raw honey, as well as the instant nourishment of the egg yolks.  Totally your call, and to each their own. 🙂  And it will still taste good either way.

And of course – just a reminder – don’t give honey to children under age 1 due to the risk of botulism.

Enjoy!

This post was shared at Butter Believer’s Sunday School; The Better Mom’s Mondays Link Up; The Prairie Homestead’s Homestead Barn Hop; Living with Food Allergies and Celiac Disease Made from Scratch Monday; Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesdays; Simply Sugar and Gluten Free’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays; Cooking Traditional Foods Traditional Tuesdays; Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday; The Tasty Alternative’s Allergy Free Wednesdays; Frugally Sustainable’s Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday; The Cultured Palate’s Tasty Traditions; Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays; Valentine’s Day at the 21st Century Housewife; Vegetarian Mamma’s Gluten Free Fridays;