Before starting Stanford this fall, I had a lot of free time on my hands. So, this summer I decided to single-handedly recreate healthy recipes of all my favorite desserts. Which resulted in a mound of dishes, a load of discarded brownies, some angry parents and a lot of experimental cooking.

Is there anything better than an ice cream sundae? Whoever invented ice cream was a total genius. (Mini history lesson for today: Apparently ice cream was invented in the second century BC, which is way older than I ever realized. It’s mentioned in the Bible! And Alexander the Great liked it! Supposedly Catherine de Medici introduced it to France in 1553. But the public couldn’t eat it until 1660, because it was a dessert only for royalty.)

Anyway, so I wanted to create recipes that were healthier. Not that there’s anything wrong with good old Ben and Jerry’s (obviously), but sometimes you just want something a little lighter, you know?

Since unfortunately cream and processed sugar aren’t, well, super good for you, I wanted to avoid those ingredients as much as possible. Also, since a lot of fake sugars, like stevia, taste really gross (or have questionable side effects), I wanted to avoid all of that too. There are healthy ice cream recipes floating around the web right now, but they either use banana as a base (which is good, but excessively banana-y so if you hate the taste of banana … ) or cashews (which I don’t like). So, this idea was born. It uses all easy, on-hand ingredients (you can get practically everything from the dining hall besides the vanilla beans).

This ice cream reminds me of the cereal soft serve at trendy cereal store, Kith Treats, in New York City, except this recipe is much healthier.

I know it’s winter time, but it’s never too cold for ice cream.

Vanilla Cereal Ice Cream

2.5 cups skim milk

2 vanilla beans (or, if you must, use vanilla extract)

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp agave (or honey – just take some from the dining hall!)

2 eggs

Post Honey Oats Cereal (my personal favorite, but you can use any cereal you want!)

 

Add two cups of skim milk in a saucepan. Slice the vanilla beans the long way, scrape out the black seeds and add them to the milk. Throw the “empty” vanilla beans in as well (since getting the vanilla seeds out is quite a challenge, and this way you don’t waste any).

Add salt and agave, and heat the milk until it begins to simmer.

AT THIS POINT, REMOVE FROM HEAT. Do NOT let the milk boil – it could taste scalded, which is unpleasant.

Beat the two eggs in a large bowl. While whisking, pour the hot milk over the eggs, whisking furiously so that the eggs don’t scramble. Pour back into saucepan and return to heat, and heat at medium until thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.

Put the mixture in a bowl in the freezer and try to stir it every thirty minutes or so. Add cereal the last five minutes of stirring.

Feel free to add your favorite ice cream sundae toppings!

If you’re interested in the caloric measurements, there’s 87 calories in 110 grams of ice cream. True ice creams range from 250-300 calories in this same serving size. If you go with supposedly “lower calorie” options like Breyers or Edy’s, an equivalent half cup serving is 60 grams, meaning you get almost half as much ice cream for the same calories.

 

Contact Caroline Dunn at cwdunn98 ‘at’ stanford.edu.