Making Grapenut Ice Cream

Grapenut ice cream became my obsession this summer--three batches, and three results later, here goes. 

 The summer of learning to eat healthily meant learning to make my favorite foods at home. A staple of my childhood was grapenut ice cream, popular in Jamaica; and, according to the web, New England and Nova Scotia---no surprise, since all these locations are heavily influenced by Scotland.

To my surprise, grape-nut was not made of the nut of grapes but wheat and barley, and even bigger, Canada no longer carried the boxed cereal. Thank heavens for Amazon. My box of Grape-Nut came flying in from the UK, a little pricier than the average cereal at $17cdn ( P.S. The actual cereal is manufactured in USA by the Kellogs company).

In Toronto, the ice cream is sold at specialty shops— Cactus grocery store in North York is my go-to location--but the beauty of making it on my own was that I could control the ingredients to keep in line with my healthier eating: cream (low fat for me), milk (skimmed/lactose-free), eggs, and sugar (half the recommended amount). First attempt was a success, though I lacked the proper “creaming” equipment.

The second attempt was tricky, because my focus was on fat--low was not good enough. I searched out substitutes; instead of cream, I whipped together nonfat cottage cheese (Yes, this exists). It worked (minus the “creaming equipment” issue). The taste wasn’t great. It had a dry cardboard stickiness (PS. the flavor comes from the actual grapenut cereal).

​Third attempt: brilliant, and would you believe it, I discovered the existence of non-fat creamer (Nielson, thank you). Now, not saying mine’s as good as the store-sold ice cream, but it’s good enough, with less sugar and fat. And it’s quite fun to make on my own.

 Low fat  Grape-nut Ice Cream
Neilson fresh fat-free creamer
Grapenut cereal
Lactose-free skimmed milk
Eggs/ sugar (reduced ingredients)
vanilla extract

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