THE BEST APRICOT ICE CREAM… EVER and it’s dairy-free!

Dairy-free Apricot Ice Cream / HOMEGROWN KITCHEN

Dairy-free Apricot Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 8-10 perfectly ripe apricots approx. 500g once the stones are removed
  • 1 cup coconut cream I use TradeAid or Kara brand as they don't separate [OR pouring cream]
  • 1/4 - 1/3 cup honey maple syrup [OR icing sugar]
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Remove the stones from the apricots and quarter. Arrange snugly in a single layer on a lined tray. Freeze until solid, about 6 hours or overnight.
  • Put the frozen apricots, coconut milk, 1/4 cup honey and vanilla into a blender or food processor and blitz for 1 minute until smooth. [Check the flavour and add extra honey if needed - this will depend on the ripeness of the fruit used.]
  • Spoon into bowls to eat straight away, or scoop into a lined tin or ice cream container and freezer until firm, about 3 hours. Remove from the freezer and sit on the bench for 5 minutes to soften a little for scooping.

Notes

Variation: Use cherries, plums, peaches, mango or berries in place of the apricots.

OK, I know that is quite a claim to make… The Best Apricot Ice Cream… EVER. Well, simply put, IT IS. For several reasons:

1. It can be made without an ice cream maker. Truth be told I do have an ice cream maker in my possession (on long-term borrow from my Aunty), but honestly I often find it more hassle that it is worth to use. To start, remembering to freeze the canister. This would be OK if we had room in the freezer to leave it in there permanently but with my happy stock-making husband our chest freezer is choker blocker. And the ice cream maker model is one of those manual ones where you need to remember to turn it every 10 minutes and if you don’t remember, well bad luck as your ice cream is frozen solid before it is even churned. I hear the electric ones are pretty awesome but I am officially banned from buying more electric gadgets as our newly built over-sized pantry is completely full.

2. It is dairy-free. Yep, completely dairy-free ice cream, but you really wouldn’t know. I tested this on my ice cream loving sister and she thought I was joking when I told her it was dairy-free. Although if you really want to you could use cream in place of coconut cream but you won’t taste a lot of difference.

3. It is made from our very own homegrown apricots. If you have ever eaten an heirloom tree-ripened apricot, believe me you will never buy an apricot from the supermarket again. Our rather surprising apricot – as I explained last year – gave us the best Christmas present this year. We must have harvested about 15-20kg of apricots over the last few weeks. The children (and the parents) have been in apricot heaven.

4. It only contains 4 ingredients – apricots, coconut cream, sweetener and vanilla. The sweetener quantity is only 1/4 – 1/3 cup compared to a cup or more in most ice cream recipes I have made in the past. The amount of sweetener will depend on the ripeness of the fruit used and desired taste.

5. It just is The Best Apricot Ice Cream… EVER and I hope you make it. You can easily substitute the apricot for plums, peaches, mango or berries, however, it is the fleshy type of fruits that will give the best creamy ice cream results.

Dairy-free Apricot Ice Cream / HOMEGROWN KITCHEN

Dairy-free Apricot Ice Cream / HOMEGROWN KITCHEN

The basis of this recipe actually came to me via a discussion with a stallholder at Nelson’s Saturday market. I was buying a 1kg punnet of her ‘seconds’ strawberries and she asked me what I had planned for the strawberries. I told her we didn’t have a plan beyond eating them all within the next 24 hours. I often buy seconds as I find they have the best flavour. They are seconds because they have some bruising which tells me they were picked ripe rather than ‘almost ripe’.

The strawberry seller tells me she has this old chap who comes to her stall every week to buy a large punnet of her seconds strawberries to make into ice cream. He simply removes the leaves from the strawberries then cuts them into quarters and freezes them. Every night after dinner he makes a bowl of strawberry ice cream by combining frozen strawberries with a little cream and icing sugar in his blender until smooth. So of-course I tried making this ice cream with my seconds strawberries using coconut cream (for my dairy intolerant son) and honey instead of icing sugar. It was very good and so simple to make.

This was last summer, so when our apricot tree started raining apricots I was itching to try the ice cream recipe again. And I was not disappointed, it is even better made with the fleshy apricots. You can either eat the ice cream soft straight away or spoon into a lined tin and freeze until firm for scooping.

Dairy-free Apricot Ice Cream / HOMEGROWN KITCHEN

Dairy-free Apricot Ice Cream / HOMEGROWN KITCHEN

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Join the Conversation

  1. angela.starr@nzp.co.nz says:

    Wow! Yum I can’t wait to try this one! I purchased a Yonanas machine last year – which makes a soft serve ice cream using frozen bananas and fruit which the kids LOVED, but this looks just as good as well…THANK YOU!

    1. Hi Angela, I haven’t tried a yonana but I would say this similar without the banana. Enjoy 🙂

  2. Oh man, this looks SO good! I’ve just recently started getting into paleo desserts (ice creams and ice blocks mostly) and hadn’t found a flavour like this before that I am actually allowed to eat! Yay! Can’t wait to try it out. 🙂

    1. Enjoy Danelle, you won’t be disappointed!

  3. Yum! Any ideas on other fruits you could sub in too?

    1. Hi Pip, other fleshy stone fruit works just as well or berries and mango would be delicious.

      1. Yummy! Just made some with strawberries I had in the freezer – delish. Mangos were 2 for $2 at the markets today, so I have them all chopped up and in the freezer for tomorrow’s dessert 🙂

        1. Hi Pip, I bet the mango would be amazing. I also came across the same special for mangoes but then we ate them before they became ice cream!

  4. So simple..and looks so delicious…your gorgeous photos make it look irresistible! I’ll be trying this with the last plums left on our tree. In fact, I think I’ll go and pick them now, so they can freeze overnight to make tomorrow! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  5. Hi Sam, I hope the plums worked well. I am eagerly awaiting our greengage plums to ripen so I can try them using this recipe.

  6. AAAAahhhhhhh! That is me screaming with excitement, by the way. We just made this for a post-lunch treat. I always used storebought ice cream with frozen berries but wouldn’t have thought to just use coconut cream or fresh cream with a bit of honey and vanilla. Brilliant. I must try mango or stoned fruit. I adore apricots. Thank you so much for this wonderful idea!

    1. I am so glad you enjoy the recipe. I still get a little nervous when I share a new recipe that worked awesome for me that someone contacts me to say it was horrible. We all have different tastes after all!

  7. Yummy, this looks divine. I live in Tauranga and its plum season, so I’m going to give it a go. Thank you so much 🙂

  8. Sounds super yummy, you should enter it for Sweet New Zealand, I am hosting this month, info here http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/happy-new-year-and-sweet-new-zealand.html

    ciao
    Alessandra

    1. Hi Alessandra, good idea will link up next week 🙂

  9. Heather McBride says:

    Hello Nicola, Our daughter has recently become dairy free as we are trying to avoid more ENT surgery so this is a great site. I have just made 2 lots of this ice cream, apricot and then strawberry. It is so easy to make. The apricots were probably not as ripe as they should have been so its a bit more of an “adult flavour” not as sweet!! Thank you for inspiring me to try.

    1. Hi Heather, yes I forgot to say in the recipe if your fruit is a little tart then adding more sweetener may be required. I am glad you are enjoying my site!
      Nicola

  10. Hi Nicola – what a wonderful recipe! I follow your blog and although I now live in Melbourne, I grew up in sunny Nelson and just wanted to say how many lovely memories you brought back for me when you mentioned the Saturday Market in this post 🙂 Simple pleasures of buying fresh produce there every week with my mum – these memories stay with you! Thanks for the recipe and such beautiful photographs 🙂
    Stephanie

    1. Thanks Stephanie, Nelson is a special place to live and I love the Saturday market. This is also a Wednesday Farmers Market in the central city which is all about local food. I have also lived in Melbourne for a short-time and love the vibrancy of the city. Thanks your message and I am glad you enjoy reading my blog. Nicola 🙂

  11. Hi Nicola, Love your recipes and the ice cream. First time I made it I only had raspberries in the freezer and it was sooooo yummmmy. Have since made ice cream with apricots and blueberries, blueberries being my favorite. I too love the Nelson Saturday Markets. Don’t get to the Wednesday market due to work.
    I have a very long list of foods that I can not eat due to allergies so to have something that is so easy and delicious is wonderful. Thanks for the recipe. Joanne

    1. HI Joanne, great to hear you have had success with the ice cream. I haven’t tried all blueberries yet so will have to give that a go soon. I glad you are enjoying my recipes 🙂

  12. Just made this today – but found my processor didn’t really cope well… jumping out about 10x before it was soft enough to handle it. By the time I had finished it was more like yoghurt than ice cream, so is in freezer to have tonight after dinner. Took about 30 min6tes all up, & still wasn’t as smooth as I was expecting (did a combo of apricot & cherry)… has anyone else had these issues or have I got a second dud food processor (which I have been secretly wondering for a while)???

  13. Thanks heaps for this great way of using up excess fruit, I made ice cream from our black boy peaches and blackberry s, (from our garden, and the peaches that i grew from seed,!) the kids love it, the batch I made with coconut cream was not liked by my fussy kids so I used cream for other batches.

    1. Hi Sharon. Ohh I bet this is delicious with black boy peaches and black berries. Our black boy peach only gave us 6 fruit this year – it’s still young – so will pick up some from the farmers market to try this as we have buckets of blackberries in the freezer. I just love that this is more fruit than cream and sugar, therefore is sooo good for you. I find some coconut creams are better than others for flavour and texture. I mostly use TradeAid or Kara brands as they don’t seperate as other brands do. But of-course cream is most delicious too!

  14. Hi Nicola,
    Thank you, this recipe looks fantastic and I am looking forward to trying it out today (put my apricots in the freezer last night).

    I was wondering when using regular pouring cream, if that needs to be whipped before adding it to the frozen apricots in the food processor? Or do I just need to blend the mixture longer until it resembles whipped cream?

    Many thanks!

    1. HI Julia, you don’t need to whip the cream first just blend it all together until it is nice and smooth and a little fluffy-ish. It is quite miraculous how it freezes perfectly! Enjoy 🙂

      1. This ice cream is absolutely amazing! It looks exactly like the picture.. it does freeze perfectly, it’s super smooth and actually resembles gelato. Divine! Thanks so much.

        1. Yay! I a glad it worked out perfectly for you too. I think the key is to use very ripe apricots. Enjoy!

  15. Have just made the apricot ice cream. It is great!! I know my family are going to love this. Thanks. Rose

    1. Thanks Rose, it is certainly a favourite around here too!

  16. I also have an apricot tree. We bought some land with one on it and this is our second year with it. Its very well established. I am just looking for recipes to use them up with instead of just making Jam. I am currently freezing some apricots right now to make this. Do you have any other recipes to use my fresh apricots with?

  17. Thanks, have been offered some free PYO apricots and so will be trying this. Nice to see a recipe from a fellow Nelsonian!

    1. Hi Sue, lucky you, PYO flavour is always the best as they are tree-ripened. The flavour is so superior to store-brought. Enjoy!

  18. Colleen Muirden says:

    Just made the apricot icecream had not the quite quantity so added some fejoas I had frozen from last year abd used rice syrup…was yummy thanks a lot …Now will try other frozen fruit…husband loved it and being a diabetic a treat for him???

    1. Sounds lovely, the feijoas would work well with the apricots.

  19. Bruce MacGillivray says:

    I just tried this, but with bananas instead of apricots. Taste test before placing into freezer–as good as any ice cream I have ever bought

    1. Fantastic! You wouldn’t know the difference 🙂

  20. Just made this with frozen plums (trying to clear out the freezer before the new season starts) and holy moly, it’s so good!! I look forward to trying this with other fruit too

    1. Thanks Sophie! It is a summer staple around here 🙂

      1. Finally got around to trying this with apricots frozen from last season. Soo good. My toddler also thought so, she asked for three servings and still demanded to eat some of mine.

        1. Hi Sophie, it’s such a simple ice cream recipe. I make it from all manner of frozen fruit, blueberries is our second favourite after apricots. Hoping for a better apricot harvest this year so I can fill the freezer with all the apricots 😉

  21. My apricots got split with the heavy rain just as they ripened on Christmas Eve! Still rescued 3/4 for Jam and bottled a few tiny jars. Could have made apricot jam if i had seen this in time but there is always next year.
    Must save this . Have made Annabel L’s strawberry which is fab but 2 cups icing sugar so our lovely honey would be great in yours. I broke my ankle in November and still can’t walk on it properly
    so rolling around on an office chair in the kitchen. No swims for me yet.

    1. Hi Sue, lovely to hear from you. Oh dear, the rain can be so untimely for fruit ripening! One year we had our indoor grapes ‘explode’ overnight due to heavy rain just as they were ripening. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite ripe so we had to discard the lot!
      Do save the conserve recipe for next year, it is a really simple and more ‘fruity’ than most jam due to the lower sugar content. We love it around here!
      Wishing your ankle a speedy recovery so you can enjoy a swim before the summer is over. Keep in touch 🙂

  22. Can you use an ice cream maker for this? Would you suggest freezing the apricots still?

    1. Hi Karlee, I haven’t tried making this recipe with an ice cream maker so not sure how you would go about using it. The idea with the recipe is that the frozen apricot when blended create a thick creamy mixture without having to add loads of cream or sugar.

  23. Amazing! We LOVED this recipe!!! Delicious! And so easy. Thanks and greetings from California (where we made this with our home-grown apricots)

    1. Lovely! Happy cooking 🙂

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