Here are some recipes I’ve used for making vegan ice cream with a blender. I’m sure you can make a similar thing using dairy, or fruit juices, instead of soy (by the way, I use almond milk or other milks and that’s fine too). The point is that a blender works fine with a mix-freeze-mix-freeze process (the mixing-freezing TWICE is crucial, so it’s not a frozen block or icy, but smooth) – I’ve done it many times to great success.
FRUIT ICE CREAM
blend until very smooth 2 cups soft tofu
½ cup soymilk
½ cup oil
1 cup dry sweetener
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
place in sealed container and freeze
remove from freezer and defrost 20–40 minutes
place back in food processor and blend
spoon back into container, adding 1½ cups ANY kind of fresh/frozen fruit
re-freeze
remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving
[I’ve used this basic recipe to make various flavors, for example:
blueberry: fruit recipe but blended ½ cup fruit in beginning and added 1½ cups later
ginger: fruit recipe with ¾–1 cup raw ginger, a few shakes powdered ginger, extra sugar
cardamom: fruit recipe with about 1 tbsp cardamom powder, a little extra sugar?
honey/spice: fruit recipe but ½ cup sugar, plus 1 cup honey, 1 tsp orange extract and
tiny bit of anise extract (only because not a tasty honey), few shakes of cinnamon,
few shakes of cardamom, couple shakes ginger (powder), and tiny bit of clove
—I also made peanut butter ice cream, poppyseed, etc in similar ways]
CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
blend (in food processor) until very smooth 2 cups soft tofu
1 cup soymilk
½ cup oil
½–1 cup dry sweetener
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
place in sealed container and freeze
remove from freezer and defrost 20–40 minutes
place back in food processor and blend
spoon back into container (add chocolate chips, crumbled cookies, etc at this point)
re-freeze
remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving
VANILLA BANANA ICE CREAM
blend until very smooth 1 cup soft tofu
1 cup soymilk
½ cup oil
⅓ cup dry sweetener
2 chopped bananas
2 tbsp lemon juice
1½ tbsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
place in sealed container and freeze
remove from freezer and defrost 20–40 minutes
place back in food processor and blend
spoon back into container (add any extra goodies etc at this point)
re-freeze
remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving