Vegan Rice Ice Cream

Vegan rice ice cream - this creamy vegan ice cream is made with a base of blended cooked rice.

With hints of nutmeg, malt and vanilla it tastes like frozen rice pudding, but you can omit the nutmeg to make a neutral base that you can flavour as you wish.

Most of my ice cream recipes are made with a riff on my trusty oat and cashew ice cream base; it works really well and is very adaptable but I wanted to try something a bit different, hence this rice based ice cream.

Gelato di riso is a traditional ice cream flavour from Florence and is generally made by mixing rice pudding with custard and freezing it. This recipe is vaugely based on that, except that I blend the cooked rice pudding to make a smooth, creamy ice cream rather than one with bits of rice in it.

This ice cream is made with no nuts, and can be made without coconut or soy if needed so it's a very allergy friendly recipe.

I flavoured it with vanilla, nutmeg and malt, giving it a very classic rice pudding flavour, but you can easily swap the flavourings to create different kinds of ice cream. I think that it is quite an adaptable base recipe so feel free to mix it up to suit you!

What Do I Need To Make Vegan Rice Ice Cream?:

Rice: You ideally want to use a short grained rice such as risotto or pudding rice.

Milk: A creamy, neutral flavoured non-dairy milk is best. I recommend soy; oat or cashew would be my next choices.

Cream: I use coconut cream, but a vegan double cream alternative such as Elmlea plant will also work. If using coconut cream, you can either use a carton of coconut cream, or use just the solid white part of a tin of refrigerated full fat coconut milk.

Sugar and golden syrup: Adding some golden syrup helps to stop the ice cream from freezing as solid. You can use corn syrup or liquid glucose instead. For the sugar any kind will work but white caster or granulated is best for a neutral flavour and colour.

Butter: Adding some melted vegan butter or spread adds richness and flavour.

Vegan Horlicks: This is optional and can be omitted if you wish, but it adds a delicious malty hint of flavour.

Vanilla: Extract is better than essence or you can use vanilla bean paste.

Nutmeg: Optional, but helps to create a classic rice pudding flavour.

How To Make Vegan Rice Ice Cream:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Place the rice in a deep saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the rice is toasted and golden.

Add the milk, bring up to a simmer then place the pan over the lowest heat and cook for about 20 minutes, until the rice is soft, even a bit overcooked.

Add the butter and stir until melted.

Place the rice mixture in a blender with the cream, sugar, golden syrup, vanilla, Horlicks, salt and a pinch of nutmeg to taste. Blend until very smooth.

Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold.

Once the ice cream mixture is thoroughly chilled, give it a good whisk then pour it into your ice cream maker and churn until it reaches soft serve consistency.

What If I Don’t Own An Ice Cream Maker?:

If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can still make this ice cream, it just takes a bit more work and the texture may be a bit more icy.

Once the base is chilled, pour it into a large freezerproof container and pop it in the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so, remove it from the freezer and give it a quick whisk with an electric mixer to break up any ice crystals then return it to the freezer.

Repeat this until it reaches soft-serve consistency then allow to freeze for a couple of hours before serving.

Top Tips:

As with all of my recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!

Toasting the rice before cooking it adds flavour, but if you want to make a plain vanilla ice cream you can skip this step.

This ice cream is quite solid straight out of the freezer so make sure that you take it out at least 15 minutes before serving to allow it to soften up a little.

Ideally you need a power blender (such as Froothie/Vitamix) for the smoothest ice cream. You can still make it with a regular blender, but it might not be quite as smooth and creamy.

Make sure that the ice cream base is thoroughly chilled before you churn it, otherwise your ice cream maker may struggle to freeze it properly.

I have a 2 litre ice cream maker (this one by Cuisinart). If yours is smaller you may wish to make a half batch or it might not all fit.

I recommend placing the container that you are going to put the ice cream in in the freezer to chill while the ice cream is churning. This will help stop the ice cream from getting too melty while you transfer it to the container.

Don't skimp on the sugar! Sugar is important in ice cream not only for the flavour but also for the creamy texture. Things also taste less sweet when they are cold, so bear in mind that you want the unfrozen base to taste a bit sweeter than you want the finished ice cream to taste.

Variations:

Omit the nutmeg and Horlicks for a plain vanilla ice cream. You can add a couple of strips of orange peel to the rice mixture while it is cooking, remove them before blending.

Here are some mix-ins ideas that would work really well with this vegan rice ice cream:

• Candied nuts
• Chocolate chips or stracciatella
• Chopped Biscoff, Oreo, gingersnap, or oatmeal cookies.
• The chocolate fudge swirl from this coffee ice cream recipe.
• Swirls of jam, Biscoff or chocolate spread

For ripples and sauces, layer them with the churned ice cream as you are transferring it to a freezer safe container. For harder mix-ins like cookies, chocolate or nuts, add them to the ice cream maker during the last minute of churning so they are evenly dispersed.

More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes:

• Vegan vanilla ice cream
• Vegan malted chocolate ice cream
• Vegan mint choc chip ice cream
• Vegan coffee ice cream with chocolate swirl
• Vegan pistachio ice cream
• Vegan raspberry ice cream
• Vegan peanut butter and cookies ice cream
• Vegan biscoff ice cream
• Vegan chunky monkey ice cream
• Vegan lemon ice cream
• Chocolate peanut butter ice cream

If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess

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