Maple Walnut Nice Cream (No-Churn)

Hannah Sunderani
Jun 30, 2017
4 min read

Go Canada, it's Sherbet Day! Well actually Canada Day is tomorrow..but the long weekend starts now! So here's some Maple Walnut Nice Cream to celebrate Canada's 150th! Nothing like some true patriot love, eh?

For those of you who aren't from Canada you might think that we Canadians feel the need to add maple syrup to just about everything. Well I'm going to let you in on a little secret: You're right! I literally add maple syrup to everything! My oats for breakfast, in my coffee and tea, smothered on bread, in my salad dressings, and in pretty much every dessert that's ever existed, which includes nice cream!

But this Maple Walnut Nice Cream is extra patriotic as it shares our true north flavours strong and free. The flavours of this Maple Walnut Nice Cream are rich, creamy, maple-sweet and nutty. A flavour palette you'd expect only Kawartha Dairy themselves could master. So it's no surprise that this nice cream almost didn't make it's way to the jar to be photographed....and it wasn't just me this time who was to blame. Both Mitch and my mum were teeming for another taste. The duo who usually complain that nice cream doesn't stand up to the real deal were in awe of this dairy-free dessert! I think it's because nice cream so often uses frozen bananas, which I love, but it does provide a strong banana flavour that's difficult to mask. This dairy-free nice cream, however, doesn't use any bananas at all. So for those of you who aren't fans of banana nice cream this ones for you too. This nice cream was made by blending together homemade walnut milk, chilled coconut cream, and maple syrup. Then I folded in some chopped walnuts and froze for one 1-2 hours. Scoop it into jars and load up the chocolate chips! OH CANADA does it make our forefathers proud.

Another great thing about this nice cream recipe? It's no churn - so you don't need an ice cream maker to create this masterpiece. I made it by whipping up the ingredients with a hand mixer. Placing it in a freezer safe container for a couple hours et voila: A delicious soft-serve style nice cream that's sure to make our home and native land proud! I will say that this Maple Walnut Nice Cream is a little more icy than my banana based versions, but we actually loved it's texture! It was more similar to a gelato texture, being more icy and milky. I think that's because I didn't use an ice cream maker for this recipe, which would have allowed more air to get into the ice cream while it froze. Buuut, my kitchen is stuffed with gadgets and there is absolutely no convincing hubby for another machine to add to the roster. (And based on how delicious this nice cream was without using an ice cream maker I don't imagine I'll be getting one any time soon). If you do however have an ice cream maker go ahead and use it! But if not, there's nothing stopping you from enjoying this cold and frosty Canadian dessert this long weekend.

No need to spend your loonies and toonies on the ice-cream truck this weekend. You've got this nice (cream) Canadian treat instead!

Maple Walnut Nice-Cream (No-Churn)

Serves: 2-4 | Prep Time: 40 mins| Freeze Time: 2-3 hrs

Ingredients:

2 cans (400ml) quality coconut milk, chilled
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup homemade walnut milk* (see recipe below), or other store bought nut milk
pinch salt
splash rum (optional)
3/4 cups (80g) walnuts

*For the homemade walnut milk:

1 cup organic walnuts, soaked overnight
3 cups filtered water
1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 medjool dates, pits removed
pinch cinnamon
pinch sea salt
dark chocolate chips, for topping

Directions:

To make the homemade walnut milk:

Strain your soaked almonds and add to your blender. Add filtered water, vanilla bean, dates, cinnamon and salt. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes.
Place your nut milk bag inside a big bowl, and pour your milk blend into the bag. Squeeze the bag to strain the nut-milk until you can no longer remove milk from the bag. (If you don't have a nut milk bag you can also use a pair of tights).
Pour the freshly squeezed milk from your bowl back into your blender (this just allows for easy pouring into a bottle). Transfer the milk into an air tight bottle and store in the fridge to chill.

To make the Maple Walnut Nice Cream:

Place a large mixing bowl and the metal beaters from your hand mixer in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes.
Open coconut milk cans and scoop out the solid coconut cream from the cans into a chilled mixing bowl. Reserve the clear liquid for other uses.
Using a hand mixer whip the coconut cream until fluffy and smooth. Then add maple syrup, vanilla extract, homemade walnut milk, salt and a splash of rum (optional). Whip again to combine. Taste and adjust flavours as desired, adding more maple syrup or rum if needed.
Transfer nice cream to a parchment-lined freezer-safe container and cover loosely with foil to help freeze.
Place nice cream in freezer for one hour. Then remove from freezer, fluff with a fork, and toss in chopped walnuts. Fold to combine and place back in the fridge for another hour.
After two hours of chilling remove nice cream from fridge - serve as a chilled gelato-like ice cream, or freeze for longer for a firmer ice cream. Set out at least 20 minutes before serving for easier scooping. Optional to top with dark chocolate chips.