Oat and cinnamon ice cream (lactose-free)
A light ice cream made with oat drink and lactose-free milk, sweetened with maple syrup, with fibre from inulin.
Oat drink has a gentle cereal sweetness that, with cinnamon and maple syrup, is reminiscent of porridge. On its own it is thin and almost fat-free, though, so the recipe adds lactose-free milk and cream — the ice cream is lactose-free but not vegan. The healthier side: about 150 kcal per 100 g and just under 8 % fat, with a little fibre from the oats and inulin. The trade-off: it is lighter and less creamy than cream ice cream, and harder straight from the freezer. Watch out for gluten — oat drink is gluten-free only if the packaging explicitly says so.
Type: Italian gelato · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate
Equipment
Ingredients
- 400 g oat drink (unsweetened; for coeliac disease, only one labelled “gluten-free”)
- 250 g lactose-free whole milk 3.5 %
- 200 g lactose-free whipping cream 33 %
- 60 g maple syrup
- 70 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
- 55 g dextrose (glucose powder)
- 20 g inulin (chicory)
- 1.5 g locust bean gum (carob gum, E410)
- 1 g ground cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon)
Making the mix
- Mix the dry sugar, dextrose, inulin, locust bean gum and cinnamon.
- Heat the oat drink, milk and cream to 40 °C and, whisking constantly, pour in the dry mix.
- Heat to 85 °C and hold for 2 minutes. Oat drink thickens with longer cooking, so don’t boil it.
- Take off the heat, stir in the maple syrup, cool in iced water and leave to age in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Method — Compressor ice cream maker
- Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes in advance so the bowl pre-chills.
- Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 30–40 minutes until it has the consistency of a thick cream.
- Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for about 90 minutes.
Total time: 7 h
Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker
- Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours in advance. Take it out just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
- With the machine running, pour in the thoroughly chilled mix — filling the bowl no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
- Churn for 20–30 minutes until the mix thickens. Going on longer is pointless — the bowl has already warmed up.
- Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer.
Total time: 7 h 50 min
Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines
- Pour the mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line (one or two tubs, depending on their size), put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
- Put the tub in the machine and run the Lite Ice Cream program.
- If the result is crumbly or powdery, add 1–2 tablespoons of oat drink and run Re-spin — with a very cold freezer even twice.
Programme: Lite Ice Cream
Total time: 29 h
Stages
- Preparation
- 15 min
- Cooking
- 10 min
- Cooling
- 30 min
- Ageing in the fridge
- 4 h
- Churning
- 35 min
- Hardening in the freezer
- 1 h 30 min
- Total time
- 7 h
Serving and storage
With toasted oats (gluten-free ones for coeliac disease), a baked apple or pear.
Up to a week; from the freezer, let it soften for 10–15 minutes.
Tips
- Oats themselves contain no gluten, but they are often contaminated with wheat. Under EU rules, oats may be labelled “gluten-free” only if they contain no more than 20 mg of gluten per kg — with coeliac disease, buy only those.
- For a vegan version, use the oat drink with coconut milk instead of the milk and cream; it will be harder and taste of coconut.
- Inulin is a fibre from chicory; in larger amounts it can cause bloating, so don’t add more.
Why it works
The milk solids non-fat (MSNF) here are only about 3 % (ordinary gelato has 7–12 %), because oat drink isn’t dairy. Their role is partly taken over by inulin and locust bean gum, which bind water. In lactose-free milk the lactose is split into glucose and galactose — these are sweeter and soften ice cream more than lactose, which partly makes up for the low solids.