Grape Nut Ice Cream

No, you did not misread the title of this post.

How did this end up in ice cream?

Look, I’m just as surprised as you are at this week’s flavor. Mere months ago, I never would have imagined that “grape nut” ice cream existed as a flavor, let alone be one of the most popular flavors in the entire nation of Jamaica. And yet here we are. Ice cream culture never ceases to amaze!

It seems likely that grape nut ice cream is what inspired the Brown Bread flavor at Scoops Ice Cream, which, in turn, is what inspired me to want to try making some at home. In my quest to learn more about grape nut ice cream, I found dozens of recipes on the internet, giving me a lot of raw material to work with for this week. But before getting into the recipe, allow me a few words about grape nut cereal.

I don’t have positive associations with them. As a kid, I remember my grandparents, who were in their 70s at that point, always having a box in their pantry. I guess it’s one of those foods that older folks are supposed to eat because it’s “good for you” and is an “excellent source of fiber”. Blah blah blah. I tried it once or twice for breakfast after staying overnight at my grandparents and found it nearly inedible. Too tough, too crunchy, and too lacking in flavor. When I sampled a small handful from the box just before starting this recipe, that assessment remained true. We’re about to see how it holds up as an ice cream mix-in.

Today’s recipe is triangulated from two non-churn grape nut ice cream recipes, each from a different Jamaican food blogger: this one from Jerk Tavern and this one from Jam Down Foodie. Each has a different approach in terms of flavoring,¹ but both agree that you should add one cup of grape nut cereal. Jam Down Foodie recommends using some brown sugar, and I decided to incorporate that into my final list of ingredients.

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (although about 1/3 of this was half and half)

• 1 cup whole milk

• ½ cup granulated white sugar

• ⅓ cup light brown sugar

• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup grape nut cereal

Xanthan gum not pictured.

To be honest, I kind of phoned it in this week with the documenting process. For example, I took the photo above after the fact.

In terms of process, I dumped all the ingredients into a bowl and whisked ‘em together, but again, failed to capture many photos. I did add the xanthan gum, as you can see below.

I wasn’t sure when to add the grape nuts. The recipe blogs I mentioned up top warned that if you add them to the mix at the start, they’ll just sink to the bottom while churning. Yet I didn’t want to wait until the end to add them for fear they wouldn’t get a chance to soften up a bit in the cream. I decided to wait until the mixture was almost done churning to add them in.

I’m not totally sold on xanthan gum. You can’t see it in the picture above, but each time I’ve used it, the resulting mixture (pre-churn) is a bit clumpy. This doesn’t seem to happen when using guar gum. Not sure if the clumpiness really impacts the final product, it’s just something I’ve noticed.

The grape nuts dispersed pretty evenly into the ice cream as it was churning, and remained evenly distributed as I transferred the ice cream into some pint containers. So far, so good. Now let’s talk about how it came out.

I found this weirdly addictive. My daughter said the flavor was reminiscent of ube, which strikes me as a good description, but I was thinking it kind of tastes like Ovaltine. I also thought the crunchiness of the grape nuts went quite well with the sweet vanilla/ube/Ovaltine-esque flavor. And the texture came out great; no need for me to fret about the clumpiness from the xanthan gum…it smoothed out just fine. I can’t be sure, but I think this is what that Scoops Brown Bread flavor I keep mentioning must’ve tasted like (tbh, I can’t remember what it actually tasted like…it’s been too long).

In sum, the people of Jamaica are onto something here. I would give this an 8 out of 10. My kids on the other hand…

I guess the simplest way to say it is that they did not like this AT ALL. The crunchiness turned them off, as did the flavor imparted by the grape nuts. I asked them to describe the ice cream in one word. My son said “disappointing,” and my daughter said, “dissatisfying”…and she said she was being nice by saying that.

I don’t agree, but hey, I respect their opinions! This is the first ice cream I’ve made for the blog that has been an outright disappointment to them, so I’d say my success rate is still quite high!

Okay, one final question that must be addressed: is this ice cream healthy? To answer that, may I direct your attention to the front of the cereal box?

How many ice creams can you say that about? 😁

See you next week!

1. For example, the Jerk Tavern recipe calls for the addition of rum extract (as well as almond extract), which sounds delicious, but I’m trying to cut back on the number of specialty ingredients I buy each week. I’ve already got a growing collection of leftover flavoring items—ube haleya, black sesame paste, matcha powder, etc.—that I have no immediate plans to use. So I decided I ought to skip purchasing the rum extract.