Pritikin Better For You Ice Cream Cake

This Better For You Ice Cream Cake recipe is the brainchild of the award-winning chefs at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami. For 40 years, the renowned health resort has helped tens of thousands worldwide adopt healthy lifestyle habits that dramatically reduce cholesterol levels, blood pressure, excess weight, and other heart disease risk factors.

This healthier ice cream cake recipe is a much better choice than regular ice cream cakes, which are typically a mash-up of white flour, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artery-clogging cream and egg yolks — but they still warn us this isn’t an every-night is okay choice — this is still an occasional treat — but better for you.

Pritikin Better For You Ice Cream Cake

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Prep Time: 50 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: Healthy Spa Cuisine

Keyword: Banana, Chocolate, Pritikin, Ricotta

Servings: 6 Slices

Calories: 262kcal

Courtesy Of: Pritikin Longevity Center, Florida

An ice cream cake with no sugar, egg yolks, and cream? And it tastes dreamy? Absolutely! This healthy ice cream cake recipe is the brainchild of the award-winning chefs at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami. For 40 years, the renowned health resort has helped tens of thousands worldwide adopt healthy lifestyle habits.

Ingredients

CAKE

• ▢ 1/4 cup egg whites
• ▢ 1/4 cup sweetener "no-calorie" sucralose (Splenda) or stevia (many brands)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (low sodium)
• ▢ 1-1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (or quinoa)
• ▢ 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon ground
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg ground
• ▢ 2 cups milk nonfat divided use

ICE CREAM

• ▢ 1 pound bananas (very ripe) peeled, vacuum sealed, and frozen
• ▢ 1 cup ricotta cheese - skim or low fat (fat-free )
• ▢ 2 tablespoons orange juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon orange zest
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg ground
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

To Make the Cake

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a small mixing bowl, whip egg whites and no-calorie sweetener until fluffy. Stir in vanilla.
• In a medium mixing bowl, mix together baking powder, whole-wheat flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
• Make a well in the center of the medium bowl, and pour in whipped egg white mixture and 1 cup of nonfat milk.
• Gently combine until smooth by cutting through the center of the mixture with a spatula and folding the mixture over on top of itself (cutting and folding). Add more milk, if needed, to achieve smooth texture. Do not over-stir. The fewer strokes made, the better.
• Pour cake batter into 9” x 4½” x 2½” loaf pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and cool.

To Make Banana Ricotta Ice Cream

• Remove bananas from freezer and let sit for 5 minutes (until they begin to defrost around the edges).
• Place ricotta cheese in a food processor and pulse.
• Chop the bananas and add to the food processor along with all remaining ingredients.
• Puree until smooth and creamy.
• Scoop mixture into a plastic bowl and cover with plastic food wrap, making sure the plastic wrap touches the top of the mixture. Place in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes.

To Assemble Ice Cream Cake

• Remove cake from loaf pan. Slice cake, lengthwise, into three long slices. Place one slice in bottom of loaf pan.
• Remove ice cream from freezer. Spread half the ice cream mixture evenly over the cake slice in the loaf pan. Cover ice cream with second slice of cake. Spread remainder of ice cream evenly over second slice of cake. Cover with third slice of cake.
• Wrap the entire loaf pan with plastic food wrap, and freeze.
• When ready to serve, remove from freezer, and cut into equal slices.

Video

Spa Index Kitchen Notes

If desired, garnish your ice cream cake slices with fresh strawberries and Blackberry Compote.

Spa Index Notes: It's become common place for low-sugar advocates to tout eating frozen bananas in place of ice cream, sometimes pureed and sometimes not -- and there are even novelty appliances that puree it for you! While we can agree it's a nice frozen treat, it's just not "ice-creamy" to us. This version, however, with the addition of ricotta cheese and some tasty spices, is a FAR more creamy, delicious and recommended swap.

Handy Tip:  You can adjust the quantities of ingredients and nutritional stats by changing the number of servings, above.

Tried this recipe?Mention or tag @SpaIndex so we can share!

Nutrition

Serving: 1 Slice | Calories: 262 kcal (13%) | Carbohydrates: 58 g (19%) | Protein: 14 g (28%) | Fat: 5 g (8%) | Cholesterol: 14 mg (5%) | Sodium: 7 mg | Potassium: 16 mg | Fiber: 6.5 g (27%) | Sugar: 14 g (16%) | Vitamin A: 1250 IU (25%) | Vitamin C: 10.7 mg (13%) | Calcium: 320 mg (32%) | Iron: 2.2 mg (12%)

ABOUT PRITIKIN

The Pritikin Eating Plan is proven in more than 100 peer-reviewed studies to have life-saving benefits like lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. Plus, you aren’t losing your mind while losing weight. There’s no calorie counting, no hunger. Just plenty of healthy, whole foods deliciously prepared, like the recipes shared with Spa Index.   Pritikin was the first comprehensive lifestyle program in America, and after 39 years on the cutting edge of lifestyle science, we are still the longest-running, most successful program for reversing many of modern society’s health concerns, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.   More than 100,000 people worldwide have come to Pritikin Longevity Center, in Miami Florida, for one-week programs, two-week programs, or longer. For some, the primary goal is losing weight. Others want to prevent and address health issues. Still others seek the ultimate spa-health vacation. Everyone leaves feeling better and, best of all – living better.