Hoda’s Easy Ice Cream Recipe Uses an Unexpected Ingredient

You only need four ingredients and a blender.

“Sweet, delicious ice cream,” is how "Today with Hoda and Jenna’s" Hoda Kotb describes the treat she makes for her girls to her co-host Jenna Bush Hager. After Hoda added four ingredients to a blender and spoon-fed Jenna a bite, Jenna exclaimed, “That’s delicious!”

On the Today website, where Hoda shares the specific recipe for her creamy, cold treat, she writes, “This is my lighter alternative to ice cream I've been making with Hope to accomodate her recent dietary changes.” Hoda’s youngest daughter Hope had an undisclosed illness that kept her in the hospital for several weeks earlier this year, and perhaps her recent dietary changes have to do with that illness.

While Hoda doesn’t say what specific dietary restrictions her daughter has, we can assume dairy is not one of the restrictions. This easy ice cream contains heavy cream and another dairy ingredient that’s a bit surprising. In fact, dairy makes up half of the ice cream’s ingredients.

What’s in Hoda’s Blender Ice Cream?

In addition to the heavy cream, Hoda adds ricotta cheese to the blender, along with ice and sugar-free maple syrup (likely a sugar-free maple-flavored syrup). In the video, Hoda eyeballs the ingredients, but the Today website gives amounts for each one:

• 2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese

• 1/2 cup sugar-free maple syrup, plus more to taste

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

• 2 to 3 cups ice, depending on desired consistency

To make the ice cream, place all the ingredients in a blender (start with 2 cups of ice), and blend for about one minute until the ingredients form a creamy consistency. If you need more ice to get it creamy, add more and blend again.

Enjoy immediately, or Hoda also suggests putting the mixture in popsicle molds and freezing it.

Is This Really Ice Cream?

Is Hoda’s creamy concoction really ice cream? We usually don’t associate cheese as an ice cream ingredient, but ricotta is a fresh cheese made from whey (the leftovers from making other cheese), milk, and some acid. Ice cream usually contains eggs, but Philadelphia-style ice cream is made from cream and sugar without eggs. Hoda’s ice cream contains cream and a sugar substitute plus whey and milk. So we're going to call this, well, ice cream-ish.

Whether it’s technically ice cream or it’s simply a sweet, cold dairy treat to enjoy on a hot day, if it’s good, it’s good. So call it what you will, but if you have all the ingredients, it certainly seems worth trying this ricotta-based ice dessert.