Dippin Dots Ice Cream Recipe

This healthy homemade Dippin Dots Ice Cream recipe is a wonderful treat on a hot summer day. And you don’t have to go to the mall to get some!

Okay, I admit it. I’ve had this popular ice cream once in my life, and I absolutely hated them. I just cannot understand the fascination with this type of ice cream. But that said, I know a lot of folks out there LOVE the stuff. The kiosks are in local malls around the entire country. And since they are so popular, I decided to give a homemade version a try.

I can tell you that both Mini Chef and I are now HUGE Dip N Dots fans….. of the healthy, homemade variety. It’s a wonderfully healthy treat for kids and adults alike and makes for a really fun snack. It may not have the coloring of the traditional version, but you can’t beat the cool, delicious flavor. If you like to make your own ice cream, you’re gonna love these!

What Are Dippin Dots?

If you’ve never heard of them before, the best way to describe them is little multicolored dots that come in strawberry ice, lemon ice, rainbow ice, orange ice, blue raspberry ice and a variety of flavors that all get mixed together and served in a bowl. 

They are typically made using liquid nitrogen and, come in lots of colors that deliver more on look than on flavor, in my opinion. They are similar to regular ice cream, but are frozen with the liquid nitrogen to give they a harder outer coating (almost like a candy coating) that keeps them from sticking together. 

They have a lot of corn syrup, artificial flavoring, and food dyes and are definitely do not contain any high quality ice cream ingredients.

What You’ll Need To Make Your Own Dippin’ Dots Ice Cream At Home

Where most recipes would call for heavy cream or whipping cream (or even pudding!), This is a much simpler recipe.

Greek yogurt – Get the plain stuff with no sugar added. Regular yogurt will be too thin, so make sure you grab the Greek stuff. Use more yogurt if you’d like to. I just picked an arbitrary measurement to have a starting point.

Honey to taste – Everybody likes a different amount of sweetener, and thankfully, this is super versatile. Add as much or as little sweetener as you like.

You can also try maple syrup or even granular sweeteners such as Monk Fruit, Sucanat, or coconut sugar. Just be aware that these unprocessed sugars will color your Dippin’ Dots in a somewhat unfavorable color if you use a lot. So tread carefully.

If you use granular sweetener, you must dissolve it completely in the yogurt before proceeding with the recipe. This will require letting it sit in the fridge for a bit as well as some frequent stirring.

Optional Additions

If you want extra mix-ins, you can try one of these:

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ tsp. peppermint extract – Use the real stuff, not flavoring

½ tsp. of just about any other extract

How To Make Dippin Dots Ice Cream At Home

In a mixing bowl, mix together the yogurt and honey until well combined.

Transfer the yogurt to a zipper-top sandwich bag, and zip it tightly shut.

Cut a very small corner off the bag. Using the sandwich bag like a pastry bag, try to press out any air bubbles, and squeeze out tiny beads all over a parchment-lined cookie sheet. You can place them very close together because they won’t spread much.

Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for several hours

Using a spatula, scrape the dots off the cookie sheet into a bowl and return to the freezer until you are ready to eat them. These melt somewhat quickly, so don’t remove them from the freezer until you are ready to eat them.

Recipe Tips

1. While this is not essential, it helps to freeze your cookie sheet ahead of time. If it’s cold when you put the yogurt on it, the yogurt will spread even less on the tray, giving you better-shaped dots. But again, this is not essential. Greek yogurt holds its shape fairly well.
2. You can also use an empty plastic ketchup bottle to squeeze out little clumps or dots. And if you really want to get it perfect, you can use a large, empty kitchen syringe or clean turkey baster.

How To Serve Homemade Dippin Dots

The easiest way, of course, is just to each them out of a bowl. However, you can also serve them over a banana split, over a slice of pie, or with a muffin or cupcake! They are also good mixed with chopped fruits such as berries, or with a drizzle of chocolate syrup over the top.

Recipe Supplies

For this recipe, you’ll want three things. Cookie sheets, parchment paper, and a zipper-top bag or cake bag. To purchase from Amazon, click on an image below to be taken to the product on Amazon. (Affiliate links)

More Healthy Ice Cream Recipes

• Yonuggets
• Chocolate, Dairy Free Ice Cream
• Strawberry Banana Soft Serve Ice Cream
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream
• Slush Puppies
• Cherry Almond Ice Cream
• Homemade Waffle Cones

Dippin Dots Ice Cream Recipe Card

Recipe from the Gracious Pantry® archives, originally posted 3/18/2012.