Vanilla Ice Cream: Recipe Makeover

The quest to lighten can start—as many light ice-cream recipes do—by swapping out heavy cream in favor of reduced-fat milk. That churns up a tasty dessert, but it's also an icy one—a milk ice, basically—thanks to the higher water content in reduced-fat dairy. Our trick: Trade the heavy cream for evaporated low-fat milk, which has 60% less water than regular milk. When combined with half-and-half, sugar, and the essential egg yolks, the canned milk fosters a rich custard that stays creamy instead of icy. A touch of light-colored corn syrup adds a velvety-smooth mouthfeel, and a real vanilla bean is worth the splurge for its vibrant flavor. This smarter scoop has almost half the calories, a fraction of the fat, and the lion's share of the texture and taste of full-fat ice cream.

Makeover
• 161 calories per scoop
• 3.1 grams saturated fat
• 5.9 grams total fat