I have a stick blender, but I doubt it could mix up dough like a food processor. I mainly want one to cut the work out of making some of the healthy recipes I've been researching.

I broke an ordinary blender a while back with chickpeas I hadn't soaked enough. Since then I've bought tinned.

True, and hey, I'm eating stuff I shouldn't be because I'm on holiday, but I remember your experimenting with different sweeteners in the past and wondered if you'd tried that since it's meant to be syrupy and therefore might be helpful for texture. But I've never made ice cream unless you count softening vanilla and adding ingredients then refreezing.