Finally Dipping into Making Keto Ice Cream

(Central Florida Bob ) #21

It has been a while since I did an update and noticed that I completely failed to post about strawberry ice cream I made last week. The taste was great, but the little chunks of fresh strawberries froze into the texture of ice blocks.

This week, I had the idea to replace the fresh strawberries with freeze-dried. My idea was that the water in the fresh berries was the problem, so let’s get rid of the water.

2 large eggs, yolks only
1 cup half and half
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup Swerve Confectioner’s Sugar (xylitol may be substituted)
1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries crumbled into powder
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp strawberry extract
Red food coloring as desired (I used about 15 drops)

added after ice cream maker, before freezer
1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries, no sugar, crumbled into small pieces if necessary.

In a 1-1/2 qt bowl whisk yolks and 1 cup half and half for a minutes until as fluffy as they get.
Whisk in Swerve a little at a time until fully blended,
Add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum, 1 pint of HWC, strawberry and vanilla extract. Whisk
until well blended. Chill in freezer for 1 hour before pouring into chilled
ice cream maker. When “soft serve” texture pour into freezing container, mixing in
freeze-dried strawberries. Freeze two hours before serving.

Strawberry_Attempt2
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This stuff is Da Bomb! The freeze dried strawberries are exactly the right answer. No ice crystals, nice flavor, and they go great in the mix.

(PJ) #22

Wow! That’s a complicated recipe.
Mine: cream. sweetener. Extract and/or puree fruit.
Blend. Freeze for 2-4 hours.

(Central Florida Bob ) #23

It’s middle of the road complicated compared to the recipes I’ve grabbed from various places. Some are simpler, some are much more involved with cooking the ingredients, mixing cooked and uncooked, and with 15 or 20 ingredients.

Our favorites are this (strawberry), a version with chopped cherries (cherry vanilla) and coffee. I’ve been making the coffee ice cream this way, but I think on the next batch, I’m going to leave out the cold brew coffee.

1/2 cup cold-brew coffee, brought to room temperature
1 cup half and half
1 pint heavy cream
3/4 to 1 cup Splenda “measures like sugar”
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp Espresso extract

It’s just mix until sweetener dissolves in a 1-1/2 quart container. But I still use the Cuisinart ice cream maker, which means chilling the mix in the freezer for an hour, using the Cuisinart, and scooping it into a container to freeze for a few hours. Your approach should work for this.

(PJ) #24

Thing is, just sticking it in the freezer in a mason jar makes wonderful legit iced cream. I’m curious what the ice cream maker gives it that it doesn’t have? Maybe keeps it creamier longer? (I thought that part was about sugar/alcohol.)

(Central Florida Bob ) #25

I can tell you what it’s supposed to do, but I don’t have measured data that proves it. It’s supposed to make the texture better - the ice crystals get smaller if it freezes faster, so having the frozen (0 degree F) bowl spinning and fresh mixture continuously coming into contact with the 0 degree bowl is supposed to help that. If you put the cream that’s more like refrigerator temperature (40?) or even warmer from being in the kitchen a while (60?) into the freezer, it takes longer to freeze and it should have bigger ice crystals.

The last batch of coffee ice cream I made, another gadget told me the mix was 13F before I put it in the tray and into the freezer.

A (non-keto) friend was telling me about a touristy place he went to that made ice cream by dumping liquid nitrogen into the mix: it freezes so fast that the ice crystals are as small as they ever get.

What I’ve learned in the last few months is that if I put that plastic tray I freeze the ice cream in into the freezer and get it close to zero, and then keep it immersed in ice while I’m transferring the barely frozen mix into that tray, I get less melting and better texture out of the ice cream.