The Perfect Lowcarb Ice cream
After years of experimentation, I have finally come up with what my DH and I consider the perfect recipe. I tried adding xanthan gum to stabilize the ice cream and avoid ice crystals, but I never succeeded in making ice cream that did not turn rock hard in the freezer. Then I found Ben and Jerry's ice cream book, added my own twist to the basic recipe and now my ice cream is indescribably rich and creamy and does not turn into a glacier in the freezer, even after a week!
Note: you will need an ice cream maker for this.
The ingredients for the base for a quart of ice cream are:
2 eggs
1 cup light cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 cup vodka (or bourbon, rum, etc.)
the equivalent of 3/4 cup of sugar - I use pure liquid sucralose, to cut the carbs as low as possible
Beat the eggs with the sweetener until they are light in color and thicken a bit.
Heat the light cream to simmer, pour it slowly into the eggs while beating.
Pour back into the pan, add the xanthan gum and heat, stirring or whisking constantly over low heat until it thickens a bit. Do not allow to boil or you will wind up with scrambled eggs. You can heat it to a higher temperature if you want to make sure the eggs are cooked enough.
When you are done cooking, pour the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl. Allow to cool a bit, then stash in the refrigerator until it is good and cold: I usually let it stay overnight.
When you are ready to make the ice cream, add the heavy cream and the vodka to the base, stir well, pour into the ice cream maker, and churn away.
When the ice cream is done, I store it in 1/2 cup servings in small containers for convenience, and the ice cream never becomes so hard that you can't eat it right from the freezer - in the past I have had to soften it in the microwave before a spoon would make a even a dent in it.
The total number of carb grams in the base is 23.2, which makes each of the eight 1/2 cup servings 2.9 grams each.
Of course, you can add whatever you want to the base - for vanilla you could add 2 tsp of vanilla, which wouldn't change the carb count. I made Mocha by adding 4 tsp unsweetened cocoa and 2 T freeze dried coffee, which was soooo delicious and had a total of 26.2 grams of carbs or just under 3.3 grams per serving. That what I call a low carb dessert!
The last bit of the puzzle was that most ice cream recipes call for 2 cups milk and 1 cup heavy cream, while Ben and Jerry's has 1 cup of milk and 2 cups of heavy cream. Of course, being a good low carber, I used light cream instead of the milk, but the point is that it is the higher fat content, when combined with the xanthan gum and the vodka that makes a really creamy ice cream that does not develop ice crystals or become too hard.
I may not have invented the light bulb, but I was really excited the first time I made this!
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