Low Carb Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Honey Walnuts

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “This all sounds very familiar.” Yes, I already did a Low Carb Roquefort and Honey Ice Cream. So why am I doing this one? What’s the big whoop? I found this in “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz and I assumed it would just be a simple swap of blue cheese for goat cheese. No, not exactly. There’s double the cheese and zero heavy cream in this formulation probably due to the stronger flavor and harder consistency of blue cheese relative to goat cheese. There’s more milk used in this one, thus one more egg yolk.

The two recipes are very different in the book, but my low carb conversions ended up similar, especially the mix-ins. However, the two ice creams are nothing alike as far as flavor is concerned. If you tasted this one without knowing it contained goat cheese, you’d swear it was an attempt at a cheesecake ice cream. If you wanted to try making ice cream with low sugar fruits, this would be a good base to use.
This ice cream froze a little too hard due to the increased amount of almond milk. I suggest increasing the glycerin to make it more scoopable and/or serving it at a higher temperature.

Ingredients

Ice Cream

1½ cup (363 g) unsweetened almond milk or equivalent
1½ tablespoons Truvia
6 tablespoons LC Foods Milk Powder (optional)
6 large egg yolks
8 ounces (230 g) goat cheese, room temperature
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum or ½ teaspoon Dixie Diner’s Thick It Up Low Carb Thickener
2 tablespoons (38 g) vegetable glycerin
21 drops EZ-Sweetz

Honey Covered Walnuts

1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter, melted
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (40 g) Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Honey Substitute
1 cup (100 g) walnut halves

Directions

1. Honey Covered Walnuts: Add all ingredients in a small cup and mix by hand to coat the nuts. Put in the refrigerator for a while. The butter/honey mixture ought to be very gooey and able to coat the nuts well. Stir them up again to make sure all the nuts are coated. Return to the refrigerator.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Ice cream: Add the egg yolks to the 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup and let stand. Allow the goat cheese to become room temperature. If you’re in a rush, use a microwave on the defrost setting to soften it.
3. In a small pot, add unsweetened almond milk, Truvia, and milk powder. Heat on stove top at medium heat until it reaches approximately 170 °F while stirring periodically.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Slowly pour the warm mixture from the pot into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.
   
   
   
   
   Scrape the warmed mixture back into the pot and return it to the stove top. Add the cheese to the 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup and put a strainer on top of it.
5. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. The temperature should not exceed 175 °F. This may take a while to thicken sufficiently.
   
   
   
   
   Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cheese.
   
   
   
   
   Mix the hot custard and softened cheese until it’s melted and integrated. I used an electric hand mixer on medium-low. It’s okay if there are a few small bits of goat cheese left. Whisk in the xanthan gum or Dixie Diner’s Thick It Up Low Carb Thickener while it’s still warm. Add the EZ-Sweetz, glycerin and whisk together. Stir until cool over an ice bath.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in a refrigerator until cooled completely.
7. Follow your ice cream maker’s directions for making ice cream. Remove from the ice cream using a silicone spatula and add some to the container. Add a layer of walnuts then cover with more ice cream. Repeat until container is full. Freeze until solid.