Low Carb Mocha Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I was in the supermarket looking for inspiration for new flavors when small jar of freeze-dried coffee caught my eye. Ugh. I don’t like coffee flavored ice cream, but maybe I can convince my wife to be a guinea pig? She agreed! Freeze-dried coffee is how Ben & Jerry did it in their book back in the 80s. Sure, if you want to get fancy, you’d add high quality espresso beans in the ice cream mix while heating and let it steep for an hour, then strain. Another method would be to make a “coffee concentrate:”

To prepare coffee concentrate, you will need a coffee toddy, 1 pound medium to fine ground coffee, and ½ gallon cold water. Set the toddy over an empty jar, place the coffee in the filter, and pour the water over it. Let the coffee drip overnight. This makes 5 ounces of concentrate. Use only 4½ teaspoons for each batch of ice cream.

MilkMade uses uses Grady’s Cold Brew in their ice cream. Coffee aficionados should feel free to experiment, but I took the cheapest and easiest way out.

“Dumb” food scales are all you need

One of the latest fad kitchen gifts for 2015 is “smart” food scales. These scales usually work in tandem with an app on Android or iOS that contain recipes written using weights instead of volume measurements. The app guides you through the recipe by communicating with the scale to determine how much of the ingredient has been added.

Low Carb Don Draper Ice Cream

This flavor was inspired during a marathon viewing of the TV series Mad Men. The lead character, Don Draper, often orders a drink called an Old Fashioned: whiskey (rye or bourbon), Angostura bitters, club soda, sugar, and a twist of orange rind. I hadn’t done a boozy ice cream in a while and this seemed simple and fun to try.