Low Carb Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered “Potato” Chips and Pretzels

New and exciting ice cream flavors are being developed constantly. However, most are unfeasible due to the carbohydrate content of one or more ingredients. Ben & Jerry’s came up with a unique flavor combination called Late Night Snack that features vanilla ice cream with a salted caramel swirl and chocolate covered potato chips. A sugar-free caramel swirl is impossible (for now) and potato chips? Are you kidding me? Still, the idea of combining salty and sweet is far too alluring to dismiss. Caramel ice cream can take the place of the swirls, but potato chips?!

I wasn’t trying to find a potato chip substitute when I picked up a bag of unsweetened coconut flakes. I saw a recipe for Sweet~N~Salty Coconut Chips and thought it would be an easy snack to make for a party. I didn’t expect that these could truly pass for potato chips, but as soon as I tried them, I realized that I was oh, so wrong! It was a few seconds later that I remembered that impossibly low carb potato chip ice cream flavor. Eureka! I can do this!

Take a peek at how Ben & Jerry’s do chocolate covered potato chips:

“REVIEW: Ben & Jerry’s Late Night Snack.” The Ice Cream Informant. 2 June 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://www.theicecreaminformant.com/2012/06/ben-jerrys-late-night-snack.html>.

I suspect part of the reason for the chocolate coating is to shield the potato chips and keep the salt from dissolving into the mix. I can dip my chips in chocolate when I make my next batch of Chocolate Almond Butter Bombs. The problem is that the chips are very small and will be difficult to dip individually. My idea is to clump the chips into little balls before the coconut oil cools. I can accomplish this by stuffing then into the wells of a peanut butter cup silicone mold to create little salty “potato” chip balls.

I’m also going to make a batch of low carb “Simple Pretzels” from the The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking cookbook, dip them in chocolate, and toss them in there, too.

I chose the Caramel Delight flavor fountain for the ice cream because I felt the saltiness of the chips will be better served with a sweet caramel base. However, the Salted Caramel fountain flavor works great, too! BTW, if you want to simplify this recipe and make it with only pretzels or just chips, go for it. Regardless, I guarantee this flavor will be one of your all time favorites.

Ingredients

Low Carb Sweet Cream Base
1 tablespoon LorAnn Oils Flavor Fountain Flavorings, Caramel Delight

Chocolate covered “Potato” Chips

2 tablespoons (28 g) coconut oil
1½ cups (90 g) organic coconut flakes
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt plus more for sprinkling
melted sugar-free chocolate

Chocolate covered pretzels

Simple Pretzels
melted sugar-free chocolate

Directions

1. Chocolate covered “potato” chip balls: Preheat the oven at 300 °F. Melt the coconut oil in a microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the salt and coconut flakes and mix until the flakes are all covered in oil. Place the flakes on a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Bake for 8-9 minutes. The flakes should begin to browned lightly. Stir the flakes and repeat every 3 minutes until they are completely toasted brown. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
2. Put the coconut chips in the wells of a peanut butter cup silicone mold.
   
   
   
   
   Sprinkle each well with sea salt or kosher salt. The idea is to allow the coconut oil residue to bind the chips together and hold the salt crystals in place. Put the silicone mold in the freezer for a couple hours.
3. Pop out the molded coconut chip balls, place them into an empty ice cream container, and put the container in the freezer until you have the melted chocolate ready. There will be some that will break apart and there will be flakes that separate. Don’t worry. We made more than we needed.
4. Dip the chip balls into the melted chocolate to coat them.
   
   
   
   
   We want the chocolate liquid, but try to do this when the chocolate has cooled a bit. We don’t want the heat to melt the frozen coconut oil binding the flakes together. Work quickly. Let the excess drip off and then place on a cookie sheet with a silicone mat. Some of the chip balls won’t survive the dipping process. We should still have more than enough for the ice cream. Put the entire cookie sheet into the freezer until the chocolate hardens. Remove the frozen chocolate covered chip balls from the sheet, put into the ice cream container, and place the container in the freezer for later.
5. Chocolate covered pretzels: Follow the directions for the “Simple Pretzels” recipe. Obviously, these should be made in advance prior to melting the chocolate. Make pretzel rods instead of twists for the ice cream.
   
   
   
   
   Bake the pretzels as directed. Keep an eye on them. They burn easy.
6. Dip in chocolate, freeze, and add to the ice cream container in the freezer for later.
   
   
   
   
   Break the rods into smaller pieces and return to the container for later.
7. Ice cream: Follow the instructions for the Low Carb Sweet Cream Base except slightly reduce the amount of heavy cream. (E.g., 2 cups instead of 2¼ cups of heavy cream.) Add the LorAnn Oils Flavor Fountain Flavorings, Caramel Delight to the sweet cream base. Cover and chill if necessary.
8. Follow your ice cream maker’s directions for making ice cream. One to two minutes before the ice cream is done, add the chocolate covered chips and pretzel pieces. Use a silicone spatula to remove the ice cream from the ice cream maker and freeze until solid.

Here’s a batch using Salted Caramel instead of Caramel Delight: