Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Low Carb Caramel Ice Cream with Brownie Bites

Brownies are a great mix-in for ice cream, but they’re not as versatile as I expected. I’m sure vanilla and chocolate ice creams with chocolate brownies are a slam dunk. I tried adding them to peanut butter ice cream flavoring, but it just didn’t mesh well. Caramel ice cream (sweet or salted) works much better. I didn’t add any nuts, but I’m sure walnuts or pecans (or both!) would be welcome.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Low Carb Crème Brûlée Ice Cream

I was able to procure a sample of crème brûlée ice cream flavoring. It’s not readily available for consumers, so you’ll need to do some hunting to find it. It’s tastes to me like a combination of egg nog and cake batter, so it might be possible to replicate.

I honestly try not to over-complicate these recipes, so I decided to pair this ice cream with an off-the-shelf low carb cookie: Carb Counters Ready-to-Eat Sugar Not Cookies, Powdered. The vanilla ones are great, but I didn’t like the chocolate ones as much.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Low Carb White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

I got hold of a small sample size of White Chocolate Macadamia ice cream flavoring. I made a batch of ice cream with chopped macadamias thrown in and it was pretty good. However, it was screaming for something more. I decided to try white chocolate brownies as another mix in. I also threw in a chopped white chocolate bar for good measure. I thought salted macadamias would taste better than unsalted, but they don’t.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Low Carb White Chocolate Bar

White chocolate is used as an add-in for many ice cream recipes. The problem with making a low carb version was the lack of a sugar-free milk powder substitute. The best alternative that I’ve found is LC Foods Milk Powder. It tastes a lot better than soy milk powder and is lower in carbohydrates, too. I was a little concerned that the inulin might cause stomach upset, but the quantity of milk powder is so small, there’s little chance that it could.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Low Carb Bourbon Ball Ice Cream

I found a great book called “Scoop Adventures” that compiles some of the best and most unique recipes from ice cream shops across the USA. The author, Lindsay Clendaniel, is an avid ice cream maker and has an ice cream recipe blog by the same name.

My low carb conversion is from Lindsay’s take on “Bourbon Ball Ice Cream” made by The Comfy Cow in Louisville, Kentucky. The flavor looks like regular chocolate chip ice cream based on the picture from their website. However, it’s more complex than that. It includes little buttery sugar balls infused with bourbon and coated in chocolate. The ice cream itself contains bit of honey a lot of booze, too. So much booze that it may be difficult for a non-compressor based ice cream maker to handle. It usually takes 42 minutes for my Cuisinart ICE-100 to make a quart of low carb ice cream. I needed to use close to 60 minutes to get this recipe to freeze and it melted a lot quicker when transferring to the storage container. Aside from the booze, the sugar free honey substitute uses xylitol, which contributes to a lower freezing point. I used 100 proof bourbon, but I suspect 80 proof bourbon would work just as well (maybe better since it won’t be as strong).

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Low Carb Egg Nog Ice Cream

This has been a flavor that I’ve been meaning to try ever since I first read the Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. Egg Nog ice cream ought to be a slam dunk since Egg Nog is practically unchurned sweet cream base with nutmeg for flavoring. Nope. It took quite a bit of work to perfect it.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Low Carb Egg Nog

I came up with my own low carb egg nog last year, and it was a hit with my guests including the ones who aren’t abstaining from sugar. I’ve noticed that the amount of egg yolks and ratio of heavy cream to whole milk in most recipes vary significantly. Some add cinnamon and cloves, but most do not. I do. In fact, I use pumpkin pie spice since that contains a nice mix of flavors, but counterbalance it with extra nutmeg since that needs to be the most prominent.

Egg yolks provide richness and add viscosity. However, my egg nog uses only four since I whip the heavy cream until it thickens slightly. Real egg nog includes the egg whites folded in the mix after they’ve been whipped into a light foam. I like to use pasteurized eggs, so whipping egg whites is usually an exercise in futility. Cream of tartar helps, but this year, I’m going to try to also separate the eggs in advance and allow the whites to become room temperature.

Most people (including me) prefer it without booze. I keep a small mix of bourbon, cognac, and rum (usually a 2:1:1 or 6:4:1 ratio) on the side and let people add what they want.