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).

I made a double recipe of the bourbon ball candies, so the pictures will show twice as much as what’s specified in the ingredients list. The candies use powdered erythritol instead of powdered sugar. I was a little worried that they might not freeze enough, but everything worked out just fine.

The ice cream mix is pretty straightforward. It’s a simple Low Carb Sweet Cream Base plus honey flavoring, vanilla, and bourbon. Obviously, we’re leaving out the glycerine since the booze will depress the freezing point more than enough and we’ll cut back on the EZ-Sweetz since the honey flavoring contains its own sweetener.

The source of the chocolate coating is from the Chocolate Almond Butter Bombs recipe. I plan my chocolate dipping around making those bombs since I can never predict how much chocolate I’ll use and I certainly don’t want any to go to waste.

Ingredients

Low Carb Sweet Cream Base but with no vegetable glycerine and only 7 drops EZ-Sweetz
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons (60 g) Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Honey Substitute
3 tablespoons (1.5 fl oz) bourbon
1 cup (150 g) chopped bourbon ball candies

Bourbon Ball Candies

½ stick (¼ cup or 57 g) unsalted butter, softened
2⅔ cups (260 g) powdered erythritol, divided
14 drops EZ-Sweetz
2 tablespoons (1 fl oz) bourbon
melted sugar-free chocolate

Directions

1. Bourbon Ball Candies: Cream the butter in a stand mixer until completely smooth and no lumps are present. Mixing on medium-low speed, gradually add 2⅓ cups (228 g) of the powdered erythritol, about ½ cup (65 g) at a time, allowing the erythritol to fully incorporate into the butter before each new addition.
   
   
   
   
   Stream in the bourbon and beat well. Transfer to an airtight container and chill for at least 1 hour.
   
   
   
2. Once chilled, scoop out 1 tablespoon (15 g) of the bourbon ball mixture and drop into the remaining ⅓ cup (32 g) powdered erythritol. Cover with a light coating of powdered erythritol, then roll into a ball and place on a cookie sheet with a silicone mat. Continue until all the balls are formed.
   
   
   
   
   Freeze for at least 2 hours.
3. Dip the bourbon 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. Work quickly. Let the excess drip off and then place on a cookie sheet with a silicone mat.
   
   
   
   
   Put the entire cookie sheet into the freezer until the chocolate hardens. Remove the frozen chocolate covered bourbon balls from the sheet, chop them in half, put into the empty ice cream container, and place the container in the freezer for later.
   
   
   
4. Ice cream: Follow the instructions for the Low Carb Sweet Cream Base. If using the cooked custard version, add the vanilla extract, honey substitute, and bourbon to the sweet cream base after it’s cooled. If using the Ben & Jerry’s base, add and mix all the other ingredients prior to adding the heavy cream. Cover and chill if necessary.
5. 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 bourbon ball pieces. Use a silicone spatula to remove the ice cream from the ice cream maker and freeze until solid.