Monday, March 4, 2013

Very Low-Carb French Vanilla Ice Cream

very low carb homemade ice cream
Oh, the pain and heartbreak of a low-carb diet.  Nothing delicious to eat.  Okay, this isn't true. There's lots of delicious things you can eat...just not very many that are sweet.  I searched and searched for a low-carb ice cream and couldn't find anything that didn't have like 20 grams of carbs per serving.  That's not the kind of low-carb ice cream I am looking for.  I want it to be a lot less than that.  My entire recipe contains 60 grams of carbs.  That's 24 grams for the Splenda, 32 for the Heavy Cream, 1 gram for the the egg yolks and about 3 grams for the vanilla.  Split that between however many servings you get from this receip...Very low carb.  You will get around ten servings.

I scoured the web and did some research on ice cream recipes and they all seem to have a combination of milk and heavy cream.  I only want to use heavy cream.  Is this even possible?  Oh yes, and it turned out to be really good.

I am going to give you a little trivia here, vanilla ice cream with egg yolks in it...is French Vanilla ice cream.  This recipe is made from a custard base and includes egg yolks, so that's why it's French Vanilla Ice Cream.



Very Low Carb Ice Cream 
servings: about 10

4 C. Heavy Cream
2 Egg yolks
1 C. Artificial Sweetener...I used Splenda
Pinch of Salt
2 tsp Vanilla


In a heavy pan, combine the heavy cream, pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of the artificial sweetener.  Heat over medium until almost to a boil.  Do not let this boil.  You will ruin your cream.  Once you can almost see bubbles, remove immediately from heat.  While it is cooking, use a combination of a wire whisk and a rubber spatula to stir and stir and stir.  I like to whisk for a second and then scrape all about the bottom and sides of the pan with the spatula.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks and remaining 1/2 C of sweetener.  Add some of the hot liquid to the eggs to temper them.  Add tempered egg mix to the cream.

Place back on burner, but this time on low.  Cook for approximately 10 minutes until the mixture has begun to thicken, stirring constantly.  Again, I used my combo of whisk and spatula...it works great and you don't have scorched cream.  As you can see in the above picture, if you slide your finger through the liquid and it leaves a path, it's thick enough.

Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Make sure that you push your plastic wrap onto the top of your ice cream base.  You do not want it to develop a skin.  I also put another layer of plastic wrap over the top...I didn't want my ice cream developing any funky flavors from other ingredients in my fridge.

Cool over night.  You want your ice cream base to be incredibly cold.

Place in your ice cream maker and blend for about 20 to 25 minutes until it has become soft serve ice cream.

Spoon this into a plastic tub and freeze until ready to use. Freezing it turns it into hard scoop ice cream.  When you are ready to eat it, remove from freezer...about 5 minutes early to help with ease of scooping.

Enjoy some seriously yummy ice cream while on your low carb diet.







Even better...include a little sugar-free root beer and make yourself a root beer float...oh yeah baby!  My kids thought this was the best ice cream they've ever had...it even made doing homework, not so bad.

Thanks for reading!

Loved if you followed on Facebook


Heather

17 comments:

  1. mmmmm that looks delicious, great job Heather

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  2. YUMMM!!! Pinned!!! Great share, Heather!!!

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  3. Dang..you should have invited me over to try this delicious delight. I am all about diet ice cream that is amazingly delish. Also, when did you get a fancy ice cream maker and why don't you make me fancy homemade ice cream all summer long?!

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    1. It's not diet. It's low carb, but still high fat (cream). Awesome alternative. I wish I could figure out how to make ice cream from Almond milk so Stew can have some. You are so creative, Heather, figure that out for me. :)

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    2. Jen - could you substitute sugarfree maple syrup for the sweetener?

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  4. Yes please! This looks awesome Heather!

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  5. OMGOONESS ... LOVE this post..and looks so yumo.. YOUR beautiful cutie pie looks like she is enjoying it too.. HUGs and have a blessed week

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  6. Just finished my first batch ever. Very delicious. I just have in the freezer to harden a bit more. I did have a layer that developed under my plastic wrap. It was not like a skin.... just a thicker cream layer. Just curious if yours does that as well? Very fabulous and a great sweet treat with out all the guilt:) Thanks for sharing your creation!

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    1. Kristi, I am so happy you liked this recipe! I haven't had that thicker layer after the plastic wrap is removed. I'm trying to think what it could be from, and I don't know. We're making a custard and so I'm wondering if a difference in how long it was cooked could have caused it??? Thanks so much for sharing your experience!!!

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  7. This is NOT ultra-low-carb! Splenda has 24g of carbs per CUP because of the maltodextrin. So really, your whole recipe has around 46 grams of carbs in it. Still better than conventional ice cream, but don't think it's as low carb as you originally thought.

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  8. This turned out amazing!! thank you for the recipe!

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  9. Thank you for this recipe. Have you tried EZ-Sweetz sweetener? Unlike Splenda it has zero carbs. One drop is equal to one package of Splenda and it tastes very good with no after taste. One other comment, Frontier Fair Trade Certified Alcohol-Free Vanilla Flavor is a zero carb vanilla.

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  10. Hi when you scooped your ice cream out the next day was it super hard with icy bits even after letting it sit for a few min?! Please let me know my family is diabetic and I would love t be able to make them ice cream with ingredients that I can control !

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    1. It was very hard the next day. I have an ice cream scoop that uses body warmth to cut through hard ice cream, so I didn't think it was too difficult. Mine didn't have icy bits and we used it over the course of a couple of weeks. I would say give it a try with whatever ingredients you like. Mine was extremely creamy and a bit different, but it tasted good.

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  11. Can this be made without an icecream machine?

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  12. This sounds really good.. Going to try it as soon as it warms up. Do you think you could use liquid Splenda? That would cut your carbs a lot.




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