Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

ice cream after a night in the freezer

Ice cream, emphasis on the cream, sounded like the perfect keto dessert, but as soon as I began to read up on it, I got worried.  As it turns out, regular ice cream is not made entirely from cream, and copious amounts of sugar are actually what give it its creaminess.  

I decided to give a shot anyway, and what a success!  It does freeze up quite hard but not impenetrable, and straight out of the ice cream maker it has a lovely soft-serve texture.

I had also read that because it can freeze up hard and quick, free standing ice cream makers just weren't up to the task.  It was no match, however, for the motor on my kitchenaid mixer with ice cream freezer attachment.  I highly recommend it if you're serious about making ice cream!

My first flavor choice was mint chocolate chip because I thought mint was the perfect mask for the aftertaste of sugar replacements.  The addition of chocolate contributes significant carbs, so a basic vanilla ice cream would drop the carb count even lower!  I have big plans for this ice cream making formula, so expect to see more in the future.

Ingredients:

480 g (2 cups) 40% heavy whipping cream

45 g truvia

5 g vanilla

60 g unsweetened almond milk

76 g (about 4) egg yolk
5 g pure mint extract

20 g coconut oil

7 g cocoa powder

Combine 1 cup cream, truvia, vanilla, and mint in a small saucepan and heat slowly on a low heat.

Combine remaining 1 cup cream and almond milk in a separate bowl.

In another separate bowl, whisk egg yolks.  Add steaming cream to the egg yolk in small amounts, whisking, to temper the eggs.  

Add tempered eggs to the saucepan, and cook the custard until it becomes thick and reaches about 160 F.

*If you are not an experienced custard maker (like me) you may end up with some bits of cooked egg in your custard.  Do not fret!  Take your custard off the heat, and pour through a strainer to remove the bits of cooked egg.  It is likely due to bits of egg white that made it in with your yolks.

Add reserved cream and almond milk to the cooked custard and refrigerate overnight to fully chill.

Pour into your ice cream maker as directed and remember that it will freeze up faster than normal ice cream.

To give it little flecks of chocolate, melt coconut oil and stir in cocoa powder to create a pourable chocolate syrup which you then drizzle into the ice cream maker near the end of the ice cream making process.

makes 7, 100 g servings:

fat:  33 g, protein:  3.3 g, carb:   2.9 g

ratio:  5.5:1

Tristan gets 85 g for dessert, and he says it is his favorite yet!

Edit:  I came back to this recipe to make more ice cream for Tristan, as he has been looking forward to this the whole trip, and I realized I forgot to include the mint!  Oops!