Wednesday, April 25, 2012

RECIPE: Low carb, dairy-free ice cream

One of my forum buddies (Tesser W.) has been forwarding dairy-free recipes to me since I gave up on the moo juice. She knows how much I love cheese, ice cream, yogurt, etc... Too bad it doesn't love me! When she sent me a recipe for non-dairy ice cream I was intrigued. I had tried coconut milk ice cream before at my friend Abi's (of fat bomb fame) and it was pretty good. Too bad neither of us remembered to bookmark the recipe and we couldn't seem to find where we had got it from. Tesser's email got me excited about trying coconut milk ice cream once again.

After trying a few recipes I came up with a version that works best for my taste buds and my Donvier Ice Cream Maker. For the original recipe inspirations, check here and here. My recipe is heavy on the egg yolk since I have a flock of egg layers in the back yard. I am also going to be very specific about what kind of coconut milk to use. There is a reason for this. I tried several brands and some will leave your ice cream with a "canned" aftertaste. You could make your own coconut milk, but my success rate at making it from scratch is not good enough for me to recommend that yet. If you are already making your own tasty coconut milk, feel free to use that instead. Now to the recipe...

Wifezilla's Low Carb Dairy-Free Ice Cream
(Ice cream maker required)

Prep
  • At least 2 days before making your ice cream, place the freezer insert for your ice cream maker in the freezer. I use a Donvier. Many Cuisinart ice cream makers also use a freezer insert. If you are using an electric ice cream maker or rock salt and ice style machine, follow the manufacturer's recommendations.
Ingredients
  • 1 can of Thai Kitchen full fat Premium Coconut milk or equivalent (should say first pressing. Also look for organic if you can get it. DO NOT GET STINGY WITH THE COCONUT MILK! Cheap coconut milk like Golden Star will leave an unpleasant aftertaste.)
  • 4 egg yolks 
  • 3 tsp real vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup erythritol (or other sweetener of choice)
  • Add ins like dark chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut flakes, etc...
In a microwave safe bowl, heat the coconut milk until all the fat and liquid are soft and easy to blend. Whisk in the erythritol and stir until dissolved. In a separate bowl, whip together egg yolks. Add a tbsp or so of the warm coconut milk mixture and stir. Continue to slowly add the the warm coconut milk to the eggs while stirring. This will temper the eggs without cooking them. If you just dump the eggs in to the warm coconut milk, you will get coconut flavored scrambled eggs and that is not what we are going for!

Once coconut milk and eggs are fully blended, place mixture in the refrigerator to chill. When the coconut milk/egg mix is cold, pour in to your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer directions. As for the tasty add-ins, include those at about the half-way point. I like to let the ice cream start to set before I add the chocolate chips or coconut flakes so I can get a better idea of how much to add without over doing it.

Serve immediately. Texture will be slightly soft. You can place in the freezer to firm up some more, but this isn't a recipe that will keep well overnight. Unless you add some kind of alcohol, it will just freeze as hard as a rock. As I experiment with adding rum, vodka, etc... to keep it from freezing solid, I will report back. This could be a very entertaining summer!

5 comments:

liam said...

oo sounds like a good low carb icecream too

Maureen said...

Hi Linda,
After years of constipation problems (and doctors either telling me it was normal or telling me to use Miralax daily forever) I am going to try dairy free and see what happens. Can you recommend any low carb dairy free forums or recipe sits? Thanks.

Linda said...

Hi Maureen, if you are on facebook, there is a good group called Hardcore Health Living that has a lot of paleo and/or low carb paleo (dairy-free) members. Another option is Mark's Daily Apple. Primarily a paleo site, many of the members are also low carb.

Maureen said...

Thanks Linda, I would also love to hear more of your experience. Looks like it has been about a year. Are you still dairy free? How does this affect your family? Have you tried to add any dairy back in successfully? I am actually only 2 days dairy free, so not seeing anything yet.
I am 61 and having trouble losing the weight I gained over the holidays (low carb but too much). And oddly, visited our daughter in South America for the whole month of January, ate rice and beans, drank juice (very hard to be low carb there) but did not even gain weight! What does that say about our food in the US?
Maureen

Linda said...

Still MOSTLY dairy-free. As for the family, they know where the store is if they need some dairy :D When I slip up and fall face first in to a cheese plate I am usually "sluggish" for a few days.