Since my first success with my ingeniously reinvented ice cream 🙂 , I was making plans for a coffee flavored one to be the next… In the meantime, I did some reading and learned some more about ice cream, so this version turned out even better: creamier and lower in carbs!
So here is another very diet-friendly ice cream for everyone: sugarfree, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, low carb and vegan… A truly ingenious recipe. 🙂
I decreased the carb content of this dessert using erythritol. When I first met this natural polyol sweetener on a shop shelf and read on the package that it’s supposed to have a glycemix index of 0, I was slightly sceptic. So I did some reading, and it turned out, that erythritol – unlike other polyols – gets only partially absorbed into the bloodstream, and leaves our system through our kidneys in an unchanged form. This way it makes sense that erythritol does not elevate bloodsugar or -insulin levels at all, which is great. So it makes sense that there is no need to count erythritol into our daily carb intake – meaning more ice cream!
There are two undesired possible side effects of erythritol: it may cause bloating in the case of individual sensitivity, and it has a cooling effect when consumed – this might be a downside in e.g. cookies, but definitely not in the case of ice cream. 🙂
Ingredients:
300 ml or 1 1/4 cups of home made almond milk or other plant based milk you like (rice, soy, coconut, etc.)
2 shots of espresso
65g or 6 level tablespoons of erythritol
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
70g or scant 1/2 cup of coconut oil
15g or 1 heaping tablespoon of tapioca starch*
1 1/2 teaspoon of agar-agar powder ( or 1 teaspoon of powdered gelatine, if you’re not vegan)
pinch of salt
25g or 1 ounce of dark chocolate (82% cocoa content) cut to small chips
* I chose tapioca starch because I was informed that this type of starch should be more resistant to freezing compared to corn starch, and this would help my ice cream to stay creamy even if kept in the freezer overnight. I’m sorry to report that it seems the type of starch makes no big difference: eggless ice cream loses its creamy texture when kept in the freezer overnight. However, tapioca starch does result in a creamier ice cream, and is a great substitute in the case of corn allergy, so I am going to use this starch in my future cooking.
1. Begin by adding erythritol, espresso shots and vanilla extract to the almond milk. Mix in agar-agar (or gelatine) powder, tapioca starch and a pinch of salt. Mix until smooth, add coconut oil and start heating over medium heat.
2. Stir with a hand whisk continuously until it starts getting thick. At this point, turn off the heat and continue stirring.
3. Keep your future ice cream in the fridge for overnight.
4. The next day, prepare the ice cream according to your ice cream machine’s manufacturer’s instructions. You can add the chocolate chips when the ice cream starts whipping up.
5. It took about 30 minutes for the ice cream to be ready. It’s a bit soft like this, similar to a semifreddo, so I prefer putting it in the freezer for 2-3 hours. This way it’s texture is perfect for serving after lunch:
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