With all of the ice cream recipes that have been getting love lately, there’s been a rising amount of people that want to make ice cream without a machine. Keto and ice cream go great together – you get a creamy, full bodied flavor with tons of fat and a fraction of the carbs.
Tasteaholics have written this guest post, and I was thrilled when they told me about this. A keto ice cream recipe – that needs no machine. Without further ado, here’s Vicky and Rami:
“Before we began our keto journey, we were big fans of chocolatey, fudgey, gooey, candy bar filled ice cream flavors from Carvel and Coldstone Creamery. But after realizing that the sugar we craved was ruining our health we decided to take a breather from all the desserts and treats we were so frequently allowing ourselves. When our taste-buds and mentalities were reset, we began discovering the subtle and simple pleasure that is simply vanilla ice cream. This appreciation was greatly influenced by our preparation of the ice cream itself!
Making this recipe at home is simple and rewarding. There are tons of techniques and flavors to experiment with – and you don’t even need an ice cream maker! Today, we decided to make a simple and classic Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream for our guest-post here on Ruled.me! This is our basic recipe for a vanilla ice cream with some ribbons of pureed strawberry.
Vanilla ice cream is a great canvas, so get creative! Feel free to halve the heavy cream and add in coconut milk, light cream, half and half or a nut milk if you want to reduce the calories just a bit (for the purposes of eating more ice cream!). You can also substitute your favorite berries for the strawberries. The vodka in this recipe helps the ice cream remain creamy after being frozen (instead of icey). You can skip this step, as we’ve made ice cream successfully without it, but if you’ve got some on hand, we really recommend it!
A big thank you to Craig at Ruled.me for the guest post opportunity! We’re big fans and are excited to share our yummy dessert with his readers!”
Yields 6 servings of Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream
The Preparation
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup erythritol
- 3 large egg yolk, separated
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon vodka, optional
- 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum, optional
- 1 cup strawberries
The Execution
1. Set a pot with your heavy cream onto a low flame to heat up. Add in 1/3 cup of erythritol to dissolve.
2. Don’t let the cream come to a boil, just simmer gently until all the erythritol is dissolved.
3. Separate 3 egg yolks from their whites into a deep mixing bowl. Beat them with an electric mixer until they’ve doubled in size.
4. Then, to temper the eggs so they don’t scramble, add in a few tablespoons of your hot cream mixture at a time to the eggs while beating.
5. Do this until the egg mixture is warm and then slowly add in the rest of the cream mixture, beating constantly. Add in some vanilla extract and mix.
6. This step is optional, but helps the consistency of the ice cream stay creamy, rather than icey – add in a tablespoon of vodka and an 1/8 tsp. xanthan gum.
7. Place your bowl into the freezer to chill for about 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. If you’ve got an ice cream maker, feel free to churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
8. When the ice cream is chilled and getting a bit thicker, it’s time to add the strawberries. Wash and hull a cup of strawberries and puree them for no more than 1-2 seconds. You want the strawberries to stay a little chunky, with some juice extracted. We love our NutriBullet for tasks like this!
9. Add in the strawberry mixture to the chilled cream. Mix, but don’t over mix. You want ribbons of strawberry visible in your vanilla ice cream!
10. Let this strawberry swirl ice cream chill for another 4-6 hours or overnight. Then when you’re ready to enjoy, let the ice cream temper on the counter for a few minutes and scoop! Enjoy!
This makes a total of 6 servings of Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream. Each serving comes out to be 180 calories, 16.7g fats, 3.1g net carbs, and 2.7g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 cup heavy whipping cream | 809 | 85.9 | 6.5 | 0 | 6.5 | 6.8 |
| 1/3 cup erythritol | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 large egg yolk | 164 | 13.5 | 1.8 | 0 | 1.8 | 8.1 |
| 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract | 6 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon vodka | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum | 2 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 cup strawberries | 56 | 0.5 | 13.3 | 3.5 | 9.9 | 1.2 |
| Totals | 1082 | 99.9 | 22.4 | 4 | 18.5 | 16 |
| Per Serving (/6) | 180 | 16.7 | 3.7 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 2.7 |
Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ⅓ cup erythritol
- 3 large egg yolk separated
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon vodka optional
- ⅛ teaspoon xanthan gum optional
- 1 cup strawberries
Instructions
- Warm the heavy cream in a pot over low heat. Add erythritol and stir until dissolved. Note: Don't let the cream come to a boil; keep it at a gentle simmer.
- Place the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until doubled in size.
- Add the cream mixture to the egg yolks, using only a few spoonfuls at the time to keep the eggs from scrambling!
- Once the egg mixture is warm, slowly add in the rest of the cream mixture, beating constantly. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Add in the vodka and xanthan gum. This step is optional, but it will help ensure that the consistency of the ice cream stays creamy, rather than becoming icy.
- Place the bowl in the freezer to chill for about 1–2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Once the ice cream is chilled and has gotten a bit thicker, it's time to add the strawberries. Wash and hull the strawberries, then puree for no more than 1–2 seconds. A NutriBullet works wonders for this!
- Add the slightly pureed strawberries to the chilled cream. Combine gently, taking care not to mix too much and leaving some ribbons of strawberry visible in the vanilla ice cream.
- Let chill for another 4–6 hours or overnight. Let the ice cream temper on the counter for a few minutes before scooping. Enjoy!
Vodka! Of course! Because it won’t freeze solid. Can’t wait to try this. Will probably try adding vodka to the other ice cream recipes on here has well.
Just made this and it was awesome! I used the vodka and the xanthan gum as recommended but it still came out a little more icy than I would have liked (was still tasty though!). What consistency is the egg & cream mixture supposed to be after beating in step #5? I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be as thick as whipped cream or not so I might have stopped too early…
I’ll start by saying that I haven’t made this recipe. However, I’ve made tons of ice cream in the past and after adding the cream to the eggs I’ve always put the mixture back on the stove and stirred constantly until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, running a finger across it leaves an empty spot.
I think usually strain that hot mixture into another bowl that’s sitting in an ice back (smaller bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and water) and stir to stop the mixture from cooking. Once completely cooled it can then go into the freezer. (If using an Ice Cream maker, put the mixture into the fridge to make sure it’s good and cold…ice cream maker will be more efficient).
You can definitely create an en glace for this, I just don’t find it necessary to do. It makes the process take a lot longer, but it may provide a bit creamier of a texture. If you do end up trying it, let me know how it goes!
Wow that was delicious!! I added some drizzled chocolate sauce and some peanut butter. My family ate the whole batch and my husband asked when I could make it again. Thanks!!
Yum! Just stirred in my strawberries. This IS just like ice cream. Can’t wait for it to finish firming up. I think the vodka was the missing piece of other recipes Ive tried.
Thank you, this looks so good!!
~Jilly oxo
Excellent flavor. Good texture. It’s very rich with 3 yolks in such a small volume. I’m definitely going to double or triple this next time. For 2-quarts of finished ice cream, I usually target ~44-48 ounces total liquid volume before churning. Since this was the first time making this recipe, I didn’t want to adjust. I’ll probably adjust down the yolks and strawberries slightly to reduce cals and carbs and increase serving size. I’m not religious about my macro counts right now. I don’t think the recipe would suffer, since it’s so rich and bursting with strawberry flavor already.
Also this was my first time using erythritol. I didn’t pay much attention to ensuring it was fully melted in the cream before taking it off the stove. After adding the cream to the yolks, I realized there was about 1 tsp of granulated erythritol still left in the bottom of the pot. With granulated sugar, you wouldn’t want to add this to the egg/cream mixture, because the sugar would likely remain grainy during freeze up. I decided to add the remaining erthyritol anyway. It didn’t cause any problems though. It became totally dissolved through the rest of the processing; no graininess in the finished product.
I’ve made this recipe countless times now. I purchased an ice cream maker from Amazon because I wanted “real” ice cream. I’ve done various things with this recipe (adding zero carb Cocoa powder has been my fave so far) and each time it ends up great!!
Hi Craig, I wanted to know if guar gum powder is OK instead of xanthan gum. I’m gonna try this recipe soon but not able to find xanthan on Amazon India. Pls suggest.
Yes, you can use guar gum instead of xanthan gum. Just use 2x the amount of guar gum as you would xanthan. I believe I answered this before, but I was traveling so I had a bit of a layover time between answering comments.
Thanks a lot
No problem!
Can guar gum be used instead of xanthan gum?
Maybe I’m missing something, but you didn’t include the Erythritol in the nutrition facts a the bottom… If my math is correct then this brings the Carbs/serving to about 14g… Am I off base here?
Hey Nate – erythritol isn’t actually processed by the human body (we lack the enzymes to do so). Because of this, it pretty much just flows through the digestion process and does not raise blood sugars. I don’t count the carbs in erythritol for that reason. You can see more on it here: //www.ruled.me/keto-diet-plan-best-and-worst-sweeteners/
I think I am missing something. At what point to the egg whites get added to the mixture with the yolk and cream?Nevermind, I see, they don’t get used. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Glad to hear it got sussed out and I’m really sorry for the late reply. I was in the middle of 2 cross country moves. Hope you loved the ice cream!
what can i use as vodka substitute ?
Vegetable gylcerin or a protein solid would work. Vodka doesn’t freeze, so it keeps a soft texture when you put it in the freezer.
Could this be made using liquid stevia instead of erythritol?
You could use liquid stevia, but it will have a slight affect on the aftertaste once finished. I’d say make it a little sweeter than you want it to be as a final product. Taste before you start to freeze it.
What is the serving size for this recipe?
It’s 1/6 of the recipe.
I get that the serving size is 1/6 of the recipe, but how much ice cream should the recipe make? I just tried it for the first time; it’s chilling now in the freezer, but it’s looking like 1/6th of the total volume is going to be around half a cup.
I believe your calculations are correct. Cream doubles when whipped, plus the cup of strawberries, so that would put it at around 3 cups. 1/2 a cup is about the size of a typical scoop of ice cream.
Hi, just wondering what you could use instead of erythritol – would stevia work for instance or another sweetener? And if so what ratio should I use to substitute?
Xylitol would work in place of erythritol, but using straight stevia might give a bitter aftertaste to the ice cream.
Trivia is great two
Hmmm, 1 cup strawberries PUREED holds 76 calories, with 13ish grams net carbs. Can you verify this? I don’t want people miscounting their net carb intake, as that is so important to hit and maintain ketosis.
Hey Jay – it’s just for later in the recipe. It’s just 1 cup whole strawberries, pureed down. Sorry for the confusion!
No worries! I’m still confused though, haha. So when I type in ‘Strawberries nutrition’ on Google, it gives me option to click 1 cup Stawberry or 1 cup Stawberry, pureed.. One contains 8 g net carbs, the pureed one contains 13 g net carbs. Shouldn’t we be noting the pureed one?
Right – this is in step 8. We take the whole strawberries (1 cup worth of whole strawberries, about 144g by the same nutrition option you’re seeing on google). From there, we puree them ourselves in a magic bullet or blender.
In recipes there’s a difference between ‘1 cup strawberries, pureed’, and ‘1 cup pureed strawberries’.
1 cup strawberries, pureed means measure a cup they puree
1 cup pureed strawberries mean puree a bunch then measure out a cup
The results are very different since un-pureed berries take up more volume (less berries per cup) than liquefied berries (more berries per cup)…hence the difference in the nutrients.
So it says that the serving size is 6 servings. Is there any way you can give us a better idea what a serving size should be? 1/2 cup, 6oz, 50g, etc? I have trouble with a lot of the recipes, I just want to make sure my serving size is consistent with what the recipe is made for.
Hi Kim, serving size should be about 1/2 a cup…but that’s just my best guess. Most accurate way would be to weigh your finished batch and then divide by six and portion out from there.
Hi I’ve checked the carb count on Erythritol and it’s gram for gram, 4 grams of Erythritol = 4 grams carbs. As per the nutritional info on the back of this packet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/p… That said, 1/3 cup is 113 grams of carbs. Please let me know if I’m mistaken.
Hi Aaron! Erythritol is a sugar alcohol, your body does not digest it. You can also substract sugar alcohols from the total carbs (like you do with fiber) in order to get the net carbs. Since we do not have room for a sugar alcohols column on our tables, Craig has chosen to zero the sweetener out since it’s fairly indigestible anyway.
I found this to taste a little too eggy for me. Any ideas of how I could reduce the amount of eggs in it? Thanks
You could reduce the egg yolk by 1 and add a bit more strawberry to mask the taste.
Mine is not eggy at all.
This recipe did not work for me at all. Way too sweet even for ice cream and it never froze, barely thickened after 12 hours in the freezer.
You must of did something wrong. Mine is just like ice cream and freezes hard.
Tastes great. Recommend making a triple batch. Go to all the work and only have a small amount. There is probably only 2 cups total.
Good recommendation for long-term use of the recipe. Glad you like it!
Thanks. So.easy and good and great for a aweet tooth 😄
I followed the visual and written recipe. It looked to me as if you were beating the egg whites until doubled, then beating the cream gradually into the egg yolks, as I could see no mention of using the egg whites I looked up a regular recipe and found they did use them so I combined and not sure how It is going to turn out now! Think maybe you should make it clearer in the instructions that the egg whites can be used for something else!
The ingredients call for 3 egg yolks. So, no whites would be used. The egg yolks are beaten to add air prior to adding in the cream.
Hello!!! I live in Mexico and erythritol is very hard to find here, I have Xilitol which I found in a trip to Chicago, can I use it for this recipe? And also, what´s the equivalence between erythritol and Xilitol? Thanks!
Yes, you can use xylitol. Use a 1/4 cup of xylitol instead of the 1/3 cup of erythritol that the recipe calls for.
If you need any help with keto-friendly sweetener substitutions in the future, this guide will probably have the info you need:
https://www.ruled.me/comprehensive-guide-to-keto-sweetener-substitutions/
Enjoy the keto ice cream! 🙂
Can you use full fat coconut cream? It cuts the calories and carb count and is best for us limiting dairy.
Yes, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to use it 🙂