I had a blog topic all picked out to write today but then something exciting happened and I had to fill you in, keto ice cream that’s friendly to our lifestyle!
In the past year, I have had one “cheat day” (some call it carb loading but honestly it was more about treats for me). I planned every moment of the day around food and I realized that overall, I was happy with the food I was eating on keto. There was only one thing that I truly craved, and that was ice cream.
I have always loved ice cream. My parents told me that as a baby, even before I could talk, I would point to a local ice cream shop and cry if we didn’t go in. Mom had to save some of her ice cream because I cried when I finished mine. When I was pregnant with our daughter, ice cream was the one thing I could keep down so I went to Dairy Queen daily. Obviously, ice cream has been a big part of my life. Now, there are keto-friendly ice creams in stores. It’s quite a few carbs and quite a few dollars. I wasn’t willing to part with either. So, other than my cheat day, I’ve gone without.
Then, Bill found a little home ice cream maker and he bought it. If I didn’t love him before, I do now! The My Pint Ice Cream Maker by Dash is adorable. Ours is the mint green, which goes with our Dash stand mixer (click here for a review of that). It has a cooling bowl that needs to be placed in the freezer at least 24 hours before using it. After we use it, we rinse it out with warm water and let it dry completely. Then we stick it back into the freezer and it’s ready to go when we are. The ice cream maker also comes with a cooling container, a motor unit, a paddle that attaches to the motor unit and a cute little mixing spoon.
There is a booklet that comes with the product that has recipes in it. They are not keto because they call for regular milk and sugar. We want a keto ice cream so we will be sharing it in an upcoming Caturday Recipe. You mix up the ice cream base and put it in the fridge for 1-3 hours. Then, pour it into the ice cream maker and let it do its thing for about 20 minutes. The recipes say to mix for 30+ minutes but without the milk the mixture is much thicker and it doesn’t take as long to get to the right texture.
We started with plain old vanilla ice cream. I took a bite, hopeful but nervous with anticipation. My eyes lit up with excitement. It was ice cream! Real, honest-to-goodness ice cream! The only small downside I would say is that the ice cream is very soft and if you don’t eat it right away, it will melt quickly. Think a soft serve ice cream cone on a very hot day. But that’s a small price to pay for this cold, delicious treat. And it is a treat. Not even keto can make ice cream something you eat all the time. With the heavy cream and sweetener, you don’t need to worry about carbs but it is very heavy on calories, even if you don’t usually worry about them.
This was a game changer for me. After 11 months of being ice cream free (besides that one day) I now have my favourite treat back again. Keto life is good! – Wendy
