So, I was in a store the other day and saw an ice cream machine on sale for $15. I had been wanting to get one, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. So I bought it -- realizing that it could very well sit around and gather dust for a while. But over the weekend I experimented with some different recipes. I made a simple strawberry frozen yogurt first, which came out pretty good. Then I made a chocolate peanut butter froyo with PB2 and cocoa powder.
But then I got fancy. In looking for recipes I stumbled upon a book by David Lebovitz called "The Perfect Scoop." Most of the recipes are very decadent. But there was one in particular that I wanted to try to replicate, as best I could, with low carb, low fat, and low calories substitutes. It was a carrot cake ice cream. Here is an article in the LA Times that has the recipe:
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr...ec1c-2009apr01
The recipe is in separate sections because you have to make different components of the recipe before you combine them together. I also simplified the recipe, focusing mostly on replicating the candied carrots. I didn't worry about the currants or the pecans.
For the candied carrots, I used Walden Farms pancake syrup as a substitute for light syrup, and stevia for the sugar. They came out really well.
For the ice cream base, as a substitute for the sour cream, I used Fage' 0% Greek Yogurt. I put in about half of the cream cheese that the recipe calls for and used whipped cottage cheese for the remainder. It still had a very pronounced cream cheese flavor, so I'm thinking that maybe I can cut it back even more -- or maybe substitute the cottage cheese for it altogether. I added a little bit of 1% milk to the mixture because it was very, very thick. For sweetener substitutes, I used Stevia and Brown Sugar Twin. The ice cream base recipe doesn't contain all of the needed flavors because they're in the pecans and currants. So, because I was omitting those two things, I added my spices directly to the base mixture. I also couldn't help but to tinker with the recipe. I added cinnamon and all spice - to taste. I also added in a little of the WF pancake syrup to taste. I may have even put a little bit of the brown sugar twin in there.
Anyway, I chilled it for a few hours and ran it through the ice cream maker. The "batter" so thick, the mixer stopped about 5 minutes in! I had to stop it and mix it by hand with a spoon! So if you make this, make sure that your batter isn't too thick. Also, make sure that the machine is running before you start pouring in the batter. I think that was part of my problem. Because it starts to freeze immediately when you put it in, it built up a thin "wall" of ice cream on the side of the bucket.
After it was done churning, I added in the candied carrots that had been chilling in the fridge. I also tossed in a hand full of raisins -- even though I know they are high in sugar. I was REALLY good. You'd never be able to guess that it was low calorie. Low carb is easy with all of the sugar substitutes out there. But its hard to do low carb AND low fat. But you'd be hard pressed to tell this was low fat. The fat free Greek yogurt is a perfect substitute for the sour cream that the recipe calls for, and the whipped cottage cheese is a good sub for I (most, if not all, of) the cream cheese.
I will most definitely be making this again!