Do you miss ice cream?

The sugary kind I remember that from when I used to eat sugar?

I’ll let you into a little secret.

Shhh!

Don’t tell anyone.

We always have ice cream in our freezer.

But…

It’s not the sugary kind you buy at the store – it’s the natural kind made with sugar alternatives and real fruit and cream. I make ice cream at least once a week, and I make all different kinds.  As you know, I got a new ice cream maker for Christmas, so there had to be some experiments and lots of ice cream in my future.

Slowly, over the next few months, I’ll be sharing my ice cream recipes with you, so keep watching.

I really couldn’t wait to share this recipe with you.  It’s spectacular and I know you’re going

to want to try it straight away!

While we are in the depths of winter (not really, it’s almost spring), that doesn’t mean that we can’t partake in the delicious food summer food. Strawberries are one of my favourite summer fruits and as berries are the only low carb fruit – I eat a lot of them.  Obviously, at this time of year I use frozen strawberries – it works great either way.

This has got to be one of the easiest and yummiest ice cream recipes ever – it’s sweet and flavourful and soft and fluffy. Although, like any homemade ice cream, you do need to take it out of the freezer about 10 minutes before you want to eat it.  If you forget, you can always give it a quick blitz in the microwave for a few seconds.

Strawberries

You want to choose strawberries that are on the ripe to overripe side.  It doesn’t matter if they are a little mushy, in fact, this is a good way to use up any that might be less than perfect.

Sweetener

In this recipe I used Raw Earth Monk Fruit and Stevia. There was no particular reason why I chose this except that I had run out of my favourite Dr Hisham’s Xylitol. I have also used erythritol, so it really doesn't matter. If you're not concerned with your carb count you substitute Maple Syrup but I would reduce the amount.

I used half a cup of sweetener but honestly, you could use less as this ice cream is very sweet. It depends on how you like it.  

Brandy

This could be an optional ingredient but I always put alcohol in my ice cream.  It helps to make it more scoopable but, as I said, you’ll need to soften the ice cream for at least 10 minutes before you are ready to eat it.

Maceration

According to Wikipedia maceration is softening or breaking into pieces using a liquid. That’s exactly what you are doing here when you ‘soak’ the strawberries in the sweetener and brandy. Please don’t skip this step, it’s really important to give a full flavour.

If you would like some extra tips on how to make homemade ice cream successfully check out my tips listed in the Vanilla Ice Cream post.

Low Carb Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients List

·     450g strawberries

·     ½ cup Raw Earth or Xylitol sweetener

·     2 tablespoons brandy

·     150g sour cream

·     1 cup cream

Method

1.    Place the strawberries in a bowl. Add the sweetener and brandy.  Leave to sit for an hour, stirring occasionally.

2.    Putthe macerated strawberries into a blender with the sour cream and blend. Mix inthe cream.

3.    Put the mixture into the ice cream maker and churn until ready.

4.    Eat immediately (you won’t be able to resist) or place in the freezer.

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