Y’all! We love ice cream. Who doesn’t? We like almost all flavors but there’s something about vanilla bean ice cream. The simplicity and pure vanilla flavor that comes through keeps us coming back for more! Plus! You can add toppings or make root beer floats! Have you ever had a frozen vanilla custard? It is SO delicious! Creamy and luscious, it’ll make your eyes pop wide open then roll back in your head…it’s that good. We wanted keto ice cream and really wanted keto frozen custard! We had to have it!
Keto Ice Cream
We are definitely ice cream lovers. And, pre-keto, we bought it weekly and had it almost nightly!! About 3 months into keto, we tried “keto friendly” ice cream. We were so, beyond excited! But, that excitement was soon dampened by the realization that there was still sugar in each serving among other ingredients we weren’t too thrilled about.
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So, we reluctantly went without any cold creamy goodness for what seemed like an eternity. Seriously, have you gone a week without ice cream? It’s pure torture. Okay, not really, but, kind of.
Could we make our own?
Sure!! We tried and failed. First, we started with a flavored heavy cream concoction in a Mason jar. You know the one… where you shake, shake, shake it up. It’s like a pioneer day for the kids.
Well… it was awful! It was extremely icy and as it thawed it separated into this weird foamy mess. And some folks love this, which is awesome, for them. But, we just threw it all away. We made other attempts but the texture was off. It was either too icy, lacked flavor, or both. It just wasn’t worth the effort.
We needed to up our game!
We had the basic idea and already knew how to make the custard base. We just needed to perfect the ratio of ingredients. We wanted to create the ice cream that was worth the calories and the effort!
In all honesty, there’ve been some not so great outcomes, until now! We’ve just made the best, creamiest, clean keto frozen custard, in the world! I’m serious! It is smooth and incredibly decadent. TOTALLY worth it! We think this recipe is worth it and will be the perfect cold treat you’ve been looking for!
Hope you try this and let us know what you think!
Blessings, Steph
Ingredients:
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 cups heavy cream (divided)
- 2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (divided)
- ¾ cup sweetener (I used Lakanto golden Monk fruit) (see helpful tips)
- 2 tablespoons salted butter (I used Kerry gold)
- 3 tablespoons MCT oil
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- Pinch pink salt
- 1 Vanilla bean split and scraped
Instructions:
Gather your ingredients. Be sure to read helpful tips.
Cooked Custard base:
In a heavy-bottomed, medium pot, add your egg yolks, 3 cups heavy cream, sweetener, butter, salt and vanilla pod, and half of the scraped out beans. Give it a good stir. Turn on the heat to very low.
Using a candy thermometer cook the mixture on low for a few minutes increasing the heat little by little as the mixture increases temperature. You do not want to make sweet scrambled eggs!
Cook the custard base until it reached 160 degrees or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. This process takes about 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow it to cool. You can cover it.
Next Step:
In a large bowl add in the rest of the cream, MCT oil, and xanthan gum. Using an emersion blender or a whisk beat the xanthan gum into the mixture making sure there are no lumps.
Put a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl. Pour your completely cooled custard base through the strainer into the rest of the cream and almond milk. This will ensure that any clumps of egg or vanilla don’t make it to the finished product. The cold cream should help to chill down the custard base even more.
Put mixture into the fridge covered and allow it to chill for an hour.
Pour chilled custard into your ice cream machine and press start.
Helpful Tips:
Let’s talk about calories.
I am happy to share with you that thanks to Keto… my sugar cravings have vanished. So, I don’t have such a strong need for sweets anymore. I am so thankful for that!! My family and I do still enjoy them. For this reason, this recipe is a big treat for us.
Now, I don’t have to reserve it for a special occasion… a Monday is special enough for me. However, if you would like to cut out some of the carbs and calories you can do this by subbing some of the heavy cream for almond milk. I would not go so far as to eliminate it. Keep (at the bare minimum) 2 cups heavy cream in the recipe. You could also do a 50/50 mix. You could also ADD an extra 2 cups of almond milk to reduce the calories and increase the amount of ice cream in the final product. Just know that the more you reduce the more you’ll experience an icy finish in your mouth instead of a creamy one. Hope that makes sense.
Sweetener:
Keto has also changed our taste buds. I first made this recipe with a full cup of sweetener… it was too sweet! I’ve reduced it to ¾ cup and think anyone could enjoy it now. If you are new to keto you may need 1 cup. If you are 3 years in you may only need ½ a cup. Play with it.
Raw Eggs:
I take the time to pasteurize my egg base because I am always sharing my foods and don’t know the status of everyone’s immune system. So I play it safe!! If your eggs are very fresh and you are not concerned about consuming raw eggs you don’t have to. But I will not recommend that.
Mixing in the Xanthan Gum:
Be careful here! You do not want to whip the cream. The xanthan gum is a thickener so the mixture will thicken up but will still be very loose and pourable.
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Creamiest Keto Vanilla Bean Frozen Custard In the World
Ingredients
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 cups heavy cream divided
- 2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk divided
- ¾ cup sweetener I used Lakanto golden Monk frui(see helpful tips
- 2 tablespoons salted butter I used Kerry gold
- 3 tablespoons MCT oil
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- Pinch pink salt
- 1 Vanilla bean split and scraped
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients. Be sure to read helpful tips.
Cooked Custard base:
- In a heavy-bottomed, medium pot, add your egg yolks, 3 cups heavy cream, sweetener, butter, salt and vanilla pod, and half of the scraped out beans. Give it a good stir. Turn on the heat to very low.
- Using a candy thermometer cook the mixture on low for a few minutes increasing the heat little by little as the mixture increases temperature. You do not want to make sweet scrambled eggs!
- Cook the custard base until it reached 160 degrees or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. This process takes about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow it to cool. You can cover it.
Next Step:
- In a large bowl add in the rest of the cream, MCT oil, and xanthan gum. Using an emersion blender or a whisk beat the xanthan gum into the mixture making sure there are no lumps.
- Put a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl. Pour your completely cooled custard base through the strainer into the rest of the cream and almond milk. This will ensure that any clumps of egg or vanilla don’t make it to the finished product. The cold cream should help to chill down the custard base even more.
- Put mixture into the fridge covered and allow it to chill for an hour.
- Pour chilled custard into your ice cream machine and press start.
Can you omit the MCT oil?
The MCT oil is what keeps it from freezing brick hard. If you don’t have MCT you could use coconut oil.
What is the purpose of the butter? I made the recipe and found that the butter solidified and just made small chunks throughout the ice cream
We have never had that happen to us. A couple of questions. What kind of butter did you use? Did you cook your custard base and did you add the butter in at that time. The butter purpose is to make this custard rich and creamy.
…the cream, the rest of the cream and the rest of the cream – yet it’s divided in half?
I am not sure about your question. You use 3 cups of cream in the first half of the recipe. In the second half, you use the rest of the heavy cream. It is divided but not divided in half.
Hi thanks for the recipe! Looking forward to making this.
I have a couple questions.
1. Can I use MCT oil powder and would the amount remain the same?
2. 4 cups of cream and 2 cups of almond milk for a yield of 6 cups of base before freezing? This is too much for my ice cream maker 🙂
3, How much is a serving and how many servings does it make?
The MCT oil is to keep it soft. I would use another type of oil in place of it. Maybe some avocado oil or some light tasting olive oil. The powder will not keep it from getting hard. Once you chill it I would just split it into 2 parts and put half into your ice cream machine. Then do the second half.