Sunday, December 4, 2016

Here's a wonderful video from YouTuber Guava Juice on French Vanilla Ice Cream made using Milk and Vanilla Extract and kicking a ball around for a while. There are quite a few different brands of ice cream making balls and they're pretty much all based on the same concept- You pour water around the walls of a hollow ball and stick it in your freezer overnight, next you add your ice cream ingredients as you'd use to make regular ice cream and add rock salt to the OUTSIDE chamber which helps the ice and water become even colder. Then all you need to do is transfer the heat from the outside to the inside where all your ingredients are by waiting, and kicking the ball around just speeds up the process! They're a great fun activity and yes, they're limited and not as great as properly made freezer ice cream, but they're a great fun novelty and still get good results.





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Friday, October 7, 2016

Sugar free and diabetic friendly ice creams - Home made

Being a Type 1 diabetic, I often try to make my own sugar-free or low-sugar versions of store bought stuff, and ice-cream is no exception. There are a number of diabetic ice-creams already available in the shops and some of them like Frank's are pretty damn good, but many are still very high sugar (see: Frank's) or use things like Sorbitol as a sweetener which is a heavy laxative, or even worse just plain taste awful. As with most things, home-made is always better unless you're paying through the nose, so here are some sensible tips and things you can do to make your own low sugar and diabetic friendly icecreams.

1. Sweetener Choice

As mentioned, Sorbitol is an infamous laxative in large amounts and since Ice Cream requires a lot of sweetness to offset numbing from the lower temperature, it's just a horrible choice which should be avoided whenever possible. The reason so many companies tend to use it is because it tastes somewhat similar to sugar and is very cheap, none of which stops it from being a poor choice. Stevia is a great natural option which, although fairly expensive, is zero-carbs, great for diabetics. The only issue with Stevia is that it's not as strong as sugar-alcohol sweeteners and may require large amounts. Erythitol is a fantastic tasting sweetener and some even prefer it to sugar. It also works wonderfully in ice creams and is fine in any quantity. It's a little more expensive but it's one of the best options and can be substituted 1:1 for sugar in any recipe. Xylitol is also fairly close to sugar and cheaper than Erythitol, it's also actually good for your teeth! However it's a little gritty and usually large grain for ice cream, so use a mortar and pestle or whizz it in a blender first. Also note that it has 40g of carbs per 100g so may not be suitable for large quantities or if you're diabetic. Here's a sugar free ice cream recipe.

No Sugar Nutty Mint Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS 2 cups double/heavy cream ¼ cup unsweetened nut milk (Almond, cashew, even soya will work great) 4 egg yolks 2 Tbsp Peppermint essence or flavor 2 finely diced mint leaves or 1 tsp mint powder 2 tsp Stevia Combine your nut milk and heavy cream in a good sized bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix all other ingredients in another bowl then add fold in the heated milk-cream and stir until combined then stick back in the microwave for another minute and every 30 seconds after, stopping and stirring every time. If you don't take your time your eggs will scramble. You can also do this on the stove top if you don't trust the microwave, but be equally careful about keeping a low temperature for your eggs. Next, strain everything into a chilled bowl to remove any lumps and chill overnight in the fridge, or pop in the freezer for 20 minutes until cold. Add to your ice cream maker and then eat soft or freeze until even firmer.




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Sunday, July 17, 2016

Rice Pudding Ice-Cream? Here's how!

The best thing about ice cream is how simple it is to make, and rice pudding is even easier. So combine the two and you can make rice-pudding ice cream really quick. To make your ice cream with rice pudding you can use literally any white rice you like, short grains are best- Aborio/Paela rices and even Jasmine work well. Alternatively you can just use a tin of rice pudding bought at any store to save even more time, skip ahead to the last step if you do! Take 100g of your chosen rice with 500ml of milk (whole milk works best) in a pan over a medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons of sugar and scrape and add 1 vanilla pod or add whatever other flavouring you like. Combine and stir until the milk has been absorbed by the rice then turn off the heat and transfer to a plate or large bowl to cool. Use a potato masher or large wooden spoon to break and mush up the rice to the desired consistency (I like mine thick & chunky). Finally, lightly whip and add 500ml of double cream and mix evenly, then transfer everything to your freezer for just 4 hours. This stuff is thick & creamy and takes less effort than regular ice cream. Serve it with some strawberries, raspberries or blueberries for sharpness against your creamy luxurious vanilla rice pudding ice cream and you're good to serve!





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