Summer time LCHF ice-cream

It is that time of year and if you are like me and have a soft spot for ice-cream then these can fill the void.

I ADORE ice-cream

I would crawl over hot coals for the stuff and have been known to lie to my children about the existence of ice-cream in the freezer!

Sooooo, I have two recipes for you.

They are simple and don't use too many ingredients, which I really like.

I made the custard for this one in the bellini but it can be done stove top just as easy.  For the puritan banters this would be totally unacceptable but hey, you gotta live a little in summer. and. ice-cream!

Salted Caramel Ice-cream

Ingredients:

6 pitted fresh dates

400ml coconut cream

2 whole eggs

1tsp himalayan salt

1tsp vanilla essence

125ml pouring cream

1tbs yacon syrup

1tsp xantham gum powder

1tsp lucuma

Method:

Blend dates, vanilla, lucuma, xantham gum and eggs together.  

In a pan heat coconut cream to a simmer, stir in date mix and add yacon syrup (you can go without this or add a sweetener of your choice.  I use this as it is reasonably low in carbs and adds a nice flavour)

Bring to simmer and stir until mix starts to become thicker.  

Once it resembles a custard, add your salt and remove from heat and chill in fridge.

Once cool, whisk through the pouring cream and then place in sealed container in freezer.  

This is where you can use your ice-cream maker and follow usual method.

If you don't have an ice-cream maker then just remove every hour or so and give a whisk.  

You only need do this 2-3 times.

You will need to remove from freezer at least 30min before using, like most home made ice-cream it will go really hard.  Alternatively you can use ice-cream moulds that make it much easier to handle.

You can also eat it much sooner!

makes 15 serves.  2.3gr carbs per serve

My kids love this one, for me it is too much cream, however using cream makes it a great source of fat and really low carb

Traditional Vanilla Ice-cream

Incredients:

600ml pouring cream

2tbs vanilla essence

2 vanilla beans split and scraped (use it all)

pinch salt

1.5tbs great lakes gelatin

1/4c water

Method:

Dissolve the gelatin in the water and set aside.

In a saucepan heat cream with vanilla, beans and paste until you have a simmer.  let simmer for about 20 min until it has reduced and developed a really lovely vanilla flavour.

Remove beans and let cool slightly.

Whisk through gelatin, then transfer to a container and chill in fridge.

Once cool whisk again then follow same procedure as above for whisking/freezing or use your ice-cream maker or moulds.
makes 15serves, 1.1gr carb per serve

Christmas Ginger Cakes

I think ginger and christmas go together almost as well as Pru and Trude don't you!

As soon as christmas comes around I start thinking gingerbread men, houses and cakes.

Since this is our first christmas doing the LCHF thang I had to give some serious thought to what my baking would be.  

As it is I have cut back seriously on what I am doing as having a newborn in the house has impacted on available time somewhat LOL

As much as I love gingerbread I didn't want to go down the whole wheat/sugar road so I got to thinking about alternatives and decided to play around with my bean cake recipe and see what I could come up with.

The ingredients aren't all that different which is great as I think you could tweak this recipe to suit whatever your taste buds fancy.

Ingredients

400gr tin of white beans

4 eggs

120gr butter (melted)

3tbs agave/honey/maple syrup (treacle would give a more traditional flavour)

2tbs coconut flour

1/2tsp bi-carb

1/2tsp baking powder

1.5tbs dried ginger

1tbs cinnamon

1/2tsp salt

Method

Turn oven onto 200c to heat.

Drain and wash your beans well.  

Blend beans with one egg until smooth.  Add remaining eggs and all other ingredients.  

Blend until well combined.

Now, you can bake this in a ring tin for around 30min but as I am putting some of these into a christmas  hamper for my aunt I thought it best to make them as cupcakes.

If you do this they only took 20min to bake and come up a beautiful golden brown.  

I intend on adding a cashew cream icing just before I deliver them.

Salted Caramel Chia Pudding

Sooo, I got to thinking. 

My kids love my caramel smoothie made with cashews and dates.  

So, what if

just 

WHAT IF 

I could turn that magic into pudding!  

I know, right!

Eat that baby right outta the pot!

I played around with proportions but finally got it right.

SALTED CARAMEL CHIA PUDDING

Ingredients

200ml milk of your choice (I used cashew)

3 medjool dates

1/4c cashew butter

1/3c chia seeds

1/2tsp sea salt (you can use himalayan but I prefer sea salt for sweet stuff)

Directions

Blend dates, cashews & salt together until pulpy then add milk and blend until smooth.  Pour into container and stir through chia seeds.  Refrigerate overnight or for at least 6hrs.  

We had this with berries but also great out of container, standing at fridge (so I have been told :P)

Also, don't forget to take a look at how you can win a copy of Scott and Luke's new awesome recipe book!!!!

Sugar Free Raw Cacao icecream

Heaven in a tub!

This ticks all the right boxes I tell you!

High fat

Protein

Calcium

Flavour

Comfort

I know you can make ice-cream without a custard base, thermomix/bellini or an icecream maker but I choose to use these so just humour me OK!

My custard base is a standard one I have always used but I started to think I probably didn't need to add sugar.  

I WAS RIGHT!

This totally works without any added sugar.

 Custard Base  

250ml full cream milk (I used Jersey raw)

2 eggs

50gr arrowroot (cornflour would work too)

50gr raw cacao powder

Put all ingredients into your jug with the measuring cup off.

Speed 3, 100c for around 10 min.

Scrape down sides and if it isn't thick enough cook for another 5 min.

I found it took 15 minutes to reach the thickness I wanted.

For the stove top you can do exactly the same but whisk your ingredients together first before heating.  Be sure to use a double saucepan or a bowl over a pan of water.

Once this is cooked you will need to chill for a few hours.   I poured it into a large tub so it wasn't too thick a layer and sped up the cooling process.  

I also put it in the deep freeze for an hour to start.  You don't want it to freeze totally at this stage, just chill down.  Ideally you can leave in the fridge overnight.

Now for the yummy part

Once it is chilled then you an add your cream.  You will want 250ml of cream.  Whisk this into your custard mix.  If you don't have an ice-cream maker/churn then I suggest whipping the cream lightly before whisking it in as this aerates it a bit and makes it lighter.

For the churn just whisk in and pour into your churn following the regular instructions.

For freezer made, whip your cream, then fold into the custard mix and freeze.  You can pull it out of the freezer as it starts to firm up but this really isn't necessary.

And lastly

EAT THAT GOOD STUFF!!!

Kelli's cake of trickery

I am sure you have heard of the trickery that is THE Magic Bean Cake!  What? You haven't?  

Well go and check this one or this one out.

See!

So incredibly easy, fast and OMG!! It is delicious.  My kids are in love with it and ask for it when we are going somewhere and need to take a plate.

Once people taste it they also ask for recipes, it is such a winner.

Each time I make the thermomix one I try to reduce the sugar levels, even though I have been using coconut sugar.  

Today I thought I would have a go at adapting it and make it sugar free. 

I have to say

I DONE GOOD!!!!!

This turned out incredibly well.  Moist, sweet and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.

So good I have to share it with you.  

Kelli's Cake of Trickery

Ingredients

400gr tin of kidney/white beans

1c raspberries (any berries will do)

4 eggs

120gr butter (melted)

1tbs agave/honey/maple syrup 

2tbs coconut flour

3tbs raw cacao

1/2tsp bi-carb

1/2tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla essence

1/2tsp salt

Method

Turn oven onto 200c to heat.

Drain and wash your beans well.  

Blend beans with one egg until smooth.  Add remaining eggs and all other ingredients except berries.  Blend until well combined, then stir through your berries.  

Pour into either a ring tin or 20cm x 20cm cake tin.  

Bake for approximately 30-40min.   

When skewer comes out clean in centre it is cooked.

I leave in tin for about 10min then take out and cool on a tray. 

It is really nice served warm with some cream or cold as a brownie style slice.

You're welcome :)

Chocolate Mousse with a twist

I made this for the children today and it is a winner!  There are loads of recipes out there and I kind of had a look then made it up to suit what I had and what they like.

It is extremely easy and quick and if you make it in the morning it will be ready for that night.  Mind you it could also be eaten straight away :P

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados

2tbs melted coconut oil

275ml coconut milk

1/4c raw cacao

1tsp vanilla

1/2tsp himalayan salt

1/4 maple syrup/agave

Simply put all your ingredients into the bellini/tmx or food processor and blend until super smooth.

Put into serving dishes or container and refridgerate.

Of course, it doesn't have to stop there, you could add berries, nuts or any other tasty treat dress this up.

Phase 1 - get this in your belly!!

phase 2/3 - I apologise in advance :(  no go zone for you

phase 4/5 - this could come at the end of 4 and eat for all of 5 if you have tested all ingredients and are ok. 

Just replace your sweetener with some stevia if need be.

Egg white clouds

After a facebook discussion on what to do with egg yolks I thought I would do a post about egg whites!  Makes complete sense doesn't it LOL  I had actually made icecream for the kids and had five egg whites left and no idea what to do with them.

I really had no idea what I was doing but wanted it to be sugar free.  First thing is to turn your oven on to 200c.

I started with the egg whites obviously and I whipped them until they formed stiff peaks.  Make sure your bowl is clean, give it a wipe out with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice is always a good trick and a teensy pinch of salt.

 Once the eggs were stiff I added about 4 drops of stevia and a tsp of raspberry essence.

I then folded through 1/4c of desiccated coconut and 1/2c of almond meal

Blob (french cookery term) spoonfuls onto a lined baking tray.  It doesn't matter how close as they don't expand.

Bake for about 15min or until the edges are starting to colour.

These won't crisp up or look overly pretty because they have no sugar in them.  They are very light and tasty and the kids were happy with them.  

Bare in mind they won't keep well so need to be eaten within a day or so. 

Perfect for P5 too.

Experimental icecream

The kids wanted ice cream, I had 500ml of pure cream in the freezer so figured why not.  In the past I have made it with sugar as per most recipes but decided to stick to our changes and try to avoid that.  I only use good quality pure cream from Ashgrove Cheese and rather than waste the goodness of that I wanted to add other good ingredients.
Rather than using the regular caster sugar I have used coconut sugar, you could also use rapadura or stevia if you wanted.  I have also used the changing habits cacao wafers.  These are 100% raw cacao before the cacao butter is extracted, sugar free, rich and creamy!  This was the first time I had used them since buying them and I must say I was impressed.  Okay, I may have dunked a finger in the mix to test :P

Obviously this isn't a good recipe for phase 2, sorry.  Just know I am being tortured too :)  However, for loading it would be awesome and if you don't react to dairy you could have in phase 4 and phase 5 without a worry.

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks
1/4 coconut sugar
1/2c changing habits cacao wafers
500ml cream

Method:
In a small dish whip 400ml of the cream until it is very thick and put aside.

In a double saucepan combine egg yolks and coconut sugar.  Put over heat and gently whisk until the mixture starts to thicken to ribbon consistency.  DO NOT stop stirring or you will end up with sweet scrambled eggs!  Once this happens add the cacao wafers.  Keep stirring until melted then remove from heat and stir in the remaining 100ml of cream.

Fold in half of the whipped cream at a time and when all mixed through place in the freezer for around 8hrs or into the ice cream maker, which is what I did.  It took about 20min until it reached a good thick consistency then I transferred to a container and put in the freezer.

This has won a big thumbs up from the kids, I know they were doubtful as the wafers are relatively bitter.  They were  very surprised that it was sweet, chocolatey and creamy without too much effort!

Who would have thought it could be so easy and healthy.  Go! Go, have some now!

For more information on the cacao wafers visit the Changing Habits website.