We made gelato. Listen, obviously, food bloggers like us are the worst. Pretentious people—trying to make their food sound extravagant yet approachable. Why gelato when we could just make ice cream like a normal human? We have a good reason, though.
Our recipe has no sugar. Instead, it uses erythritol, which is a fine sweetener except that it does not dissolve in cold liquids and has a habit of recrystallizing when cooled. For example, we tried to make simple syrup with it. We heated the water, and the erythritol dissolved. But when we poured it into a glass bottle and placed it in the refrigerator, it separated. That is, the erythritol recrystalized at the bottom of the bottle with spikes like inverted icicles. It looked like a frozen hellscape.
We tried preparing our go-to ice cream recipe with erythritol. But the erythritol never dissolved, and it came out a little crunchy. Delicious, but crunchy.
For gelato, you make a custard, which involves heating both the cream with the sugar (or erythritol) and then egg mixture. After the erythritol incorporates in the custard, it does a good job of staying incorporated. Crunch averted.
We’re not telling you what to call this recipe. Call it ice cream if that seems less pompous. Call it frozen custard if you want to pretend that you’re at the county fair. We’ll call it gelato because we prepare to imagine ourself sitting in a Italian piazza surrounded by cobblestones and Old World architecture. OMG, we are pretentious, aren’t we?
Keto Vanilla Bean Gelato
Ingredients
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 cup of half and half
- 1 cup of erythritol*
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 1 table of vanilla been paste
Directions
On the stove, heat the water a pot. High on high until the water begins to simmer, then turn to medium low. If you have a double boiler, use it. If not, we use this melting pot which sits on top of a regular pot.
Whisk the egg yolks until lightly beaten.
In a small bowl, mix together the half and half and erythritol.
Pour it into the top of the double boiler or melting pot. Make sure that all the erythritol transfers as it has a tendency to separate to the bottom of the bowl.
Stir constantly with a silicone spatula. If you have a kitchen thermometer, cook until you reach 175 degrees. If not, cook until you see that all the erythritol dissolves.
Slowly incorporate eggs into the double boiler or melting pot while continuing to stir. Constant stirring is essential to avoid accidently making scrambled eggs. When the mixture reaches 160 degrees remove the double boiler or melting pot and pour mixture into a bowl.
Add the cream and vanilla to the mixture and whisky lightly.
Refrigerate the mixture for at least four hours.
Follow the instructions of your particular ice cream maker to transform this mixture into the most delectable of homemade ice creams.
*We can use regular erythritol or powdered erythritol. Either works but the powdered erythritol comes out a little smoother.
3 Responses
Can erythritol be substituted with powdered monk fruit sweetener?
medpy2
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