Keto Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream

My mom's favorite ice cream before keto was Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream. She thought I can't have that because cherries aren't keto and technically they aren't. But my keto ice cream is so low in carbs that adding a 1/2 cup of cherries to it only made my ice cream 2.5 net carbs for 2/3 Cup serving as appose to 36 Carbs for Ben & Jerry's. I've never made a cherry ice cream so I literally looked up a regular Cherry Garcia ice cream recipe and made it keto. Most of the recipes used more milk and cream and still only 1/2 cup or even only a 1/3 cup of cherries in the recipe.

I would have preferred to use Bing cherries which most recipes called for but they were not available before my moms birthday, so I used fresh sweet cherries. A half cup or 70 grams of sweet cherries is 10 Net Carbs, so it makes the whole 6 cup batch of ice cream 23 g of net carbs total. But you can use any cherries you can find, I also tested with frozen dark sweet cherries. It was good if you put them in just chopped and frozen once the ice cream is churned.

The chocolate pieces I used, I made out of Lily's dark chocolate chips. You can just throw in chocolate chips but I wanted to make it look just like Cherry Garcia ice cream. So I tempered the chocolate with a tiny bit of coconut oil and spread it out on a silt pat and cut it into tiny rectangles. Totally optional of course and pretty extra, lol. Can also use a keto chocolate bar and just chop it into chocolate shards and use any brand or chocolate type you would like of course. Macros may be different though.

Like all my other ice cream recipes, I use half heavy cream and half of an alternative unsweetened milk. The options are endless now with all the options out there, flax, oat, almond, cashew, soy. If you are just low carb the best would be half and half or whole milk as the other half because it just makes it more full of fat and creamy. But I enjoy it with unsweetened cashew milk the best. But this batch had to be nut free and macadamia nuts, we just found out, were technically seeds and my moms boyfriend can have them.

For best results definitely use mostly allulose for the sweetener in the ice cream. Other sugar substitutes will sweeten fine but result in a rock hard ice cream. I did so many tests before shooting my first ever video which was ice cream and none came out as soft and scoopable as with the allulose. Xylitol will also work to keep ice cream soft but it is higher on the glycemic index and has more calories, so I don't prefer to use it.

Amazon Affiliate Links for products I use and items I regularly buy on Amazon: If you want to support my channel and blog in a small way by buying ingredients you already use or need by clicking my links, I'd really appreciate it. I get a few cents per purchase which could really help with all the testing I do, to make these recipes the best possible.

Granular monkfruit- https://amzn.to/3u7ebGd

xylitol- https://amzn.to/2QN4j6p

Allulose - https://amzn.to/3gRodaS

Cherry extract - https://amzn.to/3oQHLOE

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Keto Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream

1 1/4 Cup Heavy cream

1 1/4 Cup Unsweetened macadamia nut milk ( Can use half & half, coconut milk/cream, oat, ect.)

1/2 Cup Allulose

2 Tbs. Granular monkfruit (can use any other alternative sweetener)

1/4 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Gelatin (bloomed in a Tbs. Macadamia nut milk)

2 Eggs

2 tsp. Cherry extract

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1/2 Cup fresh sweet cherries 70 g (bing cherries would work also, can use straight from frozen cherries too)

2 oz. Lily's dark chocolate chips or bar

Instructions:

1. Bloom the gelatin over a tablespoon of milk

2. Place cream, milk, sweeteners, salt and bloomed gelatin into a sauce pot, whisk and heat over medium heat until just simmering

3. Temper the egg with the hot mixture, pouring a little in at a time while whisking about half the mixture

4. Pour the egg and hot mixture back into the pan and whisk together, then strain back into the bowl

5. Add and stir in the cherry and vanilla extract

6. Place either over an ice bath and place in refrigerator, stirring occasionally until the mixture reaches 42 degrees or place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the mixture and refrigerate for 8 hours to overnight

While the mixture is chilling, prep the add-ins!

1. Rough chop the pitted fresh cherries or chop the frozen (keep in freezer)

2. Optional- temper the dark chocolate, spread into a thin rectangle on a silt pat or parchment paper

3. Let set then cut into small squares to make the square chocolate pieces just like the ones in a pint of Ben & Jerry's, set aside

Making the ice cream:

1. Once the base is ready, churn according to manufacturers instruction, scoop in a six cup bowl, layering in the cherries and chocolate chip

2. Freeze for at least 8 hour, scoop and enjoy!

Macros: 1 Cup/6 Servings - Using unsweetened macadamia milk, sweet cherries and lily dark chocolate chips (if you use semi-sweet lily's it will be less carbs)

238 Calories

22 g Fat

6.5 g Total Carbs

2.6 g Fiber

3.8 g Net Carbs

4.3 g Protein