EASY MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM II

EASY MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM II
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
1/2 cup Da Vinci sugar free syrup, vanilla flavor
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
Liquid Splenda equal to 1/4 cup sugar
2 packets SweetOne or 4 teaspoons other sweetener of your choice
2 drops green food coloring
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 ounce MiniCarb chocolate chips, chopped, about 2 heaping tablespoons

Mix the first 6 ingredients in a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Gradually whisk in the xanthan gum. Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze at least 4 hours. Once the cubes are frozen solid, take them out of the tray and store them in the freezer in an airtight container until 1 hour before serving time. Place the frozen ice cream cubes in a food processor, with the chopping blade inserted, and let them stand at room temperature 1 hour or 30 minutes if it's a very warm day. Start checking the cubes after 30 minutes. You can tell if the cubes are ready if you can easily break them up with a fork but there is no liquid in the bottom of the processor. Process until the ice cream is smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the processor as needed. If the processor is acting a bit sluggish, add a teaspoon or so of water to help it get moving. Pulse in the chocolate chips. Serve at once and do not refreeze for more than a few minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings

TIP: If the cubes don't easily pop out of the tray, fill the kitchen sink with about an inch or two of very hot water. Set the tray in the water for a few seconds or until the cubes can be popped out of the tray.

With heavy cream:
Per Serving: 251 Calories; 24g Fat; 2g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 5g Net Carbs

With half and half:
Per Serving: 125 Calories; 9g Fat; 3g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 6g Net Carbs

I had trouble this time for some reason. It's probably partly my fault, but I think using half and half, instead of cream, may be partly to blame. When I went to remove the cubes from the ice cube tray, I decided to just let it sit out on the counter for a few minutes instead of setting it in hot water like I usually do. Well, I forgot about them and they started to thaw. I tried to refreeze them for a while and it didn't seem to help. My ice cream came out very soft. I even tried refreezing the ice cream and it wouldn't freeze or get much firmer no matter how long I left it in the freezer. I will give half and half another try though and hopefully this was a fluke. For only a carb more per serving, you save a ton of calories by using that instead of heavy cream.

I was doing a little experimenting with this recipe in other ways too. I added some xanthan gum to see if it would improve the texture. I also added another kind of sweetener in hopes that it would help keep the ice cream sweet. Neither seemed to help at all. I may have to try using a higher percentage of the second sweeter to Splenda and see what happens. The trouble is that AceK has carbs just like granular Splenda. It really has me puzzled as to why Splenda is not sweet when in something as cold as ice cream.

I wasn't crazy about the MiniCarb chocolate chips in this ice cream. Even though I chopped them quite fine, they were too hard and crunchy which I thought was too much of a contrast to the really soft ice cream.

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