What a sticky wicket, eh?

[kerravonsen]

Yesterday, there was further experimentation on the ice-cream front.

I had been wanting to make coconut ice cream with coconut flour and coconut oil for a while, yes, so totally not on my diet, but I wanted to see what it was like, see if I could do a sugarless version. So I took ideas from a few different recipes, and...
Experiment #27: Coconut ice cream (with all sorts of stuff, including FAT)
Procedure: (not straightforward enough to be a "Recipe" this time)
* 2 T coconut oil (possibly a bit more)
- melt in microwave
* 5 T coconut flour
- add to oil one tablespoon at a time, mix in thoroughly
* 2 T Splenda granular
* 2 T Xylitol
- the mix started solidifying at this, it would be the cooling effect
* 2 T Erythritol
- definitely no longer melted at this point.
* 1 can (400ml) Lite Coconut milk
- heat mixture in microwave.
Note that the Lite Coconut milk, looking at the ingredients list, was mostly water, then 39% coconut, then "emulsifier" and "vegetable gum".
* 5 T "crystal clear fibre" (a mix of polydextrose, maltodextrin and sorbitol)
* 1/2 t Xanthan gum
* 1/2 t Guar gum
- mix with blender; the mixture became quite thick at this point
* 2 T Splenda granular
I thought it needed to be a bit sweeter
* 1/2 t imitation coconut essence
* 1 can (400ml) non-light Coconut milk
I thought it was a bit thick, so I added the other can of coconut milk.
Note that the non-light coconut milk was just coconut (53%) and water.
- refrigerate overnight
The next morning I got it out of the fridge and it was set. Like coconut mousse. Ooops.
- divide mixture into two halves, A and B
For A:
* 200ml water
* 1 t imitation coconut essence
* 1 pkt Splenda (2 t of sweetness)
This froze quickly, gave a small volume of ice cream.
* 1/2 cup shredded dessicated coconut
- mixed this in at the end
For B:
* 300ml water
* 2 t vanilla powder
- put in ice cream maker
* home made chocolate chips (made by bashing chocolate; not very successful)
* 1/2 cup shredded dessicated coconut
- added these while mixture was three-quarters done
This mixture took longer, and had more volume.
Result:
Mixture A: creamy, very coconutty, the shredded coconut was crunchy
Mixture B: very slightly less creamy; despite all the vanilla, it was still very coconutty, perhaps due to the shredded coconut. One could hardly detect the chocolate.
Lessons: (a) don't add too much thickener; use less coconut flour, and much less polydextrose, and less gum if the coconut milk already has it (b) don't add shredded coconut unless you want it very coconutty (c) if you add chocolate bits, add a lot more (d) I suspect that the emulsifier in the lite coconut milk helped the mixture stay mixed

I'm not really tempted to make this again; if I'm going to indulge in fatty ice cream, I think I'd rather make something that was pure vanilla, not vanilla-and-coconut. Not that I dislike coconut, it just isn't worth breaking my diet for.

Comments

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I am always inmpressed. Really!

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

I've been experimenting on and off for a little while with home-made ice-cream and it's very interesting to go back through your experiments and read what has and hasn't worked for you.

The links to the pages which broke down the whys and wherefores of the components are very useful, so thank you for pointing to them, because my own experiments have to do with cutting out the dairy products and the eggs. I tried one using pre-made soy custard and interestingly it froze so quickly that it nearly broke the blade on the ice-cream maker. I've yet to figure out if it's the soy or something else that gave it such a low freezing-point.

[kerravonsen]

That's very encouraging that you've found it helpful!

I tried one using pre-made soy custard and interestingly it froze so quickly that it nearly broke the blade on the ice-cream maker.
That sounds like my very early experiment with low-cal jelly; the mixture set pretty solid and didn't get very icecreamy. So I would suspect that with your soy custard, they've got something in there that is used as a thickener - whether that be gelatine, xanthan gum, or a mixture of gums - and at freezing temperatures it simply gets too thick.

because my own experiments have to do with cutting out the dairy products and the eggs
Trying to have no dairy and no eggs does cut out both the main conventional methods of ice-cream, since the two main classes are cream-based and egg-custard based. I sympathise with the challenge.

It might be worth trying with soy milk and/or almond milk, and adding other things in controlled doses. Some of the recipes I've come across have been egg-free and dairy-free (though not fat-free) - let me take a look at my bookmarks...
http://wholesomegoodness.net/2008/09/15/a-truly-dairy-free-sugar-free-ice-cream-recipe/ (strawberry-coconut)
http://veganicecream.blogspot.com/2007/04/ginger-ice-cream.html (ginger-coconut, though it says "or other non-dairy milk")