kerravonsen | Educating Ricotta

A hot day is a good day to experiment with ice cream. And there was some ricotta in the fridge for that purpose, so...

Experiment #34: Ricotta Vanilla-Maple ice cream
Recipe:
* 375g Pantalica Smooth Ricotta (one tub)
* 250ml water
* 2 T erythritol
* 3 T Xylitol
* 1 t vanilla powder
* 1 1/2 t maple essence
* 1 t Xanthan Gum
* 5 T "Crystal Clear Fibre" (a mix of polydextrose, maltodextrin and sorbitol)
* 4 T Splenda granular
Mind you, I didn't add them all in that order; I added some of the water after the Xanthan gum and clear-fibre as the mix got a lot thicker; likewise I added some of the essence and sweetener at the end, to taste.
Result: Eureka! Rich, creamy, without that graininess I'd gotten with earlier attempts. Sweet but not too sweet, mildly vanilla-maple taste, rather than a frozen-ricotta taste. Yahoo!
Unfortunately, I don't know if it was the brand of ricotta, the polydextrose or the Xanthan gum that made the difference; possibly all three.
I noticed that this ricotta was a bit saltier than some of the other brands I'd tried; perhaps that contributed to having to add more sweetener than I expected.
Lessons: Do this again!

I shall have to wait until later to see if the portion I put in the freezer is still scoopable. Nevertheless, I call this a success, because this has been the deliciousest ice cream I've made so far.

The "Crystal Clear Fibre" is cheaper than inulin (Metamucil Fibre Clear), but unfortunately I've only seen it in one health-food shop in the city, and it isn't always in stock.

I have one more tub of yet another brand of ricotta in the fridge (a 250g tub this time) so that's another one to check out. Also something to investigate is what would happen if I used inulin instead of the "Crystal Clear Fibre", since the latter isn't pure polydextrose, so I would expect that there would be some difference.