[Sca-cooks] OOP: Ice cream question

[Tara Boroson]

I have been trying to make low-carb ice cream to indulge my addiction.  
I borrowed my mother's countertop electric ice cream maker - the kind 
where you freeze the bowl, pour in the custard and the machine just 
churns it.  Now, I made ice cream using a traditional hand churned 
bucket many times as a child and teenager - and even at Pennsic 
occasionally.  I remember that when it comes out of the bucket, it's 
very thick and goopy and doesn't firm up until you put it in the 
freezer.  But, what I've been getting out of this electric toy is not as 
thick as I remember it ought to be, and it's freezing up much too hard 
for scooping.  I have to microwave it for 30 seconds before I can scoop 
it, and my freezer usually keeps ice cream at a great scooping 
hardness.  For all that, it tastes fantastic and I want to keep trying.

So, I'm trying to troubleshoot it.  Has anybody tried this, or used one 
of these machines?  Could it be because I'm using Splenda?  I tried 
adding the Splenda once before cooking the custard, and once after.  The 
results were the same.  Could the maltodextrin filler in the Splenda 
affect it?  Or, maybe I'm not cooking the custard until it's thick 
enough?  When the recipe says to cook it until it thickens slightly and 
coats a spoon, do they mean coats like thick cream, or like yogurt, or 
somewhere in between?  I've been shooting for somewhere in between, a 
little thicker than cream.  Or do these machines just not do that good 
of a job? 

Also, has anybody here used Stevia?  I use it for my tea and I like it, 
but I'm told that it becomes bitter if you cook or bake with it.  I'd 
prefer to use it for the ice cream - it kind of bugs me to use high 
quality organic ingredients (including fresh raw milk!) then turn around 
and put Splenda in it.  I figured I'd experiment with it for the next 
round, but if anybody else has done it already, why reinvent the wheel?  :)

Thank you!
-Magdalena vander Brugghe
Ice cream addict cum low carb dieter

-- 
Tara Sersen Boroson

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it for himself. - Galileo Galilei