Low Carb Sugar-Free Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Yes, you can make this recipe no-churn. There are two options.

1. Replace the whole milk with heavy cream. Use a mixer and combine all the ingredients except the chocolate chips. Beat until the cream comes to the stiff peak stage. Gently fold the chocolate chips into the ice cream mixture. Add the ice cream base to a loaf pan or other suitable container. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about 8 hours.
2. The second option is to use the keep the whole milk as used in the original recipe. Combine all ingredients except the chocolate chips. Add the mixture to a suitable container and place in the freezer. Stir the ice cream mixture every 30 to 45 minutes over the next 4 hours. Once the ice cream has set, you can gently mix in the chocolate chips, cover it with plastic wrap and continue freezing until the desired consistency is reached.

This recipe is made Philadelphia-style, meaning no eggs. So the base does not need to be cooked.

Truly, the only downside to homemade sugar-free ice cream is that no matter what you do, I’ve found the ice cream will freeze rock hard.  (Although, I have no problem eating rock-solid ice cream, lol.)  

Sugar is actually a very important component of ice cream. Besides adding sweetness, sugar keeps ice cream soft by lowering the freezing point of the ice cream. So by removing the sugar, your ice cream will freeze rock solid.

Possibly you could add enough alcohol to keep this from happening, but I don’t care for how alcohol interferes with the flavor.   

With that in mind, I tend to make my sugar-free ice cream in small batches so that we can polish it off in one sitting.  After freezing, you can let the ice cream sit out on the counter for about 5 minutes or so, and it should soften enough for scooping, but the texture will still not be the same as it was straight out of the ice cream maker.

You can use any cup for cup sugar replacement in this recipe. Personally, I think Splenda tastes the best but also has the worst rap when it comes to healthiness. I have tried Swerve, Stevia, Stevia Erythritol mx, and Monk Fruit Sweetener With Allulose. Swerve with Erythritol is what I generally use in this recipe; Swerve has a slight cooling effect that doesn’t work with everything, but you don’t even notice it with this sugar free mint chip ice cream recipe.

Gelatin helps make smooth, creamy, and fluffy ice cream without too much added fat or calories. Other options would be to add eggs (but then you would need to cook the base), cream cheese, or use all heavy cream. All heavy cream in ice cream is not my favorite. I am not crazy about the oily mouthfeel of ice cream made completely of heavy cream.

Vegetable glycerin is a sugar alcohol produced from plant matter. It helps give ice cream a creamy texture and to stay scoopable instead of icy when frozen. It also helps to keep the ice cream from sticking to the container of the frozen bowl. (If you have ever tried to make low-fat, sugar-free ice cream in the Cuisinart ice cream maker, you know what I am talking about here.)

3/4 of a tablespoon of vegetable glycerine will add 45 calories and 11 carbs to the entire batch of ice cream. This is my preferred vegetable glycerin.

You can use coconut milk, although it will impart a slight coconutty flavor. If you are looking to decrease the calorie count with something like unsweetened almond milk, you could replace the whole milk with almond milk. You still need some fat for the recipe to turn out, so you will need to keep the heavy whipping cream.

The only exception to this would be if you were using something like the Ninja Creami. I have recently bought the Ninja Creami Deluxe (Kohl’s) (Amazon link) specifically to make ice cream with plant-based milks and protein drinks. The Ninja Creami is really awesome for this.

Yes, as mentioned above, you can make this in the Nija Creami. You can make the recipe as is or replace the heavy cream with a low-calorie plant-based milk. (Like almond or cashew.) I would still make the recipe with a bit of dairy milk; it just gives a more ice cream-like result. I usually use 2% Fairlife milk for this. (Fairlife milk has lower sugar and carbs per serving.) Instead of gelatin, I use 1/2 teaspoon of guar gum in the Ninja Creami recipes.