Hi, Phoenix here continuing our series on dairy farming. In this post, I’ll describe how K and I make keto ice cream. 

But first, why keto? 

To be honest, this lifestyle is difficult. It involves a lot of physical labor, and for that you need to develop and maintain muscle mass. I’ve found this is much easier for me to achieve following a keto diet, in which I avoid carbs and sugar. Instead, I focus on protein consumption through milk, eggs, nuts, and meat. Surprisingly, this change in diet has also improved my mental health. With so many keto products now available, I still get to eat a lot of things I used to, like bread (which K makes) and ice cream. 

Now you know why, here’s how I make keto ice cream from our goat milk.

The first step is to make the custard. For this, I heat up about 3 cups of milk till it starts to steam. Then I temper and add in 6 lightly beaten egg yolks.

I cook this mixture while continuously stirring to minimize clumps till it’s thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. At that point, I can draw a line through the coating with my finger and the line stays.

Then I add in some flavorings (e.g. vanilla extract) and sweeteners (e.g. stevia) to taste. Next, I strain the mixture into a container and let it cool off before putting it into the fridge. This reduces the energy consumption needed to cool the custard. It also prevents the food already in the fridge from heating up and allowing bacterial growth. 

The ice cream maker I use has a bowl I put into the freezer for at least 8 hours and then put into the machine. Beginning with the cold custard, I mix in about ½ cup of alcohol (vodka, whiskey, or liqueurs depending on the flavor you’re making) and pour that mixture into the ice cream maker bowl.

In regular ice cream, sugar acts as an anti-freeze and keeps large ice crystals from forming. In this keto ice cream, the fats from the egg yolks and the alcohol keep those large crystals from forming. When the mixture is almost done in the ice cream maker according to the machine directions, I add mix-ins (e.g. nuts or sugar-free chocolate chips).

Then I pour the ice cream into a freezer-safe container and put it in the freezer to set for several hours.

After it’s set, this keto ice cream can be eaten straight out of the freezer or within a 10 minute wait-time to soften.

Again, you don’t need a homestead to make this ice cream. You can use store-bought milk and eggs to make customized keto ice cream at a fraction of the cost of buying it in the store. You may need to adjust the recipe for cow milk and whichever flavors you’re making, but that’s where the fun is. Feel free to share recipes that work for you in the comments section. Happy ice cream making!

Next blog post: Part 7: Dairy Farming–making soap and shampoo (by Phoenix)