Keto Cottage Cheese Ice Cream. 2.6g carbs. A delightful alternative to cream or milk-based ice cream?
With my Italian heritage, I should have been horrified at the mere thought of cheese in ice cream. And you’d be absolutely correct. I hope no Italian gets to read this.
None the less, with all the noise about the “viral tik-tok cottage cheese ice cream“, my curiosity got the better of me.
Well. I’ve been testing this [cough] ‘ice cream’ for the last 3 weeks, and my verdict is out.
How to Make Keto Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
First of all, decide which keto ‘flavour’ you want to achieve. Consider vanilla, low-carb cocoa or chocolate. For a fruity flavour, think strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or blueberries. Nut butter will also work, although you will need to use quite a bit to taste it in the end product, and you’ll add a lot more calories and carbs.
The recipe I have put together is for a Mint Chocolate option. It came out best in terms of consistency and did a decent job of masking the cheesiness.
First of all, you need a small-capacity blender or food processor, such as the one that often comes with stick (immersion) blenders. Cottage cheese is lumpy, so you want to blend it until you obtain a creamy and smooth consistency.
The fastest method is to put all ingredients [except chocolate, if using] in the blender and whizz them up together.
You will obtain a paste that’s more or less dense depending on the brand of cottage cheese you use. Some contain more solids than others. It will obviously be more liquid if you add soft berries.
Stir in the chocolate shreds [if using] and pour the mixture into a freezer-safe container. Place it in your freezer for 2 hours, whisk it again, then freeze it for another 1-2 hours until you achieve a scoopable consistency. Serve it as soon as it’s ready (semi-frozen), with or without a drizzle of my Easy Chocolate Sauce.
If you want to recreate my pretty domes, you will need a semi-spherical silicone mould (U.S. option HERE) to pour the ‘ice cream’ into before the second freeze.
The Verdict
As already mentioned, I have tested Cottage Cheese ‘Ice Cream’ for a few weeks and made multiple varieties, with and without additives such as xanthan gum, gelatine, collagen, whey protein, and glycerine. I even tried Quark. The results were similar.
It is best eaten semi-frozen. Leave it in your freezer overnight (or longer) and you will have a solid block. Whether you then allow this solid block to thaw slowly in the fridge or at room temperature will make no difference: with berries, it will seep liquid yet retain ice crystals; with cocoa, chocolate or nut butters it will remain a block for ages and then still contain ice crystals.
Irrespective of what you add, the cheesiness will be detectable. In my view, Mint-Chocolate works best.
So. My verdict. Is this viral ‘ice cream’ any good? The answer is YES / NO.
YES – if you just want an effortless semi-frozen dessert, and you can forgive the cheesy taste, lack of smoothness, and absence of the velvety creaminess typically associated with ice cream.
NO – if you expect ice cream. This is not even close.
Enjoy!
Keto Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 300 g cottage cheese - full-fat
- 35 g allulose (Allulose Plus U.S. option HERE)
- ½ tsp pure stevia powder (U.S. option HERE)
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract (U.S. option HERE)
- ½ tsp mint extract (U.S. option HERE)
- 30 g keto chocolate chips ( U.S. option HERE)
optional
- green food colouring (U.S. option HERE)
- chocolate sauce - easy recipe HERE
Instructions
- blend cottage cheese until lump-free; a mini blender works best.300 g cottage cheese
- add sweeteners, extracts, and colouring (if using), blending again until creamy smooth.35 g allulose, ½ tsp pure stevia powder, ¼ tsp vanilla extract, ½ tsp mint extract, green food colouring
- chop chocolate into shards and stir them in.30 g keto chocolate chips
- transfer the mixture to a Pyrex jug or similar and place it in the freezer.
- after 2 hours, use an electric whisk to whip up the mixture and distribute the chocolate shards evenly.
- pour into your final container or individual moulds.
- freeze for another 1-2 hours until set but soft enough to scoop.
- (optional) serve with a drizzle of chocolate sauce (recipe HERE)
Notes
Leaving it longer-term in the freezer will create a solid mass that won’t thaw well. For accuracy, use Metric Food Scales: Kitchen Scales UK Kitchen Scales U.S.
Nutrition
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An effortless frozen dessert that you can whip up quickly with just a few basic ingredients.