Low Carb Indulgence

I got two pounds of xylitol at the beginning of June, and I've been having fun playing with it to see how best to use it.  It's pretty neat, in that it can be measured cup for cup with regular sugar, and it has a lot of the same properties as sugar, too.  As with most sugar alcohols, you have to be careful with how much you eat or you could get an upset stomach, but the threshold is mush higher for xylitol.  Plus, xylitol is actually good for tooth health.

One of my favorite uses for it so far has been ice cream.  Yes, ice cream.  You can go buy CarbSmart low carb ice cream from Breyers if you're really craving it, but I always feel weird about the ten mile long ingredient list it sports, and your only choices for flavor are chocolate and vanilla.

I actually have been making ice cream for a while.  I have a nice KitchenAid mixer, and bought an ice cream maker attachment for it.  It works very well.  But when we went low carb, that seemed pretty much out of the question.  You may be asking, why didn't I just replace the sugar with stevia or something similar.  Well, that's simple.  The thing that makes ice cream soft and creamy is.... sugar.  Without sugar, your ice cream turns into ice, and no one likes rock hard ice cream.

However, as I said earlier, xylitol has many of the same properties as sugar, so I knew I wanted to try using it for ice cream at least once!

I ended up using this recipe from Food.com.  And it was delicious!!  If no one told you, you'd think it was normal sugary ice cream.

While I still had ice cream, I also decided to try a chocolate sauce recipe with xylitol.  Chocolate is a finicky creature.  It's very hard to do sugar free chocolate unless you use a sugar alcohol to sweeten it.  Stevia and Splenda both make chocolate taste incredibly bitter no matter how much sweetener you add.  I've had a recipe on hand for a while that I've been meaning to use.  I'd like to link to it, but I can't find the link anywhere, so here instead is the recipe!  If anyone can figure out where this recipe is from, let me know and I'll put it up here.

Sugar Free Chocolate Sauce
3 oz unsweetened chocolate (not cocoa powder)
2 tsp butter
1/2 c cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp xilitol
Pinch stevia
4-6 tsp water

Powder xylitol with stevia in food processor.  Melt chocolate and butter in double broiler, stirring until smooth.  Stir in cream and sweetener slowly, and whisk until smooth.  Remove from heat and add vanilla, and enough water for the right consistency.  Pour into container and store in the fridge.

OMG, I have to tell you that the chocolate sauce is soooo good.  It will be runny at first, but once you stick it in the fridge, it thickens up nicely.  I'm thinking about altering the recipe to make it into fudge.  Maybe remove the water and reduce the cream just a little.

And together?  Now that's heaven.