Although I skipped the corn starch and corn syrup to keep this sugar and grain free, the ice cream still churned beautifully, making that creamy Philly style type ice cream Jeni’s Ice Cream is so famous for.

I replaced the sugar with Swerve (use the Allulose blend if you can) and wild blueberries, Orange Oil Extract and Lavender Essential Oil. Be very cautious with lavender oil. One drop was all I needed, even if her original recipe says two drops.

Keto Wild Berry Lavender Ice Cream is Philly Style

Her ice creams are made Philly style which means cream cheese based and not custard based (using eggs). I like this style a lot. It tastes fresher, cleaner to me and is incredibly creamy. There is xanthan gum in cream cheese which helps to hold the ice cream together.

As Jeni says in her book, her recipes are flavor driven as much as they are about consistency and texture. The first thing people are usually attracted to are her unique flavors; but they leave talking about how well balanced the ice cream is.

Keto Wild Berry Ice Cream Recipe

I am so happy to have my very own sugar-free version that doesn’t feel like a compromise. This lavender blueberry ice cream high in fat, and I’m not going to lie about that, but it’s low in carbs and a keto friendly ice cream. I’ve put it in small jars, which I can freeze for portioned out servings.

You could play with this recipe by using different berries, or skipping the lavender and orange.  I use this ice cream machine.

More Keto Recipes from Spinach Tiger

• Lemon Budino
• Maple Pecan Cheesecake Bars
• Lemon Bundt Cake
• Lemon Budino
• Lemon Ice Muffins
• Blueberry Lemon Muffins
• Lemon Tart

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Wild Berry Lavender Ice Cream (Keto Friendly) Sugar Free

Wild Berry Lavender Ice Cream inspired by Jeni’s Ice Cream, sugar free, low-carb.

Course Ice Cream

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 cup wild blueberries see notes
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons swerve
• 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum Order xanthan gum here.
• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk I use lower carb Fairlife
• 1/2 cup Granulated Swerve see notes
• 1 drop Lavender Essential Oil
• 1/4 teaspoon Orange Extract See Notes

Instructions

• Make a blueberry compote by bringing the blueberries, 1/4 cup water and two tablespoons granulated swerve to a boil.
• Simmer for a few minutes.
• Another option is to put frozen blueberries in Vitamix, when you’re ready to mix the milk, cream and cream cheese and not use compote.
• Mix two tablespoons milk with cream cheese, salt, xanthan gum until well-incorporated. I use a blender.
• Heat 1/14 heavy cream, remaining milk, 1/2 cup granulated swerve until you reach a boil. Reduce heat, continue to boil for 4 minutes.
• Remove from heat, pour into cream cheese mixture.
• At this time, add either blueberry compote or frozen blueberries.
• I like to use a Vitamix and mix the berries completely to have a smooth mixture.
• Put in a stainless bowl over a big bowl of ice to bring an immediate chill. If you put in a plastic bag, the ice cream will get cold enough to churn right away.
• You can also refrigerate overnight.
• Take through ice cream machine for about twenty minutes..
• The ice cream will will take form, but still be a little soft.
• Pack in container with parchment or plastic wrap pressed against it and freeze for four hours.
• Enjoy.

Notes

Regarding Sweetener: I recommend for ice cream using allulose blend because it doesn’t crystalize.

1/4 teaspoon Orange extract or just a few drops of Orange Oil Extract.

The post Keto Wild Berry Lavender Ice Cream Recipe (Jeni’s Inspired) appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

As Fall is just waiting in the woods (I hope) my heart went right to pears. September is a favorite month around here because it gets cooler (a little) and I want to nest and have friends to come over for dinner. This five star makeover is an appetizer pizza that will make any dinner party just a little more elegant but not in any pretentious way. After all, it’s still pizza. Served with a starter white wine, it goes well before almost any main dish.

I don’t have a great story today, except to tell you that the ingredients were free. I won a $100 gift certificate at our local Whole Foods with this recipe I submitted for peach clafoutis. Part of my splurge included the fig jam, fresh mozzarella, pears and a very sharp Inverness cheddar cheese. I purchased these items to eat separately and this pizza was only made by default. It was not my original intention but it was nearly addictive and we made it two days in a row. That right there made it push the broccoli rabe pizza over (for another day) and become the five star entry.

Fig jam mixed with a bit of olive oil to spread on dough.

Pears Love Cheese. The cheddar cheese proved outstanding, but you could easily use a manchego, brie, goat or a blue cheese. And, as an afterthought, some finely chopped walnuts would work well also.

I used a mandolin to slice the pears very thin and evenly. I went back and forth deciding the order of the ingredients and put the fig jam (mixed with olive oil) first followed by pears, then cheese, then a little more fig jam and the salt. When it comes out of the oven, follow up with black pepper and fresh thyme.

Tell me, what is your favorite non-red sauce pizza?

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Do you have friends that you connect with on and off and somehow, even when you haven’t seen them for a while, (maybe a year or ten), you can just pick right back up?  And, then you wonder why you don’t see them more often? I have lots of these kinds of friends, some living in other states, and some right here not too far away, and it always makes me happy to reconnect with them, especially if it involves food.

Friendship is very complicated and this holds true the older I get. I have a friend who meant a lot to me and something happened between us that wasn’t our doing. We believed in something together and that something wasn’t what we thought it was. Our friendship had lots of commonality that I wish we could have stuck to, such as eating healthy food, our mutual love of the colors white and sea glass and the near neurotic need to have things at home in order. We both frazzle quite easily when things are cluttered and we don’t react well when people hurt us. We tend to retreat.

Many times during the last few years, we have tried to get together and it seems that one thing or another kept getting in the way. I wish we could have easily gone back to the first time we had dinner at my house. I served meatloaf. Meatloaf! Who serves meatloaf to company? But we ate in the kitchen and it was good, comfy meal that started a good, comfy friendship.

Last week I had heard my friend was moving out of state, going off to a new life, new journey with her husband and children, and I thought “I wish I could say goodbye” but she was leaving in a few days and probably too busy. To my surprise she followed me on twitter (my friends don’t usually do that) and I got a chance to wish her well in 144 characters or less.

She called the next day to say goodbye and asked me if I wanted her stash of frozen blackberries. By stash, she meant 10 large bags. Blackberries are special, and she could have offered them to anyone, but she chose me, and I’m guessing it’s because she knew they would mean something.

Not only did I feel a sudden joy to get those blackberries, I couldn’t wait to drive over and give her a real hug goodbye. We talked about blogging, her gorgeous daughters, her excitement that the house she is moving into has a real vegetable garden and we exchanged recipes. She turned me on to a platform I knew nothing about, Pinterest, a place to catalog your favorite things on the web, like white rooms and Spinach Tiger recipes.

The hand-picked blackberries were more than blackberries to me. It is now warmly established that I will remember her every time I do anything with this fruit. . As soon as I got in the door, I began to get out large pots and make blackberry syrup. Not having a real recipe, I instinctively threw in a cinnamon stick, sugar, some white wine and a little lemon. It’s a taste as you go kind of recipe that I can perfect with the next batch, but I have written out a guideline.

Blackberry juice is a dark stain. It’s gets all over things. It’s rich, vibrant and sexy. It lets you know it’s in the kitchen. And, it can take you lots of places. I made sorbet, sangria, salad dressing, and glazed watermelon, all at once, not only wanting to have some fun, but also to not waste anything my friend had hand picked.

How I ever got to making watermelon skewers on the grill glazed with blackberry syrup and sprinkled with lavender salt is as much mystery to me as the invention of chocolate and chile. Sometimes it just finds itself. I’ve always thought watermelon to be a perfect food that couldn’t be improved upon, but I must take that back.

It loves the glaze of blackberry syrup, and when it’s grilled, the flavors are enhanced. Lavender is tricky because it can turn into perfume. Restraint is a key word, but the sea salt brings a perfect balance to the sweetness of the syrup, the juiciness of the watermelon and the fragrance of the lavender. A smattering of freshly ground black pepper does not hurt this dish either. And, that is up to you.

If you don’t have blackberries or time to make a syrup, you can use raspberries, blueberries or even a melted down jelly or jam. You can use a regular sea salt or make your own lavender sea salt. Just be sure to use restraint with the lavender. It should be just a hint.

As far as picnic food, you can eat the melon right off the grill, or grilled and then chilled and taken along as a surprise remake of an old outdoor favorite food.

The way to truly enjoy this (almost meaty) rendition of watermelon is with a protein. For the gourmet picnic, I would pair it with prosciutto. Serve with blackberry sangria, (recipe to follow).

So tell me, what do YOU like to take on a picnic?

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Glazed Blackberry Watermelon with Lavender Sea Salt on the Grill Makes a PIcnic More than Gourmet

Grilled Watermelon with blackberry syrup, lavender sea salt perks up any cookout.

Course Dessert

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• Watermelon
• Blackberry syrup see below (or use blackberry jelly)
• Lavender sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper optional

Instructions

• Cut watermelon in to cubes
• Soak wooden skewers for 30 minutes so they don’t burn
• Place cubes on skewers. Brush with syrup.
• Grill a few minutes on high on each side. Sprinkle mildly with the sea salt.
• Cut watermelon in to cubes
• Soak wooden skewers for 30 minutes so they don’t burn
• Place cubes on skewers. Brush with syrup.
• Grill a few minutes on high on each side. Sprinkle mildly with the sea salt.

Blackberry Syrup

• 4 cups frozen blackberries (can use fresh)
• Enough water to cover just to cover
• Cinnamon stick
• Sugar to taste (1-2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons triple sec (optional)

1. Heat blackberries at a medium heat until sugar is melted and liquid is reduced
2. Take berries through a sieve to prevent seeding. Don’t force, but allow to sit over a bowl in a sieve or cheesecloth for an hour. Then gently crush through.

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