Sugar-Free Vanilla Ice Cream (Ninja Creami, Lite Ice Cream Program)

Sugar does two jobs in ice cream, sweetness and softness, and removing it means replacing both. This base uses a quarter cup of allulose, which lowers the freezing point almost as well as sugar, half a cup of heavy cream for enough fat to carry the vanilla, and a tablespoon of sugar-free instant pudding mix whose starch and gums hold water in place. We tested it on the Ninja Creami NC351 in a 16 oz pint frozen 24 hours at 0 F; Lite Ice Cream left a powdery top and one 70 second re-spin took it to a creamy scoop. Each serving is an estimated 125 kcal, 1 g protein, 3 g carbs and 12 g fat.

Tested recipe

Sugar-Free Vanilla Ice Cream

A low-carb vanilla ice cream sweetened with allulose and stabilised with sugar-free pudding mix, at about 125 kcal and 3 g carbs per serving.

Lite Ice CreamNC3511 re-spin

Prep

5 min

Freeze

24 h

Process

4 min

Total

24 h 9 min

Servings

4 per pint

16 oz pint24 oz XL tub

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (300 g) unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream
• 1/4 cup (50 g) allulose
• 1 tbsp (8 g) sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 tsp (8 g) vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp fine salt

Equipment

• Ninja Creami NC351
• 16 oz Creami pint

Method

1. Whisk the pudding mix and allulose together in a bowl so the powder does not clump.
2. Pour in the almond milk and whisk for 30 seconds until the allulose dissolves.
3. Whisk in the heavy cream, vanilla and salt.
4. Pour the base into the pint, stopping at the max fill line.
5. Lid the pint and freeze it for 24 hours on a level surface.
6. Lock the frozen pint into the outer bowl, fit it to the machine and press Lite Ice Cream.
7. Press Re-spin once; the top will be powdery after the first spin.
8. Scoop, or level the surface, lid and refreeze.

Nutrition per serving (estimated)

Calories

125 kcal

Protein

1 g

Carbs

3 g

Fat

12 g

Program: Lite Ice Cream · Tested on NC351 · By Mike Lala

Tips

• Freeze the pint level. Low-sugar bases freeze harder than sugared ones, and a sloped top on this pint left a thick side the paddle only half processed in our tilted test; the flat pint processed evenly.
• Expect one re-spin and do not add liquid before it. The first Lite Ice Cream pass on the NC351 looks like coarse snow on top; press Re-spin once and it comes together. Only if a second re-spin is needed should you add 1 tbsp of almond milk first, as described in the re-spin guide.
• Let the pint rest on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes before processing if your freezer runs below 0 F. This base is the hardest-freezing one we make, and a short rest cut the re-spin count in our colder chest freezer from two to one.
• Whisk the pudding mix with the allulose before any liquid goes in. Pudding mix dropped straight into almond milk formed gel lumps that froze into chewy spots.
• Use heavy cream with at least 36 percent fat. Light cream or half and half dropped the fat too low and the pint stayed crumbly after two re-spins.

Variations

• Sugar-free chocolate: whisk 2 tbsp (12 g) of unsweetened cocoa into the dry mix and raise the allulose to 1/3 cup (67 g).
• Cinnamon vanilla: add 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon to the dry mix for a version that pairs with our pumpkin spice ice cream in autumn.
• Higher protein: replace the pudding mix with 1 scoop (30 g) of vanilla whey isolate and process it the way we do our vanilla protein ice cream.

Storage and refreeze

Flatten the remaining ice cream with a spoon, press the lid on and put the pint back on a level shelf at 0 F for a full 24 hours. A refrozen sugar-free pint freezes harder than the first time because some of the air from processing escapes, so plan on the Lite Ice Cream program plus one re-spin again, and keep a tablespoon of almond milk ready in case a second re-spin is needed. We took the test pint through three refreezes over a week; the texture score stayed at 4 after the re-spin each time, and the pudding mix kept ice crystals from forming. Keep a spare pint or two in rotation so one is always frozen; the pints page covers the 2-pack and 4-pack that fit the NC351.

The model and pints we used

We made this in the original 16 oz pints shipped with the NC351, which also fit the NC301 and NC299AMZ but not the Deluxe or Scoop and Swirl machines. The NC351 measured 82 dB at 1 m, the quietest of the machines we have tested. The fat, sweetener and stabiliser targets behind the recipe are in the base ratios cheat sheet. The rest of our low-carb recipes are in the keto hub, and the lower-calorie bases live in the lite hub.

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