The primary ingredient in our Keto ice creams is pure heavy cream from Sunrise Dairy in Crossville, TN, just like our traditional ice creams! Heavy cream is high in fat and low in carbs, and the small amount of natural sugars (lactose) in the cream comprise the total sugar content of the finished ice cream (except in the case of flavors such as Strawberry Sweet Cream with naturally occurring sugars).

We use 3 primary sweeteners and 2 high-intensity sweeteners to give our Keto ice cream not only the sweetness you expect from dessert, but also the soft, creamy, and chewy texture you normally only get from premium, sugar-sweetened ice cream. Erythritol and xylitol, both sugar alcohols, do most of the work. We use only a small amount of xylitol as it is the most likely sugar alcohol to cause gastrointestinal distress. Next is allulose, a “rare sugar” that occurs naturally in fruits such as figs. This sweetener is not a sugar alcohol, but is processed in a similar manner by the body: it is not metabolized and the majority of it is excreted out of the body. These 3 sweeteners can be subtracted from the total carbs when calculating the “net carbs” of the ice cream. Finally, we use two high intensity, natural sweeteners to kick up the sweetness where the sugar alcohols fall short: stevia extract and monk fruit extract.

The major downside to cutting out all dairy except cream in order to nearly eliminate the presence of high-carb lactose is that the ice cream is lacking in the “solids” department. Solids (primarily the lactose, milk proteins, and other solid matter found in milk) play many roles in ice cream: keeping the ice cream from being “icy”, lowering the freezing point so the ice cream is still soft in the freezer, providing mouthfeel (chewiness, creaminess, etc.), and so on. We replace many of these solids using two ingredients referred to in the frozen dessert business as “bulking agents” (they “bulk up” the solids): inulin fiber, extracted from the agave plant, and whey protein isolate, which is the whey protein found in milk stripped down to its essentials, eliminating the lactose and most of the moisture. Inulin fiber constitutes the fiber listed on the nutritional facts and can be subtracted from the total carbs when figuring the “net carbs” of the ice cream.

Stabilizers in ice cream are necessary for many reasons, primarily reducing the size of ice crystals in the ice cream so you don’t perceive any “grit” in your mouth, and to slow the melting process once the product is exposed to room temperatures. Emulsifiers primarily help to keep the fat and water in the ice cream mixed (or “emulsified”) and to help ensure good air content in the ice cream, the reason why ice cream is light and fluffy instead of thick. We use two natural stabilizers: xanthan gum and carrageenan (derived from seaweed), and one natural emulsifier: sunflower lecithin (derived from sunflowers).