Love is... making Faux-lo Top v. 2.2 (Updated base recipe)

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I started trying - and failing - to make low-calorie frozen desserts long before I learned of Halo Top. In fact, my first attempts predate the company, though it wasn't until last summer (cottage cheese in everything!) that I took Icey out of retirement. It was a circuitous route laced with instant pudding mix, more vodka, a brief foray into Greek yogurt (why did I drop it from my recipe? who knows)... Even when I did a) learn about Halo Top and b) locate some within a 30-mile range of our house, I somehow only thought to Google recipes… last week. I'm slow sometimes. And then I found this post by Halo Top on Reddit.

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Armed with the knowledge and ingredients amassed over the past year, an empty carton of HT vanilla, I set out to try to match current HT ingredients, macros, and experience as closely as possible. Why? I’m happy with my Alternative Ice Cream and Ice Milk nonsense. I’m moving away from dairy. I like my volume. I'd rather have more room calorie-wise for add-ins. But, see, I created a Halo Top addict who does not care for my usual stuff, and his stash was running out. I had a lot of fun trying to make more “normal” low-calorie ice cream and fastidiously matching macros, guessing ingredients… I’m not saying I replicated their recipe (I have some hunches as to how HT differs), but I achieved the most important result: consumer acceptance. Specifically, he said “this could pass for store-bought”. Highest praise, amirite?

If you want more details on the process that got me to this recipe, and where it could go next, I'm happy to share my think-aloud protocol and messy notes. Most of you probably just want the recipe.

Thanks, Halo Top, for sharing a recipe for us hillbillies who don’t really feel like shlepping to civilization with a cooler to buy $60 worth of ice cream every week. And who like to play with flavors.

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This is 1.5 servings (so 360 calories) because I'm so used to making 2 x 1 pint servings of the cashew milk stuff. Oops.

Close Enough to Halo Top v. 2.2 (Updated 12/6)

Makes: 3 servings, just under 240 calories each

Dry ingredients

• 60g erythritol

• 40g polydextrose (PolyD)

• 14g "real" sugar*

• 3 packets Stevia in the Raw*

• 1 T sucralose (optional)

• 5g micellar casein powder (unflavored)*

• 1/4 t to 1/2 t guar and xanthan gum blend (80:20 ratio is perfect)*

• Pinch salt

Wet ingredients

• 2 large egg yolks, lightly beate

• 366g (1.5 cup) skim milk

• 227 g 2% fat cottage cheese*

• 76 g part skim ricotta cheese*

• 15 g (1T) vegetable glycerin

• 2 ½ t vanilla extract (YMMV, I was using artificial white)

• This round’s flavor twist: 2 T decaf instant coffee (start with 1T, can get bitter quickly), 1 t coffee extract

• The instant coffee can also be mixed into your dry ingredients. Either way, it'll ultimately dissolve.

Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

In a small saucepan, begin heating the milk up to room temperature. Whisk in the dry ingredients throughly (the polyD can get clumpy until it has had a chance to dissolve fully) and let the temperature continue to rise until about 105F

While this is heating up, prepare the wet ingredients:

- Briefly whisk the yolks together in a small bowl (say, the one that just now housed your dry ingredients)

- Pop all the other wet ingredients (except flavorings you're likely to want to adjust to taste) into the blender. Blend until combined.

When the mixture reaches about 105F, temper the yolks (if you’re cautious like me) and add to the milk base. Continue heating, whisking continuously, until the mixture reaches about 175F, or coats the back of a spoon (whoa, when’s the last time I did this!)

Pour or (optionally, if you weren't so good about the whole continuous whisking) strain the cooked milk and eggs into the cheese mixture sitting in your blender. I suppose you could use an ice bath to shock the "custard" before adding it to the blender, but quickly adding it to the cold-ish cheese seems to suffice. Blend everything together, adjust extracts and sweetness, and chill overnight. Also chill any chunks or inclusions you might fancy.

Churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Add any chilled inclusions/chunks toward the end of churning. If you are used to making full-fat, full-sugar bases, note that this will probably seem to churn a bit quicker. (If It's churning too quickly to achieve a desirable texture, you can intervene to artificially draw the process out once you get the hang of things.)

Pop in the freezer to ripen, and enjoy in a few hours. If I have some sort of sauce or puree to add in in swirls, I do so roughly one hour after churning (usually, three alternating layers).

I typically let this base ripen in my cooler freezer (-10 to -13F range) and move it to the warmer one (about 10F) a few hours before serving. It stays in that warm spot and gets eaten over the course of three days.If you're not going to eat this in a few days, you may want to store in a cooler location to avoid the ice crystals running amok.

At -10F, this base is scoopable but a bit too firm for spooning directly into one’s mouth straight from the container (let's not kid ourselves here). It is perfect for serving, even a bit soft, at10F. What temperatures are your freezers, people, that I might have a feel for what others will likely experience if they try this?

Notes on ingredients/subs

• Casein: Skim milk powder substituted for this worked out OK, but you're missing out on casein's extra creaminess

• If all you have is whey, don't cook it! Blend it into the wet ingredients instead. But again, see above. You're missing out.

• Sugar: I've used between 12-20g of white or brown sugar here, 14 is my default

• Stevia: 4 packets and no sucralose would work, but combining multiple kinds of sweetener tends to yield more natural-tasting results. If using another brand that blends it with erythritol (Truvia), weigh these out with the erythritol

• Gums: My preference is for the higher value, my taster prefers less stabiliser. Try with 1/4 t first.

• Eggs: Can use a third egg for a richer base with no changes to overall recipe needed

• Version 2.1 reserved the egg whites and whipped them raw with some cream of tartar to fold into the chilled base immediately before churning. I wanted to increase my chances of obtaining and preserving more decent overrun but I'm honestly not sure it made a perceptible difference. I find these whites serve a better purpose in my oat cakes, so that's where they have been re-routed

• Cheeses: You can get away with 300 or so g of cottage cheese and no ricotta in a pinch, especially if you're using three yolks. However, note that ricotta is primarily whey-based whereas cottage cheese has a higher casein content. Playing with pure protein powders of these respective types has given me some hints of their very different behaviors, so I suspect you'll prefer the texture with a combination.

#sweet #icecream