Cashew Ice Milk v.3.1 with Whey Protein

There is such a thing as too much volume, it seems. This was a single serving of the cashew milk base with aquafaba, to which I added 15g of whey protein isolate to the cooled liquids at the end*. Vegans, I'm sorry: I have yet to try a vegan protein powder that is almost 100% protein and dissolves well - as soon as I find one that I can try and recommend, I will happily make the switch. If you're doing the math in your head, this makes a serving of this ice milk equivalent to Arctic Zero in terms of absolute calorie count, with slightly more protein (an extra 3.8g for the whole pint) and lots more fiber.

Except the result is more than one pint... Prior to churning, this had approximately the same volume as a serving of the same base sans protein. I divided the aquafaba between these two batches as evenly as possible, so that's not it either. However, as I churned it, some sort of sorcery happened.

This is half of the resulting ice cream (so, a half-serving, running about 70 calories).

The full amount fits in the container on the right. Filled to the brim as it was (minus the gaps), this is about 4 cups of ice cream. The cute serving on the left? That is about half of that container -- slightly less than a full serving of the non-protein enhanced version of this base. I am somewhat unclear about what about whey protein would dramatically increase overrun like this, but this is just too fluffy for my taste. As you might expect, it melts quickly as well. I'll be trying this again without, and with 50% the original amount, of aquafaba to see where we stand.

* In an attempt to replicate this with less volume, I was impatient and did not wait for the hot "milk" base to cool sufficiently before adding the whey protein. It curdled into so many tiny grains and could not be blended smooth again.

#sweet #alternativefoods #icecream #portioncontrol