This keto ice cream recipe has a rich vanilla flavor and a super smooth, creamy consistency. It’s easy to make and stays soft and scoopable in the freezer. It’s the sugar-free ice cream of your dreams!
Well it’s about time I updated this recipe for keto ice cream. It’s one of my all-time favorites and it always gets rave reviews.
Don’t panic, though. I didn’t change the recipe itself, since it’s absolute perfection as it is (she says humbly). I’ve been making this delicious low carb vanilla ice cream recipe the exact same way for over 10 years now. And I make a batch every few weeks so that I have it on hand when I want it. It’s absolutely sublime with some Keto Caramel Sauce drizzled over it.
But I truly want everyone to get the best out of my recipes. With that in mind, I have updated the helpful information and added tips in this article. Because you deserve to have the creamiest, dreamiest sugar free vanilla ice cream in your freezer too!
Why you will love this recipe
Prepare to be AMAZED! This is no ordinary keto ice cream recipe. Oh no, my friends, not at all.
This ice cream has magical properties and should not be underestimated. Sure, it looks like regular vanilla ice cream and tastes like regular vanilla ice cream. It even behaves like regular vanilla ice cream.
And that, my dear readers, is exactly the point. It has the truly astonishing property of staying soft and scoopable, even after several days in the freezer. And it’s entirely egg-free and has no added sugars, which makes it all the more astonishing.
If you’ve ever made your own sugar-free ice cream at home, you know that this is no small feat!
Why it works
The magic of this stay-soft keto ice cream comes down to a few little tricks.
The first is using my keto condensed milk as the ice cream base, which contains a mix of both allulose and erythritol. These sweeteners have a symbiotic relationship, with each one making up for what the other lacks. If you’ve ever made ice cream with just erythritol, you know how rock hard it gets in the freezer. I’ve tried doing just allulose but then it never firms up at all and stays like soft serve. Together, they are perfect.
The condensed milk also contains a little bit of xanthan gum. Xanthan is often in commercial ice creams because it inhibits recrystallization, so the ice cream doesn’t get icy.
This sugar free ice cream recipe also contains a touch of alcohol. This raises the freezing point of liquids so it also reduces iciness. It is not enough to affect even a child (yes, I do feed my kids this ice cream), as it amounts to about half a teaspoon per serving. That said, the choice to include it is up to you.
Reader Reviews
“Best ice cream EVER. Have made it numerous times and it turns out perfect and delicious. Thanks, Carolyn!” — Anna
“I have tried several vanilla ice cream recipes and haven’t been pleased. This one is delicious. The salted caramel recipe was also delicious. I can’t wait to try all the other flavors that she has created.” — Becky
“Once again, you’ve hit the mark. I used your adaptation to make your Browned Butter ice cream and the result was exactly as you said. Thanks for continuing to work on Keto everything.” — NK
Ingredients needed
- Sugar Free Condensed Milk: You will need to make my recipe for sugar free condensed milk prior to making this ice cream.
- Heavy cream: If you want to lighten the ice cream a little, you can replace half of the cream with nut milk or other low carb milk.
- Additional sweetener: Using a powdered sweetener avoids any grittiness in the ice cream.
- Vodka: This is optional, but it does help reduce iciness from occurring. Don’t worry, it only amounts to about 1/2 teaspoon per serving
- Pantry staples: Vanilla extract and salt.
Step-by-step directions
1. Prepare the condensed milk: Make the sugar-free condensed milk according to the directions and let cool to room temperature.
2. Add the remaining ingredients: Whisk in the heavy cream, powdered sweetener, vodka, vanilla extract, and salt.
3. Taste test: Taste the mixture and adjust sweetener to taste. You can use additional Bocha Sweet or allulose here but because it’s granular, you will need to whisk for a while to dissolve it properly.
4. Refrigerate and churn: Chill the mixture at least one hour and up to overnight, then pour into the canister of an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s directions.
5. Freeze: Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.
Tips for Success
I highly recommend churning this in a proper ice cream maker like this Cuisinart model. I had one for years and it always worked well for me (I now have a larger compressor-style model). Don’t forget to freeze the canister for at least 12 hours before you churn!
The ratio of sweeteners is very important. Too much erythritol and it is less scoopable. Too much allulose and it becomes so soft, it takes days to firm up properly. It also melts very quickly when out of the freezer.
If you can’t access allulose, try using xylitol. Just remember that it is toxic to dogs so keep it away from your pets.
No ice cream maker?
Don’t want to purchase yet another piece of kitchen equipment? You can still make this recipe. While churned recipes have better texture, I also have plenty of experience with no churn keto ice cream. It’s a relatively simple adaptation.
To make this keto ice cream without an ice cream maker:
- Make the condensed milk as directed. Let cool to room temp and then whisk in the vodka and salt.
- Whip the heavy cream with the powdered sweetener and vanilla extract until it holds stiff peaks.
- Pour in the condensed milk and fold these two together until no streaks remain.
- Transfer to a container and freeze at least 6 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
This keto vanilla ice cream recipe has 2.4g of carbs and 0g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.4g net carbs per serving.
Once your ice cream has set, store it in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Unfortunately, I have not had much luck making this with ingredients like coconut milk or coconut cream. It always freezes harder and has a more icy texture. So I do not have a good dairy-free equivalent.
More delicious low carb ice cream recipes!
- Keto Strawberry Ice Cream
- No Churn Coffee Ice Cream
- Keto Chocolate Ice Cream
- Maple Walnut Ice Cream
- Jamoca Almond Fudge Ice Cream
Keto Ice Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Sugar-Free Condensed Milk
- 1 1/2 cups (354.88 ml) heavy cream, (can replace half of the cream with nut milk, coconut milk, etc.)
- 3 tbsp (45.65 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 1/2 tbsp (22.5 ml) vodka, (optional, helps reduce iciness)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Make the sweetened condensed milk according to the directions and let cool to room temperature.
- Whisk in the heavy cream, powdered sweetener, vodka, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Taste the mixture and adjust sweetener to taste. **You can use additional allulose here but because it's granular, you will need to whisk for a while to dissolve it properly.
- Chill the mixture at least one hour and up to overnight, then pour into the canister of an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer's directions.
- Once it reaches soft-serve consistency, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Hello Carolyn,
Also can you please maybe post a protein powder ice cream recipe?
Thank you so much!
Hello Carolyn,
I am loving your blog. However, I am not eating heavy cream, I am on a low fat, low carb, no sugar diet. Can I use a replacement for the heavy cream? Fat free greek yogurt, fat free quark, cottage cheese, just milk, gelatin, or even maybe egg whites? Do you think it would work?
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Hi Jessica…you may certainly try but you will find that it freezes very hard. I am on a low carb, high fat diet, so those are the recipes I create.
Phooey! Went back & forth copying the recipe and going to the condensed milk site, looking forward to making this wonderful recipe.
Bummer, I don’t have an ice cream maker:( Guess I didn’t read the instructions very well. Tempted to try it in freezer bowls anyway.
Give it a try. I know many people who make ice cream without a maker, you just have to prepared to stir a lot during the freezing process.
There instructions on YouTube showing how to make ice cream with bags of salt.
I make a lot of ice-cream too and came across your website looking for low-carb ideas. The reason why this recipe stays soft is because you put vodka in it. We always put a couple of caps of a suitable alcohol into our ice-cream so that we can dish it up. For instance, in chocolate icecream we usually put a bit of coffee liqueur. Alcohol has a higher freezing temperature than the other ingredients which is why it helps. Happy ice-cream eating!
THANK YOU! Finally finally finally found a sugar-free ice cream recipe that is made for someone like me. Type 2 for the past 2 years; struggling to stay with low-carb eating—but when I do eat right, my glucose and cholesterol and weight fall right into line. Unfortunately, can’t stand the taste of eggs so right there, any recipe with a significant portion of egg is not for me, and low-carb recipes are often dependent on eggs. Here, you’ve created ice cream that is NOT eggally-dependent, and which DOES use dairy, which I am able to enjoy since I am not following paleo. Now if you would only move into my neighborhood and set up a home-chef business :- )
Thank you for this, I can’t stand eggs or anything made with them, including french vanilla ice cream! I made this and like someone else mentioned, it had a very thick, chewy texture. I used plain eurythritol (never heard of Swerve), and followed the recipe exactly. After chilling but before churning, it was solid and gooey, halfway between custard and a can of regular condensed milk – no, I know, it was the texture of soft, triple cream Brie. My thought was “way too much xanthan gum”. I was also concerned about the 2 cups of cream (vs half cream, half milk in traditional recipes) but went with it. I also thought it was too sweet. I thought it might be too thick for my machine, but it did manage to churn for the full 20 minute program at which point, it was not frozen in the least. I just put it in the freezer along with about a third of the recipe that had not fit in the machine. Both of these had the exact same scoopability when frozen, but had that too thick, chewy texture. Even as it warmed up on our pecan pie, it never melted but was like eating spoonfuls of Brie. The flavor was delicious, the vodka not detectable at all, and it had no grittiness but it did have the characteristic “cool-water” mouthfeel of eurythritol. For my next try (I WILL be working with this recipe as I too have been plagued with rock-hard sugar-free ice cream attempts), here is what I will change: will make the “condensed milk” per that recipe but in the actual ice cream recipe, will change the two cups of heavy cream to 1 C cream, 1 C milk, leave out the 1/2 C eurythritol completely (I prefer less sweet and the condensed milk is already so sweet), and reduce the xanthan gum to 1/4 tsp. I’ll try to remember to update my outcome with these changes.
Somebody help! Whew! My low carb sweetened condensed milk is so so sweet it blows the top of my head off. Did I do something wrong? Cooked too long or too fast? It did more than simmer a bit. I’m new at this. I shudder at the thought of adding another 1/2 C to the ice cream itself. Do I need to add it? Pleasantly sweet is excellent, but I’m afraid this will ruin my batch. Freezing? Will it freeze harder? Should I freeze in cupcake papers?
Help! How long can I wait for an answer? LOL
I forgot to mark notify me. So I resubmitted. Sorry.
I responded, hope you see it!
I don’t know if you did something wrong but the sweetened condensed milk is not usually that sweet. So something got messed up. I would make up the ice cream mixture without any additional sweetener and then taste it and see what you think. It won’t affect the freezing process.
Thanks so much for the response. That’s what I did and I was so concerned about this problem that I then forgot the Xanthan gum (heavy sign) and decided to add blueberries. It’s purple, and gooy. And in the freezer. Will let you know. This cooking stuff is harder than one would think. You’re my hero (ine)
Yay!!! It worked beautifully even with my mistakes and addition of blueberries! I was doubtful of the sweetness, the artificial sugar aftertaste, & whether I had ruined it by allowing the sweetened cream to boil a bit. At two hours in the freezer I was still skeptical. It was still very gooy in the Center but was a bit hopeful because it was freezing around the edge. After 4 hours in the freezer, it was scoopable, creamy, not grainy at all and no aftertaste. Perfect after dinner dessert! I’m so excited! Thank you Carolyn! The only difficult part was standing at the stove for an hour and a half to stir. I wonder if those little stirrer thingies that you can set in the pot really work. Alas, I think it would have overflowed if left unattended. I must get better at simmering. LOL thanks again
So glad it worked out!
Even my husband liked it. He’s a carb freak and eats minimal sf items. He did say it was very sweet. It far more positive assessment than the first vanilla IC I made. It was rather bland and extremely hard. Impossible to scoop. Couldn’t resist a 2nd bowl late last night. Ouch all those fat calories from the cream. It was firm frozen within 6 hrs but still scoopable. Last questions:
1. any idea what the nutrition numbers are for the fat content and protein per 1/2 cup serving? I know cream is 50 calories per 2 tablespoons. Ouch! You did list the carb count at almost 4.75 mg.
2. if I added DaVinci sf flavouring will that change the freezability since it would add liquid?
3. what about dry sf jello sprinkled in? Or cookie chunks?
4. Can the vodka listed as 2T in other recipes be increased to 1/4 cup without ruining the entire batch? (Sorry for all the questions but I’m new at this.)
Thanks, Brenda.
I think all of your subs and changes would be fine, although the more vodka would make it even softer. I don’t have time to run the nutritional counts on this but you can put the ingredients into myfitnesspal and it should give you the info.
I have one of those “little stirrer thingies” you set in the pot. I tried using it for this and found there were two problems. One, the stirrer only stirs the bottom of the pot. This recipe tends to form a crust on the top which prevents evaporation. I had to manually stir the top every five minutes for the first half hour or so anyway. Two, the stirrers are battery operated and my batteries ran out before the milk was reduced by half.
Btw, the Carolyn above with the stirrer is not the blog’s author, just another reader.
Thank you, Carolyn. I’ll say my $$$$. One last update on my batch. FYI. It did ultimately freeze pretty hard but was manageable in little bits at a time. Tasted very good in any case. BTW, it was pretty gooey after 30 minutes in the machine. I use the IC bowl for the kitchen aid pro 600
Are there any new recipes maybe chocolate or strawberry?
You can use the search box at the top of my blog to search for all of my ice cream recipes. Thanks!
Hi Carolyn,
Anyway to turn this recipe into chocolate ice-cream too? Can I reduce the amount of vodka? Because I don’t drink alcohol at all and feel like the vodka going straight to my head really fast even with just one TSP of this ice-cream. By the way, I don’t have an ice-cream maker but tried this recipe last night with my Ninja food processor (1500 watts).
Also, for the record, couldn’t find Swerve in my rural area… I used “Nutresse” instead and it worked beautifully. Although I’m too mentally challenged to figure out the carb content using the “Nutresse”, I feel in my soul that it has a lower carb content than “Blue Bell”, so for me, I’m waaay ahead of the game…. Thanks again, Carolyn….
Alcohol-free substitutes – Absolutely LOVE this recipe and am so grateful for the time and experimentation it took to perfect it! I figured that the Vodka was added to make the TEXTURE smooth and creamy… I don’t have the luxury of cooking with ANY alcohol (boo-hoo) and figured I’d try egg yolks instead. Being the extremist that I am, rather than start with ONE egg yolk, (if one is good, 2 is better! NOT) I added two egg yolks and a teaspoon of vanilla beans. FABULOUS flavor, but WAAAAY to eggy… at this point, with so much invested, I couldn’t give up, so I thought that a cup of food-processed strawberries might cut the “egginess”. BINGO… The ice cream was GONE in 2 minutes flat and everyone was begging for more!!!! Thank you so much for the base recipe!!!
Glad it worked out with your changes!
Thanks! Bought an ice cream maker for this and it was worth it. Amazingly, crazy creamy. I keep my freezer cold enough that it did harden up overnight. Which is good, because it slows me down when I think I’ll have just a little more.
When I first make a recipe I follow instructions/ingredients very closely and measure everything. I used Now Healthy Foods Erythritol. Also used SweetLeaf SteviaClear. The double batch Condensed Milk recipe looked to come out perfectly (reduced to 2-cups) and tasted good, but when put in the fridge overnight was VERY gritty when cooled.
When I made the ice cream it called for powdered erythritol, so I ground what I had in a coffee grinder (and measured it after grinding).
The ice cream did not set up well in the churner, I finally froze it and it froze as hard as a brick (and still was very gritty). Does the Sweetened Condensed Milk need to be freshly made and not refrigerated before making the ice cream? Maybe has to even be warm when added to the ice cream mixture?
Does the Condensed milk usually get gritty after it cools? It came out to the correct 2 cups after reducing and tasted great. Thanks for any help/ideas.
Hi Barbara,
My condensed milk is often refrigerated and never becomes gritty so I think it has to be the brand, since I use Swerve. I just can’t vouch for any of the other brands of erythritol. Powdering your erythritol in a coffee grinder will only go so far. The commercial powdered varieties (again, I used Swerve) are so fine they are almost like dust.
The condensed milk does not have to be warm when added to the cream mixture. Mine wasn’t. Also, not sure what you mean by it did not set up well in the churner? Mine got like the consistency of soft serve, but it was also quite gummy from the xanthan.
From other people’s comments, I’ve come to realize that this recipe (which has now worked perfectly for me 3 or 4 times) is very sensitive to freezer temperature and other small factors. So I am very sorry that it didn’t work as it should have.
Thanks so much for your help. I’m going to buy both types of Swerve, because I love trying your recipes! Do you know how cold your freezer is? I have two and could set them differently. Am I correct that you use the regular Swerve (granulated) in the Condensed Milk and the Powered Swerve in the ice cream? Am I correct that they would measure differently? I am on a quest for ice cream;-) and I know chocolate introduces all kinds of other factors, so am working on the vanilla first. Thanks again.
I have used both the granulated and the powdered in the condensed milk….i used powdered when I ran out of granulated. Both should work. The powdered in the ice cream itself is best. I honestly don’t know the exact temp of my freezer, and am away from home right now but I can look in a few days!
No problem with the condensed milk (recipe quite ingenious, actually), but this ice cream was a failure for me, too. Also routinely use Swerve (I’ve been buying erythritol, and cooking lowcarb for a decade). Alas, results can be inconsistent, depending upon the application. It’s the standard problem of grittiness (regardless of brand). Pity.
I don’t find any grittiness with the Swerve. Most other people had issues with the consistency of the ice cream. Did you find that?
And all of your feedback is appreciated. I have tried this several times and it does seem very sensitive to the temperature of one’s freezer.
I made the sweetened condensed milk with Swerve and it became VERY grainy when it cooled. I’m nervous about putting it into ice cream. Any way to fix the texture?
I don’t think there is any way to fix it at this point but I find it strange because I always make mine with Swerve and don’t find it grainy at all.
OMG…just made this and it is delicious! I dont think many of us would succeed on this keto way of life without all your fabulous recipes Carolyn! Thank you so much for another delicious recipe!
Barbara, what kind of other factors does chocolate add? I’m a new LC cook thanks in advance.
Is this ok to give to kids, considering there is vodka? What does the vodka do for it? We don’t consume alcohol, would the recipe work with out it?
Alcohol lowers the freezing point of liquids, helping the ice cream stay soft. You can skip it if you like, but there is very little and I served it to my kids. It’s about a tsp per serving.
I just made this Ice cream last night!! I am not sure what I did but the texture was different I may have used to much xanthan Gum It was a little bit chewy or something I only used 1 tablespoon of vodka instant of 1/4cup when in the ice cream machine I ran it for 1 hour and it was still very soft so I poured it into an air tight container and put it into the freezer over night ! The next day it was scoopeble and good but like I said early the texture was chewyish …. If that is even a word LOL.. So again not sure what I did right or wrong !But I will try it again!! Will let everyone know how the second batch works out!!! : )
Hi there. The current Food on Friday on Carole’s Chatter is collecting links to posts about ice cream and sorbets – or anything similar like gelato. I do hope you link this in. This is the link . Please do check out some of the other links – there are a lot of good ones already. Have a great week.
I can’t thank you enough! I just finished making your ice cream and even before the final 2 hour freeze, I can tell it’s going to be delicious!! I followed your recipe exactly (people who make changes and them complain crack me up!) and it turned out beautifully after 30 minutes of churning!! I can’t wait to see your future adaptations and to try some of my own (now that I know I can do your basic recipe!) Thank you sooooooo much!!
So glad it seems to have worked! THis one has given some folks a bit of trouble…I think that perhaps freezer temp does make a difference. But it’s worked 3 times for me now.
I put the ice cream (and my ice cream maker bowl) in the my chest freezer which is very cold. Also, I used this ice cream maker http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICE-20-Automatic-2-Quart-Cream/dp/B00000JGRT if that helps anybody else who is wondering about trying the recipe! Can’t wait to see more adaptations – particularly chocolate and/or a nut butter variety!