Low Fat Ice Cream help

[justlearning]

hello everyone. I've recently been given a nice little ice cream maker(cuisinart) for a gift and finally gave it a try. A low fat recipe to be exact.
The recipe called for
3 tsp unflavored gelatin (such as Knox gelatin)
3 cup skim milk
6 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp water
Everything came out fine in the end accept the vanilla extract was insanely overwhelming. The consistency seemed just fine. I was wondering if perhaps the vanilla extract brand is important for quality reasons, i used stop and shop brand.
Im interested in trying again and some other low fat recipes seem to call for Evaporated Milk.
If anyone has any tips when it comes to low fat ice cream making at home I'd really appreciate it.

[OahuAmateurChef]

Congratulations on your ice cream maker!
I'd suggest making the same recipe, and cut the vanilla in half. If still too strong, cut it in half again. On another note....

I disagree with low fat diets. They focus on the wrong thing.

We don't have any animal fat stored in our bodies. No matter what the source of fat/oils we eat, our bodies must break the fat/oil down and then based on our metabolism our bodies decide how much fat to produce.

The thing about it is that our body prefers converting sugar that we eat to fat than fat that we eat!

I can't help too much on the recipe but I'd like to point out that your body will probably convert those 6 tbsp of sugar into fat anyway.


What's NOT bad for you: Fat, Cholesterol, salt.
What's STILL bad for you: Sugar, food additives.

[Mezzaluna]

Make sure you're not using "double vanilla". That can be overwhelming and convey bitterness to your mix. You didn't post your method, but perhaps adding the vanilla before cooking would mellow it out some.... but I'm no expert.

[Blueicus]

Adding vanilla extract before cooking will remove the harsh alcoholic pang that comes from natural vanilla extracts. For only 3 cups of liquid you should only need 2 tsp of extract, tops... I'd go with 1 or 1 and a half.

One gram of fat does have more caloric value than one gram of protein or carbohydrates respectively, and there are instances where some people do need to eat low fat apart from a silly diet fad due to various illnesses, etc.

[justlearning]

im not on some silly fad diet. just exercise and assuming 300 calories a serving of ice cream isnt necessary. i assume most people on diets try to limit or moderate there calorie or fat intake, how else do people lose weight?

i went and grabbed some other vanilla from the health food store. All natural and alcohol free. about 1000 times smoother.

[justlearning]

ok so after my recent low fat test i've pretty much sworn of making low fat ice cream - just tastes like poo. I was going through a regular recipe that called for Egg Yolks, but being a fool who doesnt follow directions appropriately.. i used antire eggs instead of just the yolks added with sugar to make a custard as the base. should i totally scrap and start over... or will it be ok with the entire eggs in the custard?

[Breton Beats]

I would start over. Get it taste just perfect at least once. Then play around. Thank you for going regular, I am so anti-low fat icecream, especially since it requires so much other "stuff" to make it taste good. If you want a little lower in fat try looking for some traditional "gelato" recipes.

I would try a vanilla bean instead of extract. Try scraping it, throw all the little beans and the pod into the cream, bring to boil and steep for 10 minutes plus. Some people take out the pod now but I leave it in through the whole process. Serving up icecream with the pod is a very "rustic" presentation and kind of cool. If you do remove it, wash it in cold water, let it dry and then shove it in your sugar.