True Natural
Protein Ice Cream
How to Make the MOST DELICIOUS and Healthy Low-Calorie PROTEIN ICE CREAMS: True Natural Protein Ice Cream Recipes
What is your favorite treat? Right, ice cream! What if your favorite ice cream would be healthy, highly nutritious, and at the same time low in calories? Well, that's what this very video is all about! Pure pleasure, without guilt!
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Cottage cheese and zucchini are the signature ingredients of my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, which are way lower in calories than ordinary ice cream, which are way lower in fat and sugar than ordinary ice cream, which are way higher in protein than ordinary ice cream, thanks to the casein protein in the cottage cheese and the whey protein powder, which are full of healthy vegetables and fruit, and most important, which are overly delicious! All your favorite flavors (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, banana, pistachio, coconut, coffee, cookies, etc.). Pure pleasure, without guilt!
In this video, I will explain how you can make the most delicious and healthy, low-calorie, protein ice creams. I will share with you the True Natural Protein Ice Cream recipes, in all details. I will start with explaining what True Natural Protein Ice Cream is, and why it is so fantastic. And then I will explain everything you need to know, to start making it yourself.
One small but important detail before we get started: I'm not a YouTube video maker, who made a protein ice cream. I'm a protein ice cream maker, who made a YouTube video. So, sorry, if this video is not of the highest quality, but I promise you, the protein ice cream is!
For those who don't know me yet, I am Jos from True-Natural-BodyBuilding.com. Since I was 14, I have been passionate about everything related to body composition optimization (building muscle mass while reducing excess bodyfat), through training and healthy nutrition, without using any performance enhancing drugs or supplements. Today I'm over 50, and still exercising almost daily. In the autumn and winter, I only do endurance training to optimize my cardiorespiratory health, and in the spring and summer, I only do resistance training to rebuild my muscle mass and strength for optimal fitness. Now let's get started with my amazing True Natural Protein Ice Cream recipes!
Like the name suggests, protein ice creams are ice creams with a high protein content. They are typically also lower in calories compared to ordinary ice creams, which are typically loaded with fat and sugar. The low calories and high protein content of protein ice cream is especially great, for all people who want to optimize their body composition, by building more muscle mass or losing bodyfat, but also for everyone else who likes to enjoy a healthy and delicious dessert.
Now what's so special about my True Natural Protein Ice Cream recipes? There are many protein ice cream recipes on the internet. Some are low in calories; others are healthy or even tasty. However, what makes my True Natural Protein Ice Cream recipes truly unique, is that they use only healthy, natural ingredients, that they are really low in calories, and most important, that they are overly DELICIOUS! And yes, not only my berry and banana flavored protein ice cream, but also all my other flavors, including chocolate, coffee, cookies, coconut, peanut, pistachio, and even vanilla, contain 60% veggies and fruit, without negatively impacting the taste at all! On top of that, you don't need any special skills, ingredients, or kitchen equipment, to make my True Natural Protein Ice Creams yourself, and the cost of it will not be higher than what you pay in the supermarket for ordinary ice cream.
Now let's dive into the details and look at the typical nutritional content of my True Natural Protein Ice Creams. First, I must explain you that my recipes offer 4 different versions for each ice cream flavor, to meet everyone's personal dietary needs: an ultra low-calorie version, a delicious low-fat version, a delicious low-carb version, and an ultra delicious version. On average, they have about 80 kcal per 100 grams of protein ice cream, which equals 2 full scoops of ice cream. An ordinary ice cream typically contains about 3 times more calories, 4 times more fat, 3 times more carbohydrates, and 3 times less protein than my True Natural Protein Ice Creams.
On top of that, all my True Natural Protein Ice Creams flavors consist of 60% of veggies and fruit, bringing quite some extra vitamins and minerals to the table. Just to put this into perspective, this corresponds to 400 grams of veggies and fruit in each 1-liter container of protein ice cream. This equals the daily recommended amount of vegetables and fruit for a healthy diet, which is 5 servings or cups per day. So, the True Natural Protein Ice Creams really offer lots of healthy pleasure for very few calories!
You can download FOR FREE my True Natural Protein Ice Cream excel sheet, which contains all information you need to prepare the True Natural Protein Ice Creams, including the recipes with the complete list of ingredients and quantities, detailed directions of preparation, as well as detailed nutritional information for many different protein ice cream flavors, such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coconut, cookies, and coffee.
Now let's go over the ingredients that I use for my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, why I have selected these ingredients, and what their function in the protein ice cream is. It took me many months and countless trial and error experiments to identify the best ingredients and composition for my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, which are developed to be healthy and low-calorie, containing as little fat and sugar as possible, while having a high protein content and optimal taste, that is comparable to, or even better than, the taste of commercial ice creams.
The main ingredient for all my True Natural Protein Ice Creams is COTTAGE CHEESE. From all high-protein dairy products, I have found cottage cheese to provide by far the best texture and taste, when looking for a high protein liquid base for my protein ice creams. Other high-protein dairy products, such as Greek yoghurt and skyr, do not yield a satisfying result. Cottage cheese typically contains about 12% protein (casein), 3% carbohydrate (lactose), and between 1 and 5% fat. Cottage cheese is definitely the most important key ingredient for all my True Natural Protein Ice Creams. You should be able to find it in all major supermarkets.
Next, we need bulky ingredients that bring ice crystals to the protein ice cream. Many protein ice cream recipes use simple ice cubes for this purpose. Although indeed very low in calories, this is truly detrimental for the taste and texture of the protein ice cream. Therefore, I have searched to find much better alternatives for ice cubes. For my berry flavored protein ice creams, my search was rather easy. FROZEN STRAWBERRIES turn out to be a magic ingredient for protein ice creams. In addition to ice crystals, frozen strawberries not only bring a great flavor, but also contribute to a great texture, and on top of that, they are a truly fantastic volumizer. The latter is very important, because a good protein ice cream must consist for up to 40% out of air, to provide a nice and soft ice cream texture. Frozen strawberries you can typically buy year-round, in all major supermarkets.
While a great ingredient for berry flavored protein ice creams, unfortunately, frozen strawberries cannot be used for most other flavors. Because we don't want to have any strawberry flavor or reddish color in most of our other protein ice cream flavors, such as vanilla and coconut ice cream for example, I had to find a proper substitute for frozen strawberries with similar properties in terms of texture and volume creation, but with a rather neutral flavor and preferably with a white color. This is indeed a very rare combination of properties, but after experimenting a lot, I found a truly fantastic alternative for frozen strawberries: the very best substitute for frozen strawberries turns out to be FROZEN ZUCCHINI, also known as COURGETTE. Although zucchinis are fruit (berries in fact) from a scientific perspective, just like cucumbers and tomatoes, from a culinary perspective, zucchinis are considered vegetables due to their green color and very low sugar content. I typically buy frozen zucchini slices in the supermarket. However, for white protein ice creams, such as vanilla and coconut, I buy fresh zucchinis, remove their green skin with a vegetable peeler, and cut them in slices before freezing them for one day. Otherwise, the protein ice cream would get a greenish color. For light colored protein ice creams, you can also use yellow zucchini. Yellow zucchinis have the same taste as green zucchini, but they may be harder to find in stores than green zucchini. For dark protein ice creams, such as chocolate or coffee, the green skin of the zucchinis can be left on, without negatively affecting the color of the ice cream. Zucchini is definitely the second most important key ingredients for nearly all my True Natural Protein Ice Creams.
The third most important key ingredient is of course, FLAVORED WHEY protein. Flavored whey protein is obviously used to increase the protein content, as well as to improve the flavor of the protein ice cream. Vanilla is a great basis for several ice cream flavors. I use it obviously when I make vanilla flavored ice cream, but I also use it for my berry flavored ice cream, and even for my chocolate ice cream, to which I would add Dutch process cocoa powder to obtain the lovely chocolate flavor. In principle, you can use any flavored whey protein that you want, to obtain your favorite protein ice cream flavor, for example coconut. And if you want to increase the protein content of the protein ice cream even higher than 10%, you can add some extra UNFLAVORED WHEY protein, without negatively impacting the taste of your ice cream. I typically use the Impact Whey Protein from MyProtein.com, which contains up to 80% of protein, 7% of fat, and 6% of carbohydrates. For the ultra low-calorie versions of my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, I recommend using whey isolate, which contains up to 90% protein, and very little fat and carbohydrates. The Natural Vanilla flavor that I use when making True Natural Protein Ice Cream, is sweetened with sucralose, contains only natural aromas, and does not contain any thickening agents. And this smoothly brings us to the next ingredient.
The fourth key ingredient of my True Natural Protein Ice Creams is XANTHAN GUM. Xanthan gum is a thickening agent that is used commonly in commercial ice creams to improve the texture, and to increase the volume of the ice cream by trapping air bubbles in the ice cream. While only a very small quantity of xanthan gum is needed, skipping it would result in a very hard and icy product, which is not scoopable and unpleasant to eat. So, I strongly recommend you, to never skip the xanthan gum. I typically also add a very small amount of GUAR GUM, which is another thickening agent like xanthan gum, and works synergistically to obtain even better results. I would, however, never replace the xanthan gum by guar gum, because it would not give a satisfying result. Using the right amount of gum is critical. If you don't use enough gum, the protein ice cream will not have enough volume, resulting in a harder and icier product. If you use, on the other hand, too much gum, your protein ice cream may get an undesirable foamy texture. So always strictly follow the recipe, and carefully measure the right amount of gum. One caveat that you should be aware of, is that some whey protein powders already contain some gum. If that is the case, I recommend using a bit (about half a gram) less xanthan gum than prescribed in my recipes.
The next ingredient that I like to use for all my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, is FROZEN BANANA. Banana is a fantastic ingredient for low-fat protein ice creams, because it provides a very smooth, creamy texture to the ice cream, which helps to substitute the large amount of cream that is typically used in ordinary ice cream. Banana also contributes to the flavor, and of course also the sweetness of the ice cream. I always buy fresh bananas, peel them, cut them in slices, and let them freeze at least one day before using them for my protein ice creams. Don't use green or overly ripe bananas if you want the best possible tasting ice cream.
Since I like my protein ice creams to be very sweet, I also use STEVIA EXTRACT in my recipes. Stevia extract is my favorite, zero-calorie sweetener, to substitute the large amounts of table sugar, that are commonly added to ordinary ice creams. Stevia is derived from the leaves of the stevia plant, and thus completely natural. I use a very pure stevia extract of more than 95% purity, which is more than 300 times sweeter than table sugar. But any other low-calorie, sweet sugar substitute, could probably be used successfully instead of stevia.
And finally, I optionally add a small quantity of DEXTROSE (also called glucose) to the low-fat versions of my recipes, and small quantity of WHIPPING CREAM (of 35% fat) to the low-carb versions of my recipes, to further optimize the texture and taste of my True Natural Protein Ice Creams. Yes, I know, they add a few calories to the ice cream, but honestly, there are no proper low-calorie substitutes, if you target for optimal taste. If you, however, really want to keep the calories as low as possible, you can stick to my ultra low-calorie recipes, which do not use any dextrose or whipping cream.
This completes the list of basic ingredients that I use for my True Natural Protein Ice Cream recipes: cottage cheese, frozen strawberries or frozen zucchini, flavored whey protein, xanthan and guar gum, frozen banana, stevia, and optionally some dextrose or whipping cream. In addition to these basic ingredients, I optionally use some additional natural ingredients to obtain the targeted flavor, such as frozen blueberries, lemon juice, Dutch process cocoa powder, coconut powder, instant coffee powder, peanut butter powder, or fine milled oats powder. If you ask me, however, what the 2 signature ingredients of my True Natural Protein Ice Creams are, which truly make the difference in texture and flavor compared to all other protein ice cream recipes, then the answer is: the cottage cheese and the zucchini.
Done with the ingredients, now let's move to the kitchen equipment that you need to turn these ingredients into the most delicious protein ice creams. Like I've said before, you don't need any special equipment that you don't already have in your kitchen.
The first thing you need is a simple knife to remove the skin of the bananas and zucchinis and cut them in slices. I typically put the banana slices in a plastic container, and the zucchini slices in a plastic bag, before I put them in the freezer for at least one day, to ensure they are completely frozen before I use them.
To accurately weigh the main ingredients, it is very handy to have a kitchen balance that operates between 1 gram and 2000 grams. Myself, I use a digital Tefal Optiss BC5000 kitchen balance.
For the other ingredients of which you only need very small amounts, such as the stevia extract, the xanthan gum, and the guar gum, it is recommended to use a 0.5- or 1-milliliter measuring scoop, because weighing small quantities is less accurate. One milliliter of stevia extract equals about 0.4 gram, and one milliliter of xanthan gum or guar gum equals about 0.8 gram.
To pre-blend the dry powder ingredients, I typically use a 0.4-liter plastic container with a lid. I add the dry-powder ingredients in the closed container and twist the container for about 20 seconds until the powders are mixed well. To mix the dry powder pre-blend with the cottage cheese, I prefer to use a glass bowl and tablespoon to stir.
The most important piece of equipment that you need, however, is a powerful blender with a sufficiently large pitcher, to grind and mix all ingredients together into a smooth ice cream mixture. Myself, I use a Nutri Ninja blender with a 2.1-liter pitcher.
And of course, you also need a freezer, a freezer storage container of about 1.1-liter with a lid to contain the ice cream, and a solid ice cream scoop to serve the protein ice cream.
Now that you know all ingredients and all equipment that you need, to prepare my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, let me briefly share with you the directions, on how to turn these ingredients into a fabulous protein ice cream.
First you put the dry-powder ingredients (whey, gum, stevia, and dextrose) in a closed container and mix them well by shaking. Next, you put the powder blend in the glass bowl. You add the cottage cheese to the powder blend in the glass bowl and mix it with a tablespoon to obtain a mass. Then you put all ingredients together in the blender in the following order from bottom to top: first the cottage cheese mass, then the frozen banana, the frozen blueberries, the frozen strawberries, the frozen zucchini, and the whipping cream. Optional flavoring powders, such as cocoa powder, coconut powder, instant coffee powder, peanut butter powder, or milled oats powder, are added in the middle of the frozen ingredients to minimize sticking of these powders to the wall of the blender pitcher. Then you mix at the highest blender speed until ready. With my Ninja blender, I typically mix 3 or 4 times for 35 to 40 seconds; and after each cycle, I push down the powder that sticks to the wall of the pitcher with a wooden spatula. After mixing, the amount of ice cream in the blender should be about 1.1 liter. Then you put the ice cream in the container, close the container, and place it in the freezer for one day.
Now let's talk about serving the True Natural Protein Ice Cream.
After one day in the freezer, the protein ice cream is ready to be served. Well, maybe not exactly yet. Since we don't use an ice cream machine, which continuously stirs the ice cream while getting frozen, and since we don't add large quantities of calorie-rich cream and sugar to our recipes, you will notice that the protein ice cream is rather hard when it comes out the freezer. Too hard to be scooped and served, indeed. The very simple trick to resolve this issue, is to place the container with ice cream for about 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator, or 15-30 minutes at room temperature. This allows the protein ice cream to soften a bit so that it is easier to scoop out.
Now, why am I so sure that the True Natural Protein Ice Creams taste so delicious?
Well, it took me multiple years of trial-and-error experimenting to fine tune the protein ice cream recipes to optimize the taste and texture, and now I have finally hit bull's eye. Not only do I love my True Natural Protein Ice Creams so much that I eat them myself every single day, at least half a container (that is 2 full cups), but I also did the ultimate taste test. I offered it to my youngest son, who's only 5 years old. And yes, he totally adores it! And that, for me, is the absolute proof that my True Natural Protein Ice Creams are truly delicious!
One last note before concluding this video: Please, don't expect the True Natural Protein Ice Creams to be an identical copy of ordinary ice creams in terms of texture and taste. That is impossible because they are fundamentally different products, made in a different way, and using different ingredients. However, once you have accepted that they are different, you will experience that the taste of the True Natural Protein Ice Creams is as good, if not better, than the taste of any ordinary ice cream, only much healthier. Pure pleasure, without guilt!
So why did I make this YouTube video? Simply because I find my True Natural Protein Ice Cream recipes so fantastic, and so much better than all other protein ice cream recipes out there, that I want to share them with the world! Try it, enjoy it, and please share your experience with me in the comments of this video. Thank you!
You can download FOR FREE my True Natural Protein Ice Cream excel sheet, which contains all information you need to prepare the True Natural Protein Ice Creams, including the recipes with the complete list of ingredients and quantities, detailed directions of preparation, as well as detailed nutritional information for many different protein ice cream flavors, such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coconut, cookies, and coffee.
Don't forget to watch my other videos, in which I show you in detail how I make my True Natural Protein Ice Creams, including the blueberry-strawberry flavor, the chocolate flavor, and the coconut flavor.
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