Easy keto strawberry ice cream that doesn’t require an ice cream maker. Made with cream cheese, this no-cook recipe is truly easy and so delicious.
This delicious ice cream is made without an ice cream maker. It's a truly easy recipe - it's eggless, it requires no cooking, and it only contains four simple ingredients.
However, if you want it to be frozen enough that you can scoop it out, this keto strawberry ice cream does require a time commitment of about four hours. And you should also be there to occasionally stir the mixture. So it's a good recipe to make when you're home anyway. I like to make it on the weekend, and my kids love helping me!
Why bother with making homemade ice cream?
It's true that these days you can get low-carb ice creams fairly easily at the store. But looking at their ingredients list, I still prefer to make this simple homemade recipe! And since it's so easy to make, I really don't mind the extra effort. It's a fun weekend activity for the kids.
Soft serve or scoopable - your choice
One of the things I adore about this recipe is the immediate gratification. If you like soft-serve ice cream and don't insist on a scoopable consistency, you can enjoy the ice cream immediately, right after blending it - as long as you use frozen (not fresh) strawberries and cold cream cheese.
The ingredients needed for this recipe
You'll only need four ingredients to make this tasty keto strawberry ice cream (the exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below):
Frozen strawberries: You should definitely use sliced frozen strawberries. Your food processor will have a hard time processing whole ones. 🍓
Cream cheese: Definitely use full-fat cream cheese, and it should be cold -straight out of the fridge.
Vanilla extract: Try to use the real thing - pure vanilla extract - and not the artificially flavored stuff. The difference in flavor is quite pronounced when it comes to no-cook recipes.
Sweetener: I like to use stevia glycerite. The glycerite formulation pretty much eliminates any aftertaste, and especially in this recipe, I honestly can't taste it. But if you dislike stevia, you can probably replace it with a granulated sweetener.
How to make keto strawberry ice cream
Scroll down to the recipe card for the detailed instructions. It's a very easy recipe. Here are the basic steps:
1. Process the four ingredients in your food processor. You can now enjoy a soft-serve ice cream.
2. If you want a scoopable texture, transfer the mixture to a pan (I typically use an 8-inch square baking dish), cover, and freeze.
3. Stir the mixture a few times during the freezing process to prevent ice crystals from forming.
The only tedious part is that you'll need to stir the mixture a few times during the freezing process. This is important, though, because it helps prevent large ice crystals from forming in the no-churn ice cream. So it helps keep the mixture nice and creamy.
How to serve this ice cream
It's excellent just as it is! But for a special treat, I sometimes drizzle melted dark chocolate on top and serve it with a dollop of keto whipped cream.
How long can you keep keto strawberry ice cream?
You can keep it, tightly covered, in the freezer for up to three months. Remove it from the freezer 30 minutes before you plan to serve it.
This homemade ice cream does get icy the longer it's stored. Sometimes I scoop out a serving, then use a mini food processor to briefly process it into smooth soft-serve ice cream.
Another frozen treat that you might like
We are a family of four. Two of us have a strong preference for homemade chocolate frozen yogurt, while the other two prefer fruity flavors, so we much prefer this ice cream. So I find myself making a batch each week, alternating between the two flavors!
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Keto Strawberry Ice Cream
INGREDIENTS
- 16 oz frozen sliced strawberries (3 cups)
- 8 oz cream cheese cold, cubed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoon stevia glycerite (equals ½ cup sugar)
INSTRUCTIONS
Soft-serve instructions:
- Place the sliced frozen strawberries in your food processor. Process them until finely chopped. If you use whole frozen strawberries, this will be a challenging task for the food processor, so it’s not recommended.
- Add the cream cheese cubes, the vanilla and the stevia, and process until smooth. That’s it! Your soft-serve ice cream is now ready. Divide it into bowls and serve immediately.
For a firmer consistency that you can scoop out:
- Using a spatula, transfer the mixture into a square 8-inch pan. Cover with cling wrap, and freeze for one hour.
- Remove the pan from the freezer. Use a spatula to stir the already-frozen edges and bottom into the still-soft center.
- Cover again, and place in the freezer for two more hours, repeating the process of stirring the ice cream every hour.
- The final step is to freeze the ice cream undisturbed for one last hour. So for a consistency firm enough to scoop out, you will need to freeze the ice cream for a total of 4 hours, stirring it every hour during the first three hours of freezing.
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NOTES
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, and Country Living.