The Skinny Ice Cream Maker: Delicious Lower Fat, Lower Calorie Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt & Sorbet Recipes For Your Ice Cream Maker Paperback – 28 May 2014

Lovely little book, looking forward to trying out the recipes. Looks fairly basic ingredients wise, so all depends on the ice-cream maker!

I have been using this book almost constantly since I purchased it in June. I am a big fan, especially since I love using my own ingredients rather than buying the 'synthetic' stuff they call ice cream. I have always preferred the 'clotted/full cream' varieties of ice cream to the 'milk powder' base that most ice creams are made of. Having said that, I am not a particular fan of ice cream normally. Instead, the 'low fat yoghurt' recipes in this book have really caught my taste, as well as those of my children. I am less keen on the recipes using the 'half fat custard' but then I don't really like custard. The strawberry yoghurt I have made endless times, but also the lemon 'ice cream' which is rather good and made using low fat evaporated milk and low fat creme fraiche.It doesn't taste as if it is only 45 cals a scoop (strawberry yoghurt), or maybe 65 cals (I think) for the lemon ice cream, but they taste soooo good. I haven't used a half and half sweetener before but it doesn't have an after tang so I have no problem using 1 1/2 oz instead of the usual 4oz of caster/granulated sugar that normal recipes would call for. I haven't even tried to use the Ben & Jerry book ice cream book I also purchased, thinking that the children might not enjoy the 'skinny recipes', silly me!If you want to lose weight, but don't want to eat something that tastes as if it's a calorie controlled recipe, then, within reason, this should be your book of choice for puddings. Also, it's worth noting that most of the recipes are very simple (strawberry yoghurt requires 3 items, strawberries, yoghurt and half and half), and don't really require 'unusual' ingredients. For me the half and half was the only item that I hadn't purchased fairly regularly before.

What a interesting ice cream maker book and enjoyed it .

Great value and price easy to use, how to make easy and lovely ice cream.

It just offers you ways to substitute ingredients and use pre made shop bought low fat alternatives- not really homemade in my eyes if you use pre bought custard. Plus low fat condensed milk may have less fat but does have more sugar. I had hoped for more inventive ways of healthy ice cream like using fruit or making versions that could rely on more milk and less cream. The flavours are ok but it all tasted quite packaged because of the pre made custard. Basically you don't need it because take your normal recipe and buy low fat custard instead of using cream, eggs and milk or use low fat creme fraiche and a lot of sugar to offset the sour taste.

Excellent recipes

I purchased a kitchen aid ice cream attachment and this was one of the books I bought to go with it. The inside of the book is very simple (black and white text), the recipes are relatively simple (which can be a real blessing) and have so far turned out consistent results. Whilst these aren't the recipes that will win you a competition (probably due to their 'skinny' nature) they are good for the average working family. Personally I have started putting the ice cream into small containers before putting them in the freezer as I find this further helps with portion control.

Really like this book to use with my ice cream machine - recipes are simple with easy to come by ingredients, and have been met with great enthusiasm. So far have made Mandarin Orange and Dark Chocolate, Almond and Vanilla (I think my almond extract is quite strong so think I will reduce quantity just a bit next time), Pineapple Crush, Coconut cream ice (the no desiccated coconut option as family don't like the texture), Rustic Raspberry, Mango (used tinned mango as couldn't get fresh), and Dark Chocolate (need to practice this one as the chocolate solidified when it hit the custard/creme mixture - perhaps warm the custard a bit maybe)