Yesterday I took a risk.  I decided to buy a package of guar gum.

As you may recall, I have been trying to make the ultimate low-fat delicious ice cream. As of two weeks ago, I had almost given up.  Store-bought ice cream was the only way to go – even if it did have high fat and high sugar content.

I was to go to Whole Foods market yesterday and spend a good amount of time looking at their non-dairy, low-fat ice creams, specifically at their ingredients. It hit me. Guar gum usually was one ingredient.  Guar gum is a thickening agent that also gives a creamy texture to ice cream.  It thickens eight times as much as the cornstarch I had used before.  I had to heat up the cornstarch mixture to get it thickened.

The small 8 oz. package cost nine dollars.  Sounds like a lot of money. When you realize all you need to make a quart of ice cream is one-quarter teaspoon, do the calculations. You can make 192 quarts of ice cream with that bag.

I went home and tried.  For my initial recipe I blended three cups of So Delicious Nog Coconut Milk Beverage, one-eighth of a teaspoon of guar gum, and a quarter cup of agave for sweetener.

I poured the mixture into the ice cream maker. Fifteen minutes later, the ice cream was ready to put in the freezer.

This morning at about 3 o’clock I woke up and headed for the freezer. Putting the small container of frozen ice cream on my nightstand, I began reading on my iPhone about guar gum ice cream recipes. Before I knew it, an hour had passed. I was ready to try the ice cream. A little too soft.  Next time I will set a timer for 30 minutes after I take the ice cream out of the freezer.  After reading more about ice cream, I plan to make the next batch of vanilla ice cream as follows:

One quart of So Delicious French Vanilla Coconut Milk Creamer, two egg yolks, one tablespoon of vanilla, a quarter teaspoon of guar gum, a big pinch of salt, and  a,quarter cup of agave.

If the ice cream turns out to be as good as I hope, you should soon hear about it from me.

Thank you guar gum.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com