The Skinny Ice Cream Maker: Delicious Lower Fat, Lower Calorie Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt & Sorbet Recipes For Your 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.

Sorry but I should never have bought this book but it was recommended several times when looking for ice cream recipes for a nut allergy sufferer. It is based on poor nutritional advice of low saturated fat/cholesterol from the discredited work of Ancel Keyes which has made the USA obese and now most of the western world. We need these fat-soluble vitamins not statins, and our cholesterol level is genetic; the lower your cholesterol level the greater your All Risk Mortality!

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.

Always making my own ice cream from scratch,I decided to give this book a go. There are very few ingredients,which is great budget wise. I have made some slight measurement adjustments for my 1.5 litre bowl. I just doubled the quantities to fill a 1.3 litre freezer container. My freezer is now slowly filling up ready for the summer. The dark chocolate ice cream is delicious, but try adding the zest peel of an orange during the blend process,then the juice during the churn process, yum...my Hubby's favourite (so far).

I've used two recipes so far, one vanilla made with low-fat custard, and the avocado ice-cream. Both are fabulous and really easy to make. Neither tasted 'skinny', and the avocade will be a favourite, my guests loved it! I would thoroughly recommend this book on these two recipes alone. I can't wait to try some others.