Trees for the Forest

Using the recipe from Veganomicon, I’ve been trying to make some homemade vegan ice cream over the last few months.

So far, the things that one might not have on hand to try this: an ice cream maker (duh), a food processor or blender, and access to coconut milk (fortunately cans of it have always been in stock at any grocery store near me).

I’ve had a food processor for years if not decades. I didn’t use for much until I realized how easy and yummy making my own hummus would be, so that requirement was already satisfied. The Ice Cream Maker took some research. I pretty quickly decided I didn’t want to deal with rock salt, so the Cuisinart models started calling my name. Finding the Cuisinart 2 quart model at Sam’s Club for $50 clinched the deal.

What have I learned? Well, the recipe is made for a smaller size ice cream maker. Doubling the recipe overwhelmed my food processor basin, so I’ve come to a nice middle ground at 1 1/2 size measurements for the silken tofu, coconut milk cream, raw sugar, vanilla extract, melted chocolate, and soy milk.

Having made several batches of varying sizes, I can make the following recommendations. Finding the right amount of ingredients to properly fit your maker seems to affect the end result’s creaminess. Making sure to fully melt and properly blend the melted chocolate is key to nice smooth chocolate flavor. Using non-vacuum sealed silken tofu seems to make a huge difference to the texture. Also, using fresh (as opposed to frozen and then thawed) tofu seems ideal, as well.

Since Equal objects to being used in baking, I thought it might be ideal for ice cream, since only freezing is involved. The results have been less than satisfying on the first two sugar free batches I tried so some local diabetics could join in. I had not worked out some of the other issues, however, so maybe one more try is in the cards. So far, the results are very chalky and just seem to be missing the overall creamy quality the sugar filled recipe seems to create. I also tried one of the batches with baker’s unsweeted chocolate which probably also added to the problems. I’m thinking of a peanut butter version for the next try, since the added variables in the chocolate are making it hard to decide if Equal is the culprit. The peanut butter ice cream sure won’t be low in fat, but this is ice cream we’re making here, after all.

I’ll try to follow up with some pictures and results of the latest Equal challenge once I muster up the courage to give it another go.

There is this another recipe I found on Post Punk Kitchen. I haven’t tried it yet. It doesn’t use coconut milk cream at all, but rather goes with mostly tofu for the body. I’m not sure I would like it, but it might work if I’ve run out of coco milk. Another nice tip I might try from this recipe is to use maple syrup instead of turbinado sugar.

I’ve eaten, as I’m sure most vegans have, the store bought vegan ice cream, but it always seemed off somehow to me. With ice cream, the well worn motivation for homemade food certainly applies. Knowing exactly what went into the ice cream makes it taste better for some perfectly good reason.

My mouth is watering for a cone right now. See ya.

Long ago I mentioned the glory that is a vegan chocolate chip cookie and detailed a very un-detailed, and mostly useless, recipe here. Nowadays, with the amazing cookbooks that are appearing for vegans, it is not hard to find a recipe to try, but this one, which has been posted to the world by the author on her blog, amazed me so much that I had to write about it.

I am here today to tell you, in greater, and hopefully more useful, detail about this recipe that so far has been impossible for me to goof up and with one minor modification makes pretty much the best cookies, eating preferences notwithstanding, I think I have ever eaten, let alone am able to make whenever I want.

Many of you probably already know about this recipe but, for those of you who don’t, the original recipe I have fallen in love with is here, from Dreena Burton’s blog thoughtfully posted from her Vive Le Vegan cookbook.

The variation I have learned to go with, which she mentions later in her post, is to use whole wheat pastry flour, instead of all-purpose, which seems to make all the difference and elevates these cookies to greatness. It gives the overall taste of the cookie that little kick that every good cookie needs to satisfy you, make you want to always come back for more, but so satisfying that eating just one can be soooo good as to keep you from wanting or needing to eat the whole batch in one sitting. Having another cookie to look forward to can become almost zen-like in its motivation with these lovelies. I made a batch with all purpose flour and they just didn’t have that same internal combustion going on.

Besides the whole wheat pastry flour, having molasses (I’ve actually been using bead molasses instead of blackstrap because that’s all I’ve managed to find so far) and pure maple syrup are the only relatively challenging ingredients to acquire.

The only other strange thing I’ve encountered is that the amount of chips in the recipe may be high, because I always have some trying to escape the batter. For a double batch (which is almost mandatory for such a good recipe) the only thing I might change is to use a heaping half cup of chips, rather than 2/3rds of a cup.

What are you waiting for? Bake some of these up now and spread the love.