I have temporary custody of K's The Vegan Scoop cookbook, a nice motivator to clear some freezer space and churn some icecream. This book has all the American standards and extends itself towards the fruits and flavours of Asia and the Caribbean as well. Most of the creamy recipes start with a base of soy milk and soy creamer, which doesn't exactly appeal to me, but I'm happy to play around with other non-dairy milks.
I started out with the peanut butter and flaxseed recipe and a whole lot of curiosity, but it all went into the bin before even reaching the icecream churner. I was willing to go with the way the full cup of ground flaxseeds gelled up the texture but I couldn't countenance their bitterness.
Next I stuck with the peanut butter theme but tried a trustier pairing with American jelly (or berry and rhubarb jam, in my case). This 'custard' whipped to unprecedented heights in my churner, and my anticipation with it. This was a hint it'd freeze pillowy-soft. Strangely it ended up dense and rock-hard, and even given 40 minutes resting time on the bench it's firm and scoops flakily. (That flakiness seems to be the hallmark of coconut cream, which was not in the original recipe.)
This icecream is damn lucky that it tastes good. I'll contemplate a new, improved formulation as I hack my way through it.
Peanut butter & jelly icecream
(adapted from a recipe in Wheeler Del Torro's The Vegan Scoop)
400mL can coconut cream
3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup berry jam
generous pinch of salt
In a medium-large saucepan, mix together the coconut cream, almond milk, soy milk, peanut butter and brown sugar over low-medium heat. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring occasionally. When it's all smooth and well mixed and started boiling, take it off the heat to cool down a little. Stir in the vanilla and salt then refrigerate the mixture until very cold, at least 4 hours.
Churn the peanut butter mixture in an icecream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Drop generous spatulas-full of the churned icecream into a plastic storage container and drop teaspoons-full of jam in among the icecream. Freeze the icecream for at least two hours before scooping and serving.
intriguing, I've not had much luck making decent coconut icecream sans icecream maker
ReplyDeleteHi Cate! I haven't really tried it - have you used the non-icecream maker techniques with other milks and creams?
DeleteDid you use an alcohol based vanilla? I've found since adding a tablespoon of vodka or other alcohol it seems to help prevent it from going hard and flaky. The last one I made still froze super hard after a couple of days in the freezer, but left on the bench for ten minutes it was great again.
ReplyDeleteHi littleveganbear! Thanks for the tip. I think it was alcohol-based on this occasion, and a very generous splash of it too. :-)
DeleteDo you tend to use coconut milk or another milk/cream for your icecreams?
Replacing some of the sweetener with liquid glucose should help with reducing the crystallisation.
ReplyDeleteHi Eliza - thank you for this suggestion. I've never used liquid glucose before, and perhaps I should give it a shot. In the past I've had dense, crystalline results when my icecream is thin and not well whipped, but this one seemed *very* airy when I first put it in the freezer - I was pretty surprised at the outcome.
DeleteIf it sets hard in your ice cream maker wonder if it would be any different without an ice cream maker! I was pleased to see you writing about the vegan scoop as I was idling browsing through it at Mr Nice Guy's last week and wondering what I would substitute for all that soy creamer - it does seem to be in heaps of the recipes. Will be interested to see how you go with other recipes from the book. Good luck
ReplyDeleteThanks, Johanna! I imagine that it would be even more challenging to achieve a light, scoopable icecream without a churner - thankfully I have some tips in the comments here to trial next time.
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