You guys, I did it! I figured out how to turn So Delicious’ Coconut Milk Nog into a rich, creamy, honest-to-goodness ice cream!

My first attempt, you might recall, resulted in a sorbet-like concoction. Assuming that the nog was thick enough as is, I just dumped a chilled quart of the stuff into my ice cream machine and let it do its thing. Apparently there’s a higher concentration of water in the nog than I realized, because the finished product, when completely frozen, is rather hard and full of ice crystals. Delicious, but difficult to eat and not especially ice creamy. (Seriously, you have to let that block defrost on the countertop for a good half hour before you can shave a spoonful off of it!)

So this next time around I tried a different approach. Not only did I add some arrowroot “slurry” to thicken the batter up (a standard procedure in soy milk-based ice cream recipes), but I simmered the rest of the nog on the stove top for a bit, so that some of the excess water evaporated. And it worked! Once it was chilled, the batter had the consistency of pudding (that’s good!), and the frozen dessert is rich, thick, and creamy – much more like ice cream than Italian ice!

If you’re anything like me, you stocked up on nog while it was in season and now have a fridge full of drinks set to expire. (I have three more quarts, all dated February 8!) Ice cream to the rescue! Freeze that deliciousness and enjoy it all year long. Errr, not that it’ll last long enough for you to celebrate Christmas in July. Probably you’ll polish it off well before spring – it’s Coconut Milk Nog Ice Cream, yo! But still, one can dream.

 

Seen here with a chocolate, raspberry ganache-filled heart from Rescue Chocolate!
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Coconut Milk Nog Ice Cream

(Makes about 2/3 of a quart.)

Ingredients

1 quart So Delicious Coconut Milk Nog, divided
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder

Directions

1. Pour 1/4 cup of the nog into a small mug or bowl. Add the arrowroot powder and whisk briskly with a fork. Set aside.

2. Pour the remaining nog into a medium-sized sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring or whisking the liquid every few minutes so as to prevent burning. When done, increase the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Remove from the heat and immediate add the arrowroot slurry. (You may need to whisk the slurry again before doing so, in case the powder has settled to the bottom of the mug.) This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably.

3. Cover the container and chill the batter in the fridge for three to six hours or more. (I prefer to make the batter the night before, and let it chill in the fridge overnight.) When cold, process according to your ice cream machine’s instructions. Enjoy immediately as soft serve or chill in the freezer for a half hour or more for a firmer ice cream. When kept in an airtight container, you can store homemade ice cream in the freezer for months at a time!

 

 

FYI: This process would probably also work well with other seasonal nondairy drinks, such as Silk’s Pumpkin Spice, Nog, and Chocolate Mint flavors. I usually have good luck making ice cream with Pumpkin Spice and arrowroot powder, but the Nog and Chocolate Spice produce an icier dessert. Simmering them on the stove top first (as outlined above) could help fix this problem, I think.

Sure, so maybe the holidays are, like, SO LAST MONTH. But my house is still dressed to party, and besides, better late than never! Vegan foods never go out of style, yo.

Let me begin by saying that I didn’t do nearly as much baking this year as last. With the exception of some cookies for our neighbors, I didn’t make any gifts by hand. Mostly ’cause I was pressed for time, but also because I’m still trying to work off the ten pounds I gained by “taste testing” 2010′s handmade presents.

Instead I hit up Vegan Etsy: an assortment of vegan candies from NoWhey for my grandma Arnie; SuperFoxySweets vegan chocolate truffles for my grandma Vita; and a PB lover’s sampler box, along with peppermint patties, extra peanut butter cups, and a pumpkin roll (all from Sweet Vegan Delight) for my mum – all for less than $150! SUCH A STEAL!

Elsewhere on the internets, a box o’ vegan wine for my aunt Cindy and her BFF Hank (from Clos LaChance Winery, though I don’t see any vegan options at the moment) and a Ron Swanson mug for Shane.

“Just give me all the bacon and eggs you have. Wait … wait. I worry what you just heard was: Give me a lot of bacon and eggs. What I said was: Give me all the bacon and eggs you have. Do you understand?
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(From Peachy Apricot on etsy, in case you want one for your own bad self.)

My sister Meesh was easy; her only wish was more fruit leather, so I sent her a few pounds of the stuff. (We have a huge container in the freezer. Great for distracting Ralphie from his allergy shots!)

My brother-in-law sent us a basket of vegan goodies from Marge’s Bakery in Northridge, CA. It’s not an exclusively vegan establishment, but it has a decent number of vegan options relative to its non-vegan offerings.

The basket included four varieties of cookies: California Snowballs (melt-in-your mouth good!), Kiss of Lemon (thin and crispy and very lemon-y; my least favorite of the bunch), Ginger Snaps (soft, chewy, and surprisingly delicious, since I’m usually lukewarm on these) and Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (crunchy, like most store-bought cookies, and super-delish – but also quite small). They were devoured in less than a week.

Also present: two loaves of sweet bread. Namely, zucchini bread and carrot cake. (The latter is technically a cake, I guess, but it had the look and feel of a sweet bread to me. It was remarkable similar in texture and sweetness to the zucchini bread, in any case.)

The zucchini bread was at least as good as my own recipe, but not necessarily better. Sweet but not sickeningly so. I especially loved the sweet glaze on top of the bread, which added that little extra something to the bread. (Note to self: you simply must find that recipe!)

The highlight of the carrot cake was most def the frosting, which was delightfully spicy (Not in a hot way! I detected hints of Pumpkin Spice – but then my palate’s not all that sophisticated, so who knows?) and stood a good inch in height. Maybe this is what transforms a humble carrot loaf into a cake? Either way, NOM.

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I don’t usually make vanilla ice cream from scratch – why bother when you can buy it somewhat inexpensively by the quart? and at your local Wal-Mart even! – but I had some soy creamer and vanilla beans that needed to be used up simultaneously, and there you go. With both vanilla beans and vanilla extract, this is a doubly rich, doubly vanilla dessert that’s sure to please the vegan vanilla lover in your life. And really, who doesn’t like vanilla?

Fwiw, I had to hit the internets to figure out how in the ‘verse to use a vanilla bean. Yes it was my first time! (Honestly, I’m not even sure where they came from. It’s like vanilla beans just appeared in my cabinet, yo!) This tutorial at Zoe Bakes was somewhat useful, though I wasn’t clear on whether I was supposed to toss the emptied bean pod in with the ice cream batter while it was simmering on the stove, or simply set it aside for later use. I cooked it with the batter and discarded it when I was done, with no adverse reaction. So I guess that’s one way to use a bean pod?
 

Very Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 cup vanilla soy milk, divided
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
2 cups vanilla soy creamer
3/4 cup sugar
1 or 2 vanilla beans
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small bowl or mug, combine 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot powder. Whisk briskly and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of the soy milk with all of the soy creamer and sugar. Heat on medium.

3. While the batter is warming up, slice a vanilla bean(s) lengthwise and carefully scrape out all the seeds. Add them to the batter and whisk well. If you’d like, toss the emptied bean pod(s) in as well. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

4. Once the mix begins to boil, remove from heat. Remove the bean pod and add the arrowroot “slurry” immediately. This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Chill in the fridge for four to six hours or more. (Usually I prefer to let the batter chill overnight.) Process according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.

 

I am really digging this newfangled, frozen-bananas-in-the-food-processor method of ice cream making, y’all! Unlike with an ice cream machine, you can be so much more spontaneous. As long as you have a supply of overripe, diced bananas sitting in the freezer, you’re free to make a batch of ice cream any time you like. A mid-morning snack? BAM! Afternoon delight? DONE! Dessert after dinner? YOU GOT IT! 2AM munchies? NO PROBLEM, SISTER! Not that I don’t love my ice cream maker, but there’s something to be said about ice cream on demand, you know?

So yesterday I was craving something coco-nutty (I’m probably still in withdrawal from those Iron Chef-inspired, coconut buttercream-frosted chocolate chip brownies!) and BOOM!, just like that I decided to make a bowl of coconut banana ice cream. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS, with TRIPLE THE COCONUT: coconut milk, coconut extract and shredded coconuts. (Though you can skip the coconut milk if you don’t have any on hand. The extract and shreds are really the most important part!)

So good, and good for you too! You can’t say that about the store-bought stuff. (Okay, so you totally could – but you’d be lying. Liar liar hemp pants on fire!)

 
Coconut Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 or 5 diced and frozen overripe bananas
1/4 cup coconut milk, chilled if possible
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Sugar to taste

Directions

Combine the frozen bananas, coconut milk and coconut extract in a food processor and mix until smoothly blended. Sample the batter and, if it’s not sweet enough for you, add a tablespoon or two of sugar (or other vegan sweetener) and the shredded coconut and process until blended.

Try not to overprocess the batter, as this can result in soupy ice cream. If the soft serve is too much on the soft side, transfer it to a covered container and store in the freezer for an hour or until it’s thickened up a bit.

 

 
I noticed a few recipes for sweet & salty chocolate-covered pretzel & caramel ice cream floating around the internets this summer, but they all looked too complicated to attempt – at least to my heat-addled brain. So I decided to make my own! This dessert is super-simple; basically it’s a mashup of a caramel ice cream recipe I previously tried and enjoyed, combined with chocolate pretzel bark. (Like chocolate-covered pretzels, but lazier!)

One word: omnomnomnom!
 
Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Pretzel Bark

Ingredients

…for the ice cream!

1 cup soy milk, divided
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
2 cups soy creamer
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup caramel sauce

(I used the Soft-Set Caramel recipe found in the December 2010 issue of VegNews, mostly because I had some left over from a previous batch of caramel ice cream. But you can just as easily use a recipe from the interwebs, such as this one from The Spooky Vegan.)

…for the chocolate bark!

4 cups pretzels
12 ounces vegan chocolate chips
1 teaspoon pretzel salt

Directions

…make the ice cream batter!

1. In a small bowl or mug, combine 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot powder. Whisk briskly and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of the soy milk with all of the soy creamer and sugar. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

3. Once the mix begins to boil, remove from heat and add the arrowroot “slurry.” This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Chill in the fridge for four to six hours or more. (Usually I prefer to let the batter chill overnight.)

…make the chocolate bark!

4. Using either a tightly sealed plastic bag and a rolling pin or a food processor (or your own hands), crush the pretzels into small bits roughly 1/5 of their original size. Set aside.

5. In a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips on high for one minute. Stir and heat again, in fifteen- to twenty-second increments, until the chips are all melted.

6. Add the pretzels to the chocolate chips and stir well. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper using a large spoon. Try to spread the mix as thin as possible; pretzels layered two or three high will be harder to break apart once hardened. Sprinkle the pretzel salt on top for an extra-salty treat, Let chill in the freezer for at least a half an hour. When cold, break the bark apart into smaller pieces. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

…make the ice cream!

7. Combine the ice cream batter and caramel sauce, mixing well with a whisk. Pour the batter into your ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

8. When done, transfer your ice cream into an airtight container. Enjoy immediately as soft serve or chill in the fridge for an hour or so for a thicker, more frozen dessert.

9. You can either add the Chocolate Pretzel Bark to the batter as it’s dispensed (or scooped by hand) from the ice cream machine, or as you serve the ice cream – just mix a little in as you scoop it, or use it as a topping. Unless you’re going to scarf the entire quart of ice immediately, I recommend the latter: the pretzels stay fresher on their own in the fridge than when mixed in with the ice cream and frozen.
 

 
Banana ice cream, loaded with nuts at the husband’s request. And when I say “loaded,” think crunchy peanut butter, only frozen.

The next time an omni asks you where you get your protein, tell ‘em “IN MY ICE CREAM!” Snap!
 
Oh Nuts! Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

5 over-ripe bananas, peeled, sliced and frozen
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup almond butter
2 tablespoons flax seeds
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup peanuts
1/4 cup cashews

Directions

Combine the walnuts, almonds, peanuts and cashews in a food processor and pulse until they’re chopped to your liking. Transfer to a large, airtight container and set aside.

Combine the frozen bananas, peanut butter, almond butter and flax seeds in a food processor and mix until smoothly blended. Try not to overprocess the batter, as this can result in soupy ice cream.

Add the ice cream batter to the chopped nuts and mix well. Enjoy immediately or, if the soft serve is too much on the soft side, store in the freezer for an hour or until it’s thickened up a bit. Hint: it’s the perfect pick me up for a blah Monday morning breakfast!

Optional: Sub in your own favorite nuts in place of those suggested above; e.g., for a peanut & almond-y dessert, omit the walnuts and cashews and use a half cup each of peanuts and almonds.

Or, for a less crunchy ice cream, reduce the total amount of nuts to half a cup.
 

 

 
Readers of His Dark Materials get their first taste of chocolatl when, in The Golden Compass, Marisa Coulter uses the sweet, hot drink to lure unsuspecting children into the hands of the Gobblers – more commonly known as the General Oblation Board, a research arm of the church which conducts unthinkable experiments on children and their daemons. (See the excerpt below. Yes, I included an excerpt! ALWAYS QUOTE PHILIP PULLMAN.) A favorite of children and adults alike, “chocolatl” is what people in Lyra’s world call hot chocolate or, more generally, chocolate.

Since I experimented with marzipan ice cream earlier this month, I decided that it’d only be fair to give chocolatl the frozen treatment too. (“Chocolatl.” “Chocolatl.” It just rolls off the tongue, no?) Plus, Chicago Soydairy is totally running a veganmofo contest: create “something amazing” with Dandies, enter to win a year’s supply of the white, puffy stuff. How could I resist? (Answer: I could not. I WAS POWERLESS.)

idk if double chocolate marshmallow ice cream, topped with crumbled graham crackers and even more marshmallows counts as “something amazing” – but given this dessert’s backstory, I’d like to think that it’s “something charming,” at the very least. I hope you agree!

(…and then go pick up a copy of His Dark Materials, stat. I need some fellow heathen vegans to geek out with over Lyra & Will and Mary & the mulefa and the witches and Iorek & Lee and Baruch & Balthamos and dust and the deaths and Xaphania SO BAD IT HURTS! ON A PHYSICAL LEVEL, for reals.)

If not, perhaps the variations for S’mores Ice Cream and S’mores Ice Cream Sammies will do the trick? (I know, bury the lede much?) Three desserts in one!
 

 
Frozen Chocolatl (i.e., “Chocolate Marshmallow Ice Cream” in Will’s world)

Ingredients

1 cup soy milk (plain or vanilla), divided
2 cups soy creamer (plain or vanilla)
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
30 Dandies marshmallows, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegan chocolate bark or chocolate chips (optional)
Chocolate sprinkles, chocolate chips, Dandies and/or crumbled graham crackers to garnish (optional)

Directions

1. In a small bowl or mug, combine 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot powder. Whisk briskly and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of the soy milk with all of the soy creamer and sugar. Whisk briskly over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until blended. Add the chocolate chips and one half of the marshmallows and stir until they’re melted. Increasing the heat, bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

3. Once the mix begins to boil, remove from heat and add the arrowroot “slurry.” This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Chill in the fridge for four to six hours or more prior to processing in an ice cream machine. (Usually I prefer to let the batter chill overnight.)

4. Process the batter according to your ice cream machine’s directions. Add the remainder of the Dandies to the batter while it’s processing – earlier in the cycle for smaller bits, later for larger chunks. Ditto: the chocolate bark (or chips). (If you’re afraid of gumming up your machine, you can add them after the batter’s done processing, as you’re dispensing the ice cream. In this case, you’ll need to dice the Dandies by hand.) When done processing, transfer to an airtight container.

5. Serve immediately for soft serve or pop in the freezer for an hour+ for a more solid dessert.

6. Along with vegan sprinkles, chocolate chips, and/or graham crackers, use those extra Dandies for topping. Assuming you didn’t scarf them while waiting for the ice cream to freeze, that is!

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Another week, another surprisingly delicious, shockingly simple banana ice cream recipe! With desserts like these, there’s no reason to let “spoiled” bananas go to waste! (Unless you’re allergic to bananas, in which case you wouldn’t have brought them home to begin with. I hope.)

Without further adieu, I give you Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Ice Cream! Super-yummy, though the Banana Bread Soft Serve is still my one and only favorite. There’s just something about allspice, amirite people?
 
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 or 5 over-ripe bananas, peeled, sliced and frozen
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (to taste)
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chocolate bark

Directions

Combine the frozen bananas, vanilla extract, cinnamon and cocoa powder in a food processor and mix until smoothly blended. Sample the batter and, if it’s not sweet enough for you, add a tablespoon or two of sugar (or other vegan sweetener) and chocolate chips or bark and process until blended. Try not to overprocess the batter, as this can result in soupy ice cream. If the soft serve is too much on the soft side, transfer it to a covered container and store in the freezer for an hour or until it’s thickened up a bit.

Optional: for more finely chopped chocolate chunks, process the chocolate chips or bark first, and then add the bananas and follow the directions from there.
 

 
Enjoy: immediately! often! for breakfast, lunch or dinner! with omnivores! for an audience! but not with dogs, cause chocolate isn’t kind to them, yo! (Sub in carob powder and/or chips for a dog-friendly recipe.)
 

 
Ice cream floating in mug of chilled root beer, can a more perfect french fry and veggie burger chaser exist? I THINK NOT. But this Root Beer Float Ice Cream comes close, especially if you’re an ice cream fiend like me.

At first I had the idea to make a root beer float using root beer ice cream, but then I thought: redundant much? Seriously, what’s the point of making root beer ice cream if you’re just going to dump it in a like-flavored beverage? Then it hit me: why not replicate ALL THE FLAVORS of a root beer float in frozen dessert form? Root beer ice cream + vanilla (or chocolate) ice cream = Root Beer Float Ice Cream for the retro vegan win!

In this recipe, the root beer and vanilla (or chocolate) ice cream is made separately and blended after the fact, Neapolitan styley. It’s like you’re freezing the root beer part of a float around the ice cream scoops! Heavenly.

Also, I bet this tastes awesome on fries. (Totes joking, even I’m not that perverse!)
 

 

Root Beer Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 cup soy milk, divided
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
2 cups soy creamer
1/2 cup root beer
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 to 4 teaspoons root beer concentrate (amount will vary depending on the brand)

Directions

1. In a small bowl or mug, combine 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot powder. Whisk briskly and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of the soy milk with all of the soy creamer, the root beer and the sugar. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

3. Once the mix begins to boil, remove from heat and add the arrowroot “slurry.” This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Add two teaspoons of the root beer extract, mix well, and sample the batter. If the taste isn’t quite strong enough, add another teaspoon and repeat until the root beer flavor is to your liking. Chill in the fridge for four to six hours or more prior to processing in an ice cream machine. (Usually I prefer to let the batter chill overnight.)

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Fuck you, Monday! You ain’t got nothing on vegan breakfast ice cream!
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My very first Iron Chef Challenge, y’all! 2011 is the first year I’ve ever felt confident enough of my culinary abilities to join in, and I hope my Chocolate Chip Coffee Banana Ice Cream doesn’t disappoint.

As you’ve probably already guessed, the ingredients for this challenge are (drumroll please!) banana and coffee. I really wanted to cook up a batch of banana pancakes, topped with coffee-infused syrup (what can I say, I’m on a pancake kick!), but just didn’t have the time.

(We’re sealing the concrete floors this weekend! I know it sounds like a drag, but it’s so worth it in the end. When freshly sealed, the floors look like they have a candy-coated shell! So rad! And then someone – *cough* Mags *cough* – pees in the hallway and it’s all downhill from there.)

Instead I settled on coffee-flavored banana ice cream (as always, no ice cream machine required!), which fits in nicely with two of my themes (meant in the loosest sense of the word!) this mofo, namely ice cream and frugality.

I was a little skeptical of the banana-coffee flavor combo – especially since the taste of bananas can be overwhelming in these ice creams, what with bananas serving as the base and all! – but this is one delicious dessert. The bananas complement the coffee nicely, and how can you go wrong with chocolate?

Okay, so maybe coffee is a bit more than just an accent flavor, but the good news is that you can vary the strength of the coffee according to your tastes. Use two teaspoons for a light touch, or four (or more!) for a stronger brew. Decaf or no, it’s your call. But may I suggest this is as an early morning pick-me-up? Coffee and fruit, all in one convenient little bowl. So simple, yet so divine.
 

The artsy crop.
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Chocolate Chip Coffee Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 or 5 over-ripe bananas, peeled, sliced and frozen
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup soy milk or – better yet – soy creamer
2 to 4 teaspoons instant coffee, depending on how strong you like your ice cream! (I used three.)
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (to taste)
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chocolate bark

Directions

In a small mug, whisk the soy milk with the instant coffee. Combine the frozen bananas, vanilla extract and coffee in a food processor and mix until smoothly blended. Sample the batter and, if it’s not sweet enough for you, add a tablespoon or two of sugar (or other vegan sweetener) and the chocolate chips or bark and process until blended. Try not to overprocess the batter, as this can result in soupy ice cream. If the soft serve is too much on the soft side, transfer it to a covered container and store in the freezer for an hour or until it’s thickened up a bit.

Optional: for more finely chopped chocolate chunks, process the chocolate chips or bark first, and then add the bananas and follow the directions from there.
 

Soft serve, freshly whipped.
(Ignore the icky Cool Whip container, mkay?
It’s a throwback from my pre-vegan days.
Reuse, then recycle!)
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