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For my vegan and lactose-intolerant friends I’ve been trying to explore more recipes that don’t involve dairy products. I stumbled upon some cheap coconut milk at the store and decided to make up something with it.
(As a side note, my friends and I got onto a biological discussion about coconut anatomy and what part of it was the seed specifically and what the heck was coconut milk anyhow. Maybe you and your scientifically-minded friends were wondering, too? Wikipedia is actually quite useful for answering this question and it turns out that coconut “milk” is actually pureed/liquified coconut meat.)
I used some decadently dark bing cherries for this recipe but any kind works. Since this was an experiment I did only a half recipe, this can easily be doubled for a full quart of dairy free ice cream.
Cherry Coconut Sorbet
(Makes 1 pint of sorbet)
Ingredients
- 2 cups frozen or fresh cherries
- 1/2 cups of water
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 1 cup coconut milk
Directions
- Remove stems and pits from cherries. If you’re using frozen cherries, half-thawed cherries are easier to pit than completely thawed ones, and once they’ve completely thawed, then the juice gets everywhere.
- Mix cherries with water, sugar, coconut milk and lemon juice.
- Puree mixture in a food processor.
- Churn and freeze in your ice cream machine according to its directions.
I’ve always wondered how “Blue Raspberry” became a flavor of candies and desserts. Was there a blue raspberry plant? I was familiar with black raspberries (different species from blackberries, sometimes called “black caps” in some areas of the U.S.) but I didn’t know of a blue raspberry plant. Turns out, black raspberries are blue raspberries. Not that it is really relevant anymore since blue raspberries flavor is predominantly made by food coloring these days.
Sadly, I don’t have access to black raspberries or blue raspberries, whatever you want to call them. But I do have a ton of blueberries in my freezer and raspberries, too. So, I decided to make them into a blue raspberry sorbet.
This recipe has an additional, healthy, twist: replacing white sugar with agave nectar. Agave nectar is great stuff, but it is expensive, so I’ve included information for making this without it, as well.
The sorbet turned out to be nicely blue and red. My friends really enjoyed trying to guess what kinds of berries I had used.
Blue Raspberry Sorbet
(Makes 1 quart of sorbet)
Ingredients
- 1 cup of water (increase to 1 ¼ cups if using sugar)
- 1/2 cup agave nectar (Or 2/3rd a cup of sugar)
- 3 cups of berries (Approx. 1 ½ cups each of raspberries and blueberries)
Directions
- Puree raspberries and blueberries separately, keeping them from mixing.
- In a large measuring cup, mix agave nectar (or sugar) and water, stir to combine.
- Pour agave(or sugar)-water mixture in with the raspberries and puree further to thoroughly mix them.
- Churn raspberry mixture in your ice cream machine. At about 15-20 minutes (depending on your ice cream machine) the sorbet will become mostly firm and mixed.
- At this point, pour in the pureed blueberries, slowly. This will create blueberry swirls evenly distributed throughout the sorbet. It is tricky to make it look like a fancy swirl as in store-bought ice cream but it still looks fun. And tastes fantastic.
This ice cream was inspired by David Lebovitz’s “Fresh Mint Ice Cream” recipe in The Perfect Scoop. I know I mention this book a lot, that’s because it is just such an awesome book when it comes to good recipes and ice cream advice.
This ice cream was a bit hit, it was gone almost instantly when my classmates and coworkers heard that it was available. It didn’t even have time to melt. I am a huge fan of any ice cream that involves mint so I adored it.
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
(Makes 1 quart of ice cream)
Ingredients
- 2 cups of “lightly packed” mint (peppermint or spearmint, either works)
- 2 cups of Half&Half
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 1/8th teaspoon of peppermint extract
- A generous 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
- Food coloring (completely optional)
Directions
- Heat Half&Half, sugar and salt in a saucepan at medium heat for a few minutes until it is slightly warm. Make sure you don’t heat it too much or the cream will curdle.
- Add in the mint leaves and stir them so they are completely covered by liquid. Cover the saucepan and remove it from the heat.
- Steep the mint at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Strain the mint and cream mixture to remove the leaves.
- Add in the peppermint extract and mix thoroughly.
- Churn mixture in your ice cream machine, if you want to add in the food coloring, this is a good time to do it. I only added in a few (3) drops but it isn’t a necessary addition.
- About 20-25 minutes into the churning process (the exact timing depends on your ice cream machine but you want the ice cream to be mostly firm but not quite done yet) add in the chocolate chips.
haha! I found the missing file full of the ice cream recipes I worked on last summer. yay! There will be a number of recipes appearing over the next few days. Here’s the first one:
Pistachio Ice Cream
(Makes 1 quart of ice cream)
I was searching around for a good pistachio ice cream recipe in my cookbooks and online. Most involved pistachio paste, which I didn’t have (and couldn’t get any since I was living way out in the mountains at the time). Then I found this amazing recipe for pistachio paste! I was incredibly excited. I still couldn’t make it with the ingredients I had at hand (I am very grateful that I now live in civilization where one doesn’t have to drive 2 hours to a halfway decent grocery store) but it got me thinking.
Since I couldn’t use amazing homemade pistachio paste, I improvised. This ice cream is probably not as impressive (nor as green) as one that involves pistachio paste but it was still absolutely delicious! If you’re in a pinch and wanting some pistachio ice cream, this does the trick really well.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of shelled pistachios
- 2 cups of Half&Half
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Directions
- Spend a long time shelling pistachios, discover that your fingers are now kinda green.
- Using a mortar and pestle, grind up the pistachios.
- Heat Half&Half and sugar at medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. As always, make sure you don’t let the cream curdle or scorch.
- Pour cream mixture in a bowl with the pistachios and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.
- Freeze in your ice cream machine according to its instructions.
- A fun addition if you like chunks of things in your ice cream, is to throw in some coarsely chopped pistachios as the end of the churning time so your ice cream has extra pistachios.
Today I made the coveted, impressive, fan favorite: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.
I cobbled together this perfect recipe for eggless cookie dough and this recipe for “Ben&Jerry’s” Cookie Dough Ice cream. I thought the cookie dough recipe wouldn’t be enough and so I made extra but it ended up being unnecessary (oh darn, I have extra cookie dough that has to be eaten). For the “Ben&Jerry’s” recipe (I don’t know how legit that title is) I actually used half&half, only used egg yolks (egg white aren’t needed with ice cream) and reduced the sugar to a half cup instead of 3/4ths. These are my personal preferences, I’m sure it would’ve worked well without.
I’m not 100% pleased with the cream base but, honestly, that is me being a picky perfectionist. It tastes fantastic! :)
Did you know that July is National Ice Cream Month?
I’ve been celebrating a lot! And the third Sunday in July is National Ice Cream Day! So go have a double scoop in celebration!
Apparently, this holiday was actually decreed by Reagan in 1984. Personally, I think July is perfect for ice cream so I’m glad someone got around to it.
When I have more time in my busy schedule I will post a list (and recipes!) of what I’ve been making during National Ice Cream Month. Tonight, in celebration of National Ice Cream Day I’m going to make another huckleberry ice cream (I swear they are multiplying in the freezer) and perhaps some kind of sorbet! :)
Since I have a plethora of frozen huckleberries and the warm weather is causing my ice cream stash to disappear fast, I am making a lot of huckleberry ice cream! Here are two variants I made recently (I’ll be posting a 3rd soon, too!).
Huckleberry-Chocolate Ice Cream
(Makes 1 quart of ice cream)
I love chocolate so there was no way I was going to neglect this most important of ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1-2 cups of frozen huckleberries
- 1 and 1/2 cups of Half&Half
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
Directions
- Mix the Half&Half, sugar and chocolate in a saucepan. Melt over medium heat, being careful not to scortch the cream.
- In a bowl, smash the frozen huckleberries.
- Pour the melted chocolate & cream mixture into the huckleberries. Mix thouroughly and then chill in the fridge.
- Freeze in your ice cream machine according to its instructions.
Huckleberry-Rhubarb Ice Cream Recipe
(makes 1 quart of ice cream)
I was searching for another way to make (yet another) huckleberry ice cream intriguing. I had some leftover rhubarb in the freezer and decided to take advantage of a “secret ingredient”. When I served this up, most of my friends loved it, but no one could guess the “vegetable” that made the tangy background flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 a cup of frozen huckleberries
- 1/2 a cup of frozen, sliced rhubarb
- 2 cups Half&Half
- 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
- 1/2 cup of sugar
Directions
- Smash the rhubarb and huckleberries until well pulped. The rhubarb might be a bit stringy, this is okay, just smash it up so there aren’t huge chunks of rhubarb.
- Pour in Half&Half, lemon juice and sugar. Mix thouroughly.
- Freeze in your ice cream machine according to its instructions.
One of today’s ice cream experiments yielded Yerba Mate ice cream.
Yerba Mate is a plant from South America that is actually related to the Holly tree. It’s used like tea leaves and is supposed to invigorate and awaken those who drink it.
A Jar full of Yerba Mate leaves
The ice cream is very true to the drink’s flavor so it’s not a kind you’d sit down to eat a whole bowl. It is very good in small bits, though. I could see it as a palette cleanser or as a side item to another dessert.
The Recipe:
(Makes 1 pint of ice cream)
Ingredients
- 2 Tea-balls full of Yerba Mate (I’m not sure how this translates out to tablespoons)
- 2 cups of half&half (or your preferred cream)
- 4 teaspoons of sugar
Directions
- Pour half&half into a saucepan. Set the tea-balls full of Yerba Mate in the cream. You’ll want to select the right saucepan so the tea-balls are actually underneath the liquid.
- Infuse the Yerba Mate into the half&half under very very low heat. You don’t want to scald or boil the cream. I let it infuse for about 10 minutes on the lowest possible setting on the burner.
- Add in sugar (more or less to-taste; this was specifically a low-sugar ice cream hence it only being 4 teaspoons). Mix until it dissolves.
- Freeze in your ice cream machine according to its instructions.
Sadly, I neglected to photograph the ice cream before I gave it away. :( I’m still getting the hang of this whole ice cream blogging thing.
