Coconut Bliss: A Review

Fear not, dear readers! My recent absence from blogging is not because of my very bad veganness or because I'm bored with ice cream. Unfortunately, I've been ill for a few months now, and haven't had the time or the energy to make up any new recipes. (And, no, before you ask, I am not ill because I am vegan. I've seen four internists, six specialists, two naturopaths, two acupuncturists, and one shaman. No one has suggested that my diet has any relation to my ongoing illness.)

Anyway. Since I'm not up to making my own ice cream, my poor husband has had to start buying his ice cream at the grocery store. However, this led to a wonderful discovery! I heard about Larry and Luna's Coconut Bliss from a reader quite some time ago, but I didn't purchase any until recently. My husband found it at our local co-op, and it was on sale. Normally this runs about five or six dollars a pint--yikes! Since it was on sale, though, he picked some up for us to review. Our sample: Cherry Amaretto.

The verdict: I love that I can recognize all the ingredients on the label: organic coconut milk, organic agave syrup, organic cherries, organic vanilla extract, organic almond extract. Cool. (They're also gluten-free, which is great for those with allergies.) Also, the texture was quite creamy, though it does freeze pretty hard. The label says to let it sit at room temperature for five to ten minutes before serving. I'm too impatient and would just microwave it for a few seconds to soften it up. And, most importantly, it was yummy. I think my husband polished off the entire pint in about four days.

Unfortunately, this brand isn't available nationwide yet. Their website says you can check stores in Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Hawaii, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. If your local Whole Foods or other health/natural food store doesn't carry it, you can always request that they try carrying it!

The Very Bad Vegan

Apparently, my last post about Guinness Ice Cream has alienated about half my blog readers, who are convinced that I am a VERY BAD VEGAN.

They are so very right. I am a terrible vegan. Once I bought fortified juice the contained vitamin D3. I eat in restaurants that serve meat, and I don't harangue the staff about whether my food is cooked on the same grill as animal products. I have accidentally purchased cereal that contained honey--and then ate it anyway. I don't own a copy of Animal Ingredients A to Z.

Actually, I did own a copy once, shortly after becoming vegan. I remember flipping through the pages and feeling overwhelmed that I would have to memorize this long list of often obscure ingredients and contact each company from whom I purchased food or other products to ask if they used, at any point, any one of thousands of animal-derived ingredients. Part of me thought that this would make me way hard core, the baddest-ass vegan on the block. The rest of me thought that maybe this vegan thing was, like all my friends kept telling me, way too extreme and difficult and not at all practical.

Since then, I've come to realize that obsessing over minute traces of hidden ingredients (or accidental "contamination" in restaurants) makes veganism look like it's not very much fun and takes way too much work. I'd much rather people spend time with me and come away with the impression that veganism isn't a militant all-or-nothing battle to prove my street cred, but rather a way to reduce the suffering of animals. I personally agree with Matt Ball, co-founder of Vegan Outreach and generally supernice guy,

Conversely, for every person we convince that veganism is overly-demanding by obsessing with an ever-increasing list of ingredients, we do worse than nothing: we turn someone away who could have made a real difference for animals if they hadn't met us! Currently the vast majority of people in our society have no problem eating the actual leg of a chicken. It is not surprising that many people dismiss vegans as unreasonable and irrational when our example includes interrogating waiters, not eating veggie burgers cooked on the same grill with meat, not taking photographs or using medicines, etc.

Instead of spending our limited time and resources worrying about the margins (cane sugar, film, medicine, etc.), our focus should be on increasing our impact every day. Helping just one person change leads to hundreds fewer animals suffering in factory farms. By choosing to promote compassionate eating, every person we meet is a potential major victory.

Admittedly, this results-based view of veganism is not as straightforward as consulting a list. Areas of concern range from the example we set to the allocation of resources, asking questions such as: Do I bother asking for an ingredient list when with non-veg friends and family, perhaps not eating anything, and risk making veganism appear petty and impossible? How should I spend or donate my limited money and time?

Situations are subtle and opportunities unique, thus there can be no set answers. But if our decisions are guided by a desire to accomplish the most good, we each have enormous potential to create change. (link)

That said, if you don't want to use Guinness in your ice cream because it might contain isinglass, I'm sure you can find a different beer. I don't know of one, because I don't drink beer. I couldn't tell you the difference between a pale ale and a stout. When I do buy beer for my husband, it's almost always from one of our local microbrews and I have no idea if they use isinglass or not. Because, as we have established, I am a very bad vegan.

I'm OK with being a bad vegan. You can stop reading my blog if you want, as some have threatened. You can even modify my recipes to your standard of veganism. That's cool with me.

I'm more concerned with making veganism fun and accessible, and in pursuit of that goal I play around with ice cream, write this blog, and do a lot of volunteering for Vegan Outreach, handing out thousands of copies of "Why Vegan" and "Even If You Like Meat" on college campuses, at festivals, and outside of concerts. Is that enough to let me into the vegan club?

Guinness Ice Cream

Danielle F. sent me this recipe. She says, "I'm not a vegan, and frankly, I know nothing about it, but I have a friend who is lactose intolerant, and I found this recipe for Guinness ice cream that I wanted to try but wanted her to be able to eat, so I adapted it using your website and recipes. Thought I'd share. I realized afterwards that Guinness is actually a genius choice for vegan ice cream because it already has a creamy flavor."

I use arrowroot powder to thicken my ice creams, but Danielle skipped the arrowroot altogether, so I'll leave it out of the recipe, as well. Here's Danielle's awesome creation:

2 c. soy creamer (or other non-dairy milk)
1 c. soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
12 oz. Guinness
3/4 c. sugar

Whisk ingredients together by hand. For best results, chill before freezing. Then freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. Enjoy! Raise a scoop in honor of Danielle!

Danielle notes that this recipe made more liquid than her ice cream maker could handle in one freezing cycle. So you can either scale back the amounts, or freeze in batches. Don't overfill the ice cream maker. It makes the baby Jesus cry.

Chocolate Candy Cane Ice Cream

Chocolate and mint go so well together, and now that candy canes are everywhere, I just had to mix the two. If you want to skip the chocolate for pure candy cane bliss, just follow the recipe variation listed below.

2 c. soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
1 c. soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
¾ c. sugar
1½ c. chocolate chips
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla extract
2 t. peppermint extract
1 c. chopped candy canes

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, sugar, and chocolate chips together in a saucepan. Heat gently until the chocolate melts, then bring to a boil. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and immediately stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Add the vanilla and peppermint extracts.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add the chopped candy canes in the last 5 minutes of freezing.

Variation:

Candy Cane: Omit the chocolate chips. Add an additional cup soy milk.

Why no ice cream?

It pains me greatly that I have not made and shared a new vegan ice cream recently. But I've got a really good excuse--we bought a house! So we have been dealing with all the closing stuff, then the moving stuff, and then the unpacking stuff. Lots of stuff, no?

Anyway, my wonderful husband recently bought frozen prickly pear, guava, and passion fruit for me in big jars, so I've got several ice cream fantasies floating around in my head. (Passion fruit + chocolate = SO GOOD.) And I've unpacked my ice cream maker. So...soon. I will be back soon.

Prickly Pear Ice Cream

Below you will find two recipes for prickly pear ice cream: the recipe I actually made, and the recipe I would eventually like to make. See, I used to live in Arizona, where I took prickly pear fruit for granted. You could just walk out to your yard (or your neighbor’s) and pick the prickly pears. Now I’m in Seattle and have a great plum tree, but no cacti. My mother-in-law graciously gave me a bottle of prickly pear syrup, which I used in the first recipe below. The syrup would make a great addition to lemonade or margaritas, but sadly tasted more like sugar than prickly pear. (This didn’t keep us from enjoying the ice cream, mind you!) I think if I could find prickly pear concentrate, this method would produce better results.

The second recipe is what I will try to make when I get my greedy little paws on some prickly pears. It will also be a great chance to use agave nectar in ice cream, since you’ll have this whole desert thing going on.

Recipe #1:

2 c. soy creamer, or any non-dairy milk
1 ½ c. soy milk, or any non-dairy milk
¾ c. prickly pear syrup
2 T. lime juice
2 T. arrowroot powder
2 – 4 T. tequila (optional)

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, prickly pear syrup, and lime juice together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. After the mixture is cool, stir in the tequila, if using. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Recipe #2:

5 - 6 ripe prickly pear fruits
2 c. soy creamer, or any non-dairy milk
1 ½ c. soy milk, or any non-dairy milk
½ c. sugar (or ¼ c. agave nectar)
2 T. lime juice
2 T. arrowroot powder
2 – 4 T. tequila (optional)

Carefully (they have spines!!!) peel the prickly pears and puree in a food processor.

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the pureed prickly pears, soy creamer, soy milk, lime juice, and sugar (or agave nectar) together in a sauce pan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. After the mixture is cool, stir in the tequila, if using. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

New Non-Dairy Cream!

The Urban Housewife brought my attention to a new non-dairy, soy-free cream! It's called MimicCreme, and the main ingredients are almonds and cashews. You can buy both sweetened and unsweetened varieties. Unfortunately, my cashew allergy prevents me from actually trying this, but it sounds like a winner to me! You could use it to replace some or all of the soy creamer/non-dairy milk in ice cream recipes. You can learn more about it here. If you try it, please leave a comment and let us all know how it is!

Have you voted yet?

More specifically, have you voted for me? The VegNews Awards polls close on September 1, so get your voting action on. Do it for the children. Or, you know, for me. Either way is OK.

Carrot Cake Ice Cream

This ice cream recipe has two awesome results. The first, obviously, is the ice cream. The second is that you have to make carrot cake, and you won’t use it all, so you’ll also have carrot cake! You can eat carrot cake topped with carrot cake ice cream! It’s carrot cake insanity!

I used the carrot cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but you can use any carrot cake you want. But seriously, y’all, the recipe in VCTOTW is freaking fantastic—absolutely the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. I also use the vegan cream cheese frosting recipe in the book, but I decrease the margarine and increase the cream cheese for a little more zing. Please note that the carrot cake chunks in the ice cream are unfrosted—wait to frost the remaining cake/cupcakes until after you’ve taken out the cake you need for the ice cream.

2 c. soy creamer (or other non-dairy milk)
½ c. soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 8-ounce container vegan cream cheese
¾ c. brown sugar
½ t. cinnamon
¼ t. powdered ginger
pinch allspice (optional)
pinch nutmeg (optional)
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla
2 c. crumbled carrot cake chunks

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, vegan cream cheese, sugar, and spices together in a saucepan, and heat. As the mixture is heating, gently whisk the ingredients together to break apart the cream cheese. By the time the mixture starts to boil, the cream cheese should be completely mixed in. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Set aside the ice cream mixture to cool. While this is cooling, line a baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper. Spread the carrot cake chunks across the baking sheet and place in the freezer. If you do not freeze the carrot cake chunks, they will crumble completely when you add them at the end of the freezing process. This still produces an awesome ice cream, but if you want chunks of carrot cake in your finished product, you need to freeze the cake pieces in advance.

Freeze ice cream mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last five minutes of freezing, drop in the individually frozen pieces of carrot cake.

Cherry Ice Cream (with Variations)

My first attempt at making cherry ice cream involved a bleak winter day and frozen cherries from Albertson’s. The results were predictably flavorless and rather dismal. Good cherries are essential for cherry ice cream. So this time I purchased fresh, organic cherries and pitted them myself, flinging bright red cherry juice all over the kitchen so that it looked like something you’d expect on CSI, minus Gil Grissom and the little flashlights. The clean-up was a pain, but it was totally worth it. (I personally recommend making the Cherry Almond Delight variation.) P.S. The red food coloring is totally optional, but it makes the ice cream much prettier than the reddish-brown natural cherry color.

2 c. pitted cherries, quartered
½ - ¾ c. sugar, depending on how sour your cherries are
Splash of water
2 c. almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)
2 T. arrowroot powder
1 t. vanilla extract
½ - 1 t. almond extract (optional)
Few drops red food coloring (optional)

Directions:

Place 1¼ cup of the pitted cherries and the sugar in a medium saucepan. Add a tiny splash of water and bring to a boil, stirring to mix the sugar and the cherries. Once the cherries are getting soft and yummy and sweet, pour them into a blender and puree.

Pour the puree back into the saucepan and add the almond (or other non-dairy) milk. Bring the mixture back to a boil. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and immediately stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Add the vanilla and almond extract (if using). Add red food coloring until you’re happy with the shade of pink/red.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add remaining cherries in the last five minutes of freezing.

Variations:

Cherry Almond Delight: Definitely use 1 teaspoon almond extract. Add ½ cup sliced, toasted almonds along with the sliced cherries in the last five minutes of freezing.

Cherry Chocolate Chip: Add ¾ cup chocolate chips along with the sliced cherries in the last five minutes of freezing.

Dandy Brandy Cherry: Add ¼ to ½ cup cherry brandy after the ice cream mixture has cooled, but before you freeze it.

Frequently Asked Questions

It’s about time I drew up a FAQ, isn’t it? Thought so. So here are the answers to a bunch of questions. Yup.

Q. Do you have any general guidelines or advice?

A. You bet. Check ’em out here.

Q. What kind of texture should I end up with after freezing? My ice cream is too soft! My ice cream is too hard! I want my ice cream to be just right!

A. After you’ve finished freezing the ice cream in your ice cream maker, it’s usually the texture of soft-serve ice cream. You probably won’t eat it all right away, so you can store the rest in the freezer. It will harden. A lot. It’s going to be harder than store-bought ice cream because it’s not whipped around and aerated the way commercially made ice cream is. If it’s too hard to scoop, just zap it in the microwave for ten seconds or so.

If your ice cream is too soft after freezing it in your ice cream maker, you may have fallen to a couple of common pitfalls. First, the colder the ice cream liquid is before freezing, the easier it is to freeze. I usually leave my liquid in the fridge for several hours to overnight. Second, if you have an ice cream maker that utilizes a freezing container that must be frozen first, make sure that it’s properly frozen. My ice cream maker has one of these, and I just leave it in the freezer at all times.

If you want to make the ice cream softer/creamier right of the freezer, you can do a couple of things. The first is to increase the fat content. The more fat the ice cream contains, the softer it will be in the freezer. You can use a non-dairy milk with a higher fat content (e.g., coconut milk), or you can add fat yourself. Adding ¼ cup flax oil is a great way to give your ice cream an omega-3 boost while making it creamier, too. You can use any other oil you like, but if you use flax oil be sure to whisk it in after the cooling period (prior to freezing) because heat can damage flax oil.

Adding alcohol to your ice cream will also prevent it from freezing as hard. If you’ve ever put a bottle of vodka in the freezer before making martinis, you’ve noticed that it doesn’t freeze. So mixing in ¼ cup to ½ cup booze after the cooling period (so it doesn’t boil off) will make the ice cream more difficult to freeze. If you choose this route, be sure to use a flavor that blends well with your ice cream. For example, brandy goes well with chocolate; tequila goes well with lime or lemon; rum is essential for rum raisin. Please note: This will not make you get drunk on your ice cream. You might notice the flavor of the alcohol, but you won’t get tipsy. Bummer, I know.

Q. What about using sweeteners other than sugar? Can I use agave nectar? Brown rice syrup? What about sugar-free ice cream?

A. I like using plain sugar in most recipes because it has a very neutral flavor that won’t influence the overall flavor of the ice cream. If I want a deeper molasses flavor, I’ll use Sucanat or brown sugar, or even molasses. (I even have a recipe for molasses ice cream!) If you have concerns about how “vegan” white sugar is, I would encourage you to first read this, and then if you’re still upset with me for using white sugar (or “evaporated cane juice,” as I do), rest assured that you can find sugar that hasn’t been processed using bone char.

I will probably eventually experiment with brown rice syrup, agave nectar, and maple syrup. In the mean time, if you experiment with any of these sweeteners, let me know how it goes! Your input is valuable!

As for “artificial” sweeteners (or their natural counterparts), I don’t care for these at all, and my husband won’t touch them. So I haven’t experimented with them. But I imagine you could use products like Splenda or stevia to make sugar-free ice cream. Again, if you try any of these, let me know how it goes so I can be better informed!

Q. What kind of ice cream maker should I use? What if I don’t have an ice cream maker?

A. Check out my post on this here.

Q. Can I use agar agar or cornstarch instead of arrowroot powder?

A. I haven’t used agar agar or cornstarch, but you could always try it. (And let me know how it turns out for you!) You could also try skipping the arrowroot completely, especially in recipes that produce a very thick liquid (like my avocado ice cream).

Q. Can I use xanthan gum instead of arrowroot powder?

A. Again, I haven't tried this, but here's what Myra Kornfeld says in The Voluptous Vegan (which has a few awesome ice cream recipes!): "[Unlike arrowroot powder, which must be heated] you need only to blend the xanthan gum with the ice cream base." So I imagine you could skip the heating step altogether, unless you want to make it easier for the sugar to dissolve, and just toss everything together in a blender or whisk it together by hand. If you do heat it to blend the sugar, then I guess you'd just blend/whisk the xanthan gum in at the end with the vanilla.

Q. What is this “soy creamer” you keep mentioning?

A. I am not talking about Coffeemate or those other “non-dairy creamer” powders. Yuck! What I’m referring to are products like Silk Creamer (there are other brands, too, but they are harder to find). It’s basically soy milk with added fat and sugar to mimic the properties of dairy cream or half-and-half. You can find this in the dairy section of the grocery store near the soy milk or the liquid Coffeemate-type creamers.

Keep in mind that you do not need to use soy creamer at all, even if I use it frequently. You can replace it with any non-dairy milk, and if you want that little extra fat, think about using coconut milk instead (or even whisking in ¼ cup oil).

Q. Can I use something other than soy milk?

A. Of course! I personally like soy milk, but you can use rice milk, oat milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, cashew milk…you get the picture. Each milk with have its own properties (fat content, nutritional information, allergy issues), so choose what you like best and go with it!

Q. You have won the International Lottery. Please to send assistance and your financial information so we can process your prize.

A. ZOMG really?!?!? w00t!

VegNews Awards!!!

Holy crap. My blog has been nominated for a 2007 VegNews Award. I am so totally flattered and excited and I'm all in a tizzy. So if you like my blog and you like ice cream, please vote for me! And if you don't like my blog or ice cream, then you are clearly a communist sympathizer and a hippie and you hate freedom and probably kittens too, and I don't want to be your friend anyway. So there.

And can I just say again, LIKE OMG I AM SO EXCITED! OK, enough of that. Let's be dignified here. And vote. Click on the pretty banner to take the survey! (Also, if you take the survey, you will be entered to win cool prizes from VegNews.)

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

I'm spending the day cleaning my basement. It's a dank, smelly, drafty place, and it's full of spiders. Big spiders. Luckily, my husband is on Spider Duty, whereby he catches them and lets them go in the yard. Still, today pretty much sucks and I don't have time to make ice cream.

But, lo! I present a fellow blogger's awesome recipe for Chocolate Almond Ice Cream. It sounds awesome and I wish I were making it right now instead of preparing to do battle with spiders the size of New Mexico.

For something completely different, I give you a picture of Bean:

Chick-O-Stick Ice Cream

Oh hell yes.

1½ c. coconut milk
1¾ c. soy milk, or other non-dairy milk
¾ c. sugar
1/3 c. peanut butter
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. chopped Chick-O-Stick pieces

Mix ¼ cup of coconut milk with the 2 tablespoon of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the coconut milk, soy milk, sugar, and peanut butter together in a saucepan, and heat. As it heats, whisk the mixture so the peanut butter blends into the milk. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add Chick-O-Stick pieces in the last five minutes of freezing.

Rum Raisin Ice Cream

Yo ho ho and a bowl of ice cream! Indulge your inner pirate with some rum-flavored ice cream. Coconut milk works very well here (I use half full-fat and half "light" coconut milk), but any non-dairy milk, or any combination of non-dairy milks, will work.

¾ c. raisins
¾ c. dark rum
3½ c. coconut milk, or any non-dairy milk
¾ c. sugar
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla extract

Place raisins into a bowl and cover with rum. Set aside for at least 30 minutes. Longer soaking will produce a more intense rum flavor. (I soak mine overnight.)

Mix ¼ cup of coconut milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the remaining coconut milk and sugar together in a saucepan, and heat. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool.

After the raisins have finished soaking, strain the raisins, reserving ¼ cup rum. Stir reserved rum into ice cream mixture. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add raisins in the last five minutes of freezing.

Health Nut Ice Cream

I wanted to try adding flax oil to ice cream, since it is such a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. So I figured I'd try to make a "healthy" ice cream, which isn't really healthy, but it's not too bad for ice cream. It's got berries (I used blueberries) and flax oil and granola! How crunchy hippie could I get? Well, crunchy enough to break out the Sucanat, a type of unrefined sugar that has a much more pronounced flavor than my usual "evaporated cane juice."

A word of warning: the Sucanat is a dark brown color, so it will make your ice cream darker. The blueberries and Sucanat combined to make my ice cream look kind of like cement. Not very attractive, but still yummy!

1 c. soy creamer (or other non-dairy milk)
1½ c. soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
2 c. berries of your choice (fresh or frozen and thawed)
¾ c. unrefined sugar, such as Sucanat
2 T. arrowroot
1 T. vanilla
¼ c. flax oil
1 c. granola or ¾ c. granola and ¼ c. chopped nuts (if your granola is nut-free)

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Slice 1 cup of berries (if necessary; obviously you don’t slice blueberries) and set aside.

Combine the remaining berries, soy creamer, remaining soy milk, and sugar together in a blender and puree. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and bring to a boil. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and immediately stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Add the vanilla.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. When the mixture is cool, whisk in flax oil. (Heat damages flax oil.)

Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add reserved berries and granola in the last five minutes of freezing.

Ginger Ice Cream

I think that coconut milk is a natural choice for this ice cream, but you can use any non-dairy milk you like and omit the coconut extract. Need a chocolate fix? See “Variation” below for Chocolate Ginger Ice Cream. Finally, you’ll notice quite a range in the amount of minced ginger you can use. My husband loves ginger, so I’d use the full ½ cup, but that might be too much for some people.

3½ c. coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk)
¼ - ½ c. minced ginger (depending on how gingery you like it)
¾ c. sugar
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. coconut extract (optional)
¾ c. crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces

Directions:

Mix ¼ cup of coconut milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the coconut milk and minced ginger together and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and set aside for 25 minutes to steep. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth to remove the minced ginger. Keep the milk; throw out the ginger.

Mix the coconut milk and sugar together and bring to a boil. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract and coconut extract, if using.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add crystallized ginger in the last five minutes of freezing.

Variation:

Chocolate Ginger Ice Cream: Add ½ cup chocolate chips and/or ¼ cup cocoa powder with the sugar. For an extra chocolate kick, add 1 teaspoon pure chocolate extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla or coconut extract.

Coffee Ice Cream (with Variations)

I personally love making the mocha variation of this recipe. Depending on how much of the coffee flavor you want to shine through, you can use regular drip coffee or espresso. Espresso will produce a much stronger flavor, but coffee will be fine too (and not everyone owns an espresso maker). Of course, the better the coffee you use, the better this will taste. If you use Starbucks coffee, well, don’t blame me if it sucks. (You could also use decaf or half-caf if you don’t want too much caffeine, but where’s the fun in that?)

2 c. soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
1 ¼ c. soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
¾ c. fresh, strong coffee or espresso
¾ c. sugar
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla

Directions:

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, coffee, and sugar together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Variations:

Add-ins: Add in ½ cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans during the last five minutes of freezing.

Mocha: Reduce soy milk to 1 cup. Melt in ¼ cup chocolate chips during initial heating phase. For more chocolate excitement, add a couple tablespoons more chocolate chips, or use chocolate non-dairy milk instead of plain.

Kahlua: Reduce soy milk to 1 cup. Stir in ¼ cup Kahlua or other coffee liqueur after adding vanilla.

Matthew Scudder: Reduce soy milk to 1 cup. Add a plug or two of bourbon after adding vanilla. Then go catch a criminal or solve a murder or something.

Coconut Squared!

When you really need your coconut, this is where to turn. (As always, you might want to check out the General Guidelines and Advice before starting.)

3½ c. coconut milk (full fat or light, or a combination of the two)
¾ c. sugar
2 T. arrowroot
½ t. vanilla extract
½ t. coconut extract (optional)
¾ c. coconut shreds or flakes

Mix ¼ cup of coconut milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the coconut milk and sugar together in a saucepan, and heat. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract and coconut extract, if using.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add coconut shreds or flakes in the last five minutes of freezing.

Homeless in Seattle

OK, so we're not really homeless, like living in our car or on the street. But we're in temporary housing while looking for an apartment. All my stuff, including my ice cream maker, is somewhere between here and California, or maybe in storage. I really don't know. It's a bit crazy for me.

The bright side is that I get all the Mighty-O vegan donuts I want. The dark side is no new ice cream recipes for a while.

Radio Interview on MP3 and Other News

I had a lot of fun on Animal Voices, a radio show broadcasting from Toronto on CIUT 89.5 FM and online at CIUT.fm.

For those of you who missed the show, an MP3 download is available on their website. I'm in the "Part 1" MP3, starting about halfway through and going until the end. You'll get to hear me talk about ice cream, arrowroot, and my volunteer work with Vegan Outreach. You'll even get to learn my real name. Exciting, no?

In other news, we're moving to Seattle at the end of December! I'm so excited, but I'm also getting just a teensy weensy bit crazed with all the stuff I need to get done before we leave California. I will try to make/post one or two holiday ice cream recipes, but I can't make any promises at this point. Which is really sad, because I was looking forward to experimenting with vegan nog ice cream! But not too sad because I get to move to Seattle!!!

Vegan Ice Cream on the Radio!

On Tuesday, December 5, I'll be a guest on Animal Voices, a radio show on CIUT 89.5 FM in Toronto. You can also listen online at www.ciut.fm. The show's topic is vegan blogging, and it's on from 11 AM to noon EST (8 - 9 AM PST). I will be on from 11:15 - 11:30.

I'm so flattered to be on the show, and I hope you can listen. Also, it would be great to send the station a note, thanking them for having a pro-animal show on the air! The more positive feedback the media gets about animal issues, the more likely they are to devote airtime to covering these stories.

Christmas List

Yes, another post that's not about ice cream. I was going to make soy nog ice cream this weekend, but I couldn't find any soy nog! Whole Foods had it in stock the week before, but this week they're all out. Boo. I could make homemade nog, but, dude, I'm totally too lazy.

Anyway, since the winter holidays are coming up, I wanted to share an idea for Christmas (or other holiday!) giving. Nick and I are pretty fortunate that all of our basic needs (food, clean drinking water, shelter, clothing, medicine) are met easily. As for our wants, we can usually afford the reasonably priced toys (camping gear, books, iPods, kitchen gadgets, etc.), and if we can't afford something, we can save up for it. If we can't save up for it, then we probably don't really "need" it (i.e., want it enough) anyway. So asking for material goods at the holidays isn't really what we prefer to do.

After all, I think most of us would agree that, if we had a magic wand or three wishes or whatever, we'd wish for things like peace, happiness, and a better life for the people, animals, and planet around us. With that in mind, Nick and I have for a couple of years now requested charitable donations to Vegan Outreach for Christmas. Vegan Outreach is an amazing organization that is directly working to reduce the suffering of animals who are forced to live on factory farms and die in slaughterhouses to satisfy our preference for the flesh of other creatures. Plus, we volunteer for them, so they must be cool, right?

We worked together to draft letters to send to our families to express our Christmas wishes. The following is the letter I sent to my family. I wanted to share it in the hopes that it might provide a little holiday inspiration. Here it is:

Hello all,

As Christmas approaches, I wanted to send out my Christmas "wish list." This year it's pretty simple. Nick and I are tremendously blessed with friends and family and a comfortable life, so we don't really need or want any material gifts. We would prefer something that, at its heart, would make the world a better place. As you know, we both are actively engaged with the animal advocacy group Vegan Outreach. They fight against factory farming as a way to reduce the suffering of animals. They are a dedicated, honest, and productive organization. Also, as a non-profit, all donations to them are tax-deductible.

Additionally, Vegan Outreach has been awarded the "Best In America" seal by the Independent Charities of America and the National Council of Nonprofit Associations--one of 1500 so designated, out of more than 50,000 that participate in the Combined Federal Campaign.

So instead of material presents, we would prefer donations to Vegan Outreach! You can donate securely online on their website here.

Finally, I'd like to note that you don't need to be vegetarian or vegan to donate, nor should you feel awkward about donating to a "vegan" charity. None of us are perfect, and we just do what we can to make the world a better place. Indeed, this is a major part of the Vegan Outreach "philosophy," as explained in one of their booklets called "Even If You Like Meat" (seen online here). We can't fix all the world's problems tomorrow, but we can chip away at injustice a little at a time!

Peace,

Agnes

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

Whew! Thanksgiving is over. The last week has been full of activity, and I've had a great time. Now Christmas is looming on the horizon, and I'm looking forward to making some holiday-themed vegan ice creams, like candy cane and soy nog.

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Nick and I visited the California Farm Sanctuary shelter for their "Celebration for the Turkeys." Instead of eating a turkey, you get to feed the turkeys! The turkeys especially liked the cranberry stuffing the Farm Sanctuary staff prepared. We also got to meet many of the other rescued animals at the shelter. And I just can't resist sharing pictures!

Here's Nick meeting Hank. Hank liked having his face petted.


Here's me and Linus. I'm brushing Linus's cheeks, and he just loved it.


Here's us feeding the turkeys!



Many of the turkeys we met were recently rescued by the Peninsula Humane Society in nearby San Mateo. Farm Sanctuary notes, "These turkeys were among over 11,500 birds transported from Detroit to San Francisco via Northwest Airlines. Upon arrival at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on July 13, Northwest employees discovered that over 9,000 of the birds had perished in transit from Detroit to SFO. According to the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA (PHS/SPCA), which was the first to take in some of the surviving birds, said they 'believe the massive loss was due to overcrowding. The turkeys couldn't breathe, became overheated, dehydrated and died.' Approximately 1,900 surviving birds were sent to their final destination to become "breeder" birds, whose offspring would be sold for food." Amazingly, after such cruel treatment at the hands of humans, the rescued turkeys were sweet as pumpkin pie!

All in all, the trip to Farm Sanctuary was beautiful and inspiring for both me and Nick. It's easy to forget sometimes that the animals we're working to help are all interesting individuals with their own stories, just like the cats we've rescued and made a part of our family.

Anyway, after our pre-Thanksgiving celebration at Farm Sanctuary, we had our own vegan celebration at home with some friends. I was very good this year and didn't get completely stressed and overwork myself trying to make twenty different menu items! I kept it simple (simple for me, at least), and the results were great!

The menu:

- Winter Vegetable Pot Pie (a veganized version from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone), with butternut squash, celery root, parsnips, turnips, carrots, shallots, oyster mushrooms, and brussels sprouts, in a creamy herbed sauce, covered with a (store-bought) puff pastry crust.

- Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic (from Vegan with a Vengeance).

- Green salad with toasted walnuts and dried cranberries.

- Homemade whole wheat rolls (I was inspired by the Vivacious Vegan).

- A can of that nasty gelled cranberry sauce that my husband snuck into the house to torment me. (I made him eat it. Revenge! Ha ha ha!)

- Apple crumble.

- Pumpkin squares!!! This is really a pumpkin cake, but my family calls it pumpkin squares for some reason. This year I veganized the recipe and it was so freaking good I'm going to make it again later this week and turn them into cupcakes. I frosted the cake/squares with the vegan cream cheese frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Yes, this is "holding back" for me. And we had only four guests! Yet somehow we had very few leftovers...

Taking Time Off

I just wanted to let y'all know that I'll probably be away from my bloggy for a few days--probably until after Thanksgiving. I've recently enabled comment moderation to deal with comment spam and unhelpful/rude comments. So if you try to post a comment and it doesn't appear, it's either because:

1) you are a jerk who wants to link to your white power website;
2) you want to insult me or my beliefs, rather than engage in intelligent conversation;
3) you're spamming me;
4) you have more misspelled than correctly spelled words in your comment;
5) I accidentally hit "reject" instead of "publish" (crap!);
6) yo momma;

or -- drum roll please--

7) I'm away from my bloggy over the holiday and will get to it all later.

In the meantime, I wish you all a peaceful Thanksgiving. I'd also like to introduce you to our adopted Thanksgiving turkey, Gideon. He lives at Farm Sanctuary, and is a very handsome gentleman, no? We are visiting Farm Sanctuary tomorrow for their annual Celebration for the Turkeys. I hope I get a chance to say hello to Gideon! Don't forget: you, too, can adopt a turkey!

And if you're still trying to figure out what to cook this year, I recommend checking out this site. For dessert, you can also add Pumpkin Ice Cream to the menu! It's like pie in ice cream form.

Avocado Ice Cream

This is a super-simple recipe that doesn’t require any heating or arrowroot powder.

3 ripe avocados
2 – 3 T. lime juice (depending on the strength of the lime)
½ c. sugar
2 c. soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
1 c. soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
2 T. tequila (optional)

Place avocado flesh (not the pit or the skin!) in a blender. Add the lime juice, sugar, and 2 cups soy creamer (or other non-dairy milk). Puree until smooth.

If your blender is about to overflow at this point, pour the puree into a large bowl and whisk in the 1 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk) and tequila (if using). If your blender is large enough to accommodate more liquid, add soy milk and tequila and blend once more.

Pour puree into ice cream maker. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Cookie Dough Ice Cream

You can use whatever vegan chocolate chip cookie dough you like, but I've got a recipe if you need it!

2 c. soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
1 c. soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
¾ c. sugar
2 T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 c. chocolate chip cookie dough

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, and sugar together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. While the ice cream mixture is cooling, drop small clumps/balls of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet covered in waxed paper. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze the cookie dough.

Freeze ice cream mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last five minutes of freezing, drop in the individually frozen pieces of cookie dough.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes you just need a chocolate chip cookie. You can also use the cookie dough for cookie dough ice cream, or just crumble the cookies for another version of Cookies and Cream.

1 cup vegan margarine, such as Earth Balance
2 tablespoons "flax eggs" (see note below)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons soy milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon