Blueberry Ice Cream - Vegan MoFo 2014 Day 3

After making the first two ice creams for Vegan MoFo at Carrots, today I decided to make some at home because my Ice Cream Monster wanted a whole batch of ice cream just for himself! :p

I started the day by digging around in the kitchen to see what ingredients I could use in today's recipe and was delighted to find a long forgotten pack of dried blueberries at the bottom of the dry fruits drawer in the fridge. I'd purchased them a while ago from Manak Mewa (just off Commercial Street). Those people have all kinds of awesome dried fruits and nuts...local, exotic, what have you! And their prices are pretty decent too.

I decided to make plain blueberry ice cream. Turned out to be a great decision! Pure blueberry goodness with no other flavours getting in the way. It's a really simple 5 ingredient recipe (well, 6 if you count the pinch of salt). You can blend up the mix really fast and it's ready to be frozen.

I made this one with an ice cream maker. Turned out a lot creamier and quicker this way. But you can use the freeze-blend-freeze method to make it too.

On a side note, shouldn't blueberries actually be called purpleberries? Just look at the gorgeous colour!

Before I move on to the recipe, I wanted to give a quick shout out to RandoMoFo - the bestest way to blog hop throughout the Vegan Month of Food! Take him for a ride and you'll see what I mean.

I won't be blogging tomorrow or the day after because I'm swamped with a bunch of Vegan Kitchen Ninja Classes on both days. I'm really looking forward to teaching cooking and baking, and there's a lot of prep work to do. I'll be back here at some point over the weekend with pictures from the classes. And more ice cream recipes of course. :)

Blueberry Ice Cream

100 g Cashews
100 g Vegan Whipped Cream (Rich's or Merry Whip)
50 g + 50 g Dried Blueberries
50 g Sugar
500 g Cold Water
Pinch of Salt

- Grind the cashews and half the blueberries into a fine powder
- Add the sugar, salt and a bit of water and blend to form a creamy paste
- Pour in the remaining water and blend well
- Now add the whipped cream and blend on low speed for a few minutes
- Your ice cream base mixture is ready
- Freeze this in your ice cream maker according to the instructions
- Transfer to an airtight box and stir in the remaining blueberries
- Freeze for another hour or two
- Scoop and enjoy! :)

Almond Orange Chocolate Ice Cream - Vegan MoFo 2014 Day 2

I'm a big fan of the orange-chocolate combination. When I started making vegan chocolates at home many years ago, one of the first things I tried was to put dried orange peel powder in the melted chocolate and I fell in love with the way the flavours melded together.

Recently a friend of ours brought us a box of gourmet chocolate covered candied orange peels. One bite and I knew I just *had* to try my hand at making them.

So I made orange peel candy at Carrots. Thanks to Mohan who expertly sliced the peels into strips of just the right thickness for me, the end result was fantastic! But by the time the candy had cooled down, I'd decided to put them into an ice cream instead of dipping them in tempered chocolate.

And so we come to today's recipe...

Almond Orange Chocolate Ice Cream

100 g Almonds
50 g Soymilk Powder
300 g Pure Orange Juice (juice of about 3 oranges with no water added)
30 g Cocoa Powder
100 g Sugar
550 g water
Pinch of Salt
200 g Chopped Candied Orange Peels (recipe follows)

- Grind the almonds and sugar into a fine powder
- Add the soymilk powder, cocoa powder and salt
- Add a little water at a time and blend into a creamy paste
- Blend in the remaining water

- If you have an ice cream maker, turn this mixture into ice cream according to the machine's instructions and stir in the candied orange peels

- If you don't have an ice cream maker then transfer the mixture to an airtight container and freeze for 8-10 hours
- Re-blend the mixture
- Stir in the candied orange peels and refreeze for 8-10 hours

- Scoop and enjoy! :)

For the Candied Orange Peels:

Peel of 3 Oranges
220 g Sugar
220 g Water

- Slice oranges into thin strips
- Place sugar and water in a *heavy bottomed* saucepan
- Heat until sugar has dissolved
- Stir in the orange peels and cook on a medium flame, stirring once in a while
- The peels should be ready in about 15-20 minutes
- Transfer to a plate immediately
- After they've cooled slightly, gently separate them
- Cool completely and store in an airtight container

Vanilla Tahini Ice Cream - Vegan MoFo 2014 Day 1

Woot!!! Vegan Month of Food 2014 has begun! :)

This is my 4th time participating in MoFo. Even though there's a lot going on in my life this time around, I couldn't help but sign up for the event yet again because I've really enjoyed it each and every year! Blogging on an almost daily basis is one part of the excitement, but also visiting the various participating blogs, drooling over the delicious foods and interacting with my fellow MoFo-ers is a truly delightful experience.

For Vegan MoFo 2013 I had chosen a Raw Foods theme. I created and shared a bunch of video tutorials using an app called HowDo and they were a big hit. Unfortunately HowDo closed. :( I'm going to miss that app terribly this year. But once the Vlogging bug has bitten, it's hard to let go. So I plan to shoot at least a few YouTube videos through MoFo this time around.

My theme for this time is ICE CREAMS!!! :D I'm expanding that to include other frozen desserts too so there's a lot more variety.

Today's recipe is a Vanilla Tahini Ice Cream. I made it at Carrots as soon as I signed up for MoFo. Everyone who tried it absolutely loved it. So now our bakery chef Kanchan makes it often. :)

This ice cream does not require an ice cream maker (but if you have one then feel free to use it). It melts quickly and has a light, soothing feel to it. The roasted sesame and pure vanilla flavours go together beautifully.

I've used Merry Whip (commercially available non-dairy whipping cream) in this ice cream. But if you'd like to avoid this, you could use whipped coconut cream in it if you like. However, it might takeaway from the flavour a bit.

I've also used whole vanilla pods as the flavouring because I can't stand the artificial vanilla essence that's available locally. Besides, we don't use any artificial colours or flavours at Carrots so I couldn't have used it in this recipe anyways.

Getting good, pure vanilla extract that's vegan isn't easy here. But if you have the patience and inclination, you could make your own extract at home by putting chopped vanilla beans into rum or vodka for about 6 months. I have tried this at home (again, not at Carrots because we're an alcohol-free restaurant) but compared to that, I am in *love* with the depth of flavour and texture that whole vanilla beans give. So I recommend using them.

Vanilla Tahini Ice Cream

40 g Cashews
20 g Toasted Sesame Seeds
150 g Commercial Vegan Whipped Cream (Rich's or Merry Whip)
1.5 pods Whole Vanilla Beans
200 g Sugar
1 litre Water

- Grind cashews, sesame seeds and broken vanilla pods into a fine powder
- Add a little water at a time and blend into a creamy paste
- Add the remaining water, sugar and whipped cream and blend well
- Freeze in an airtight box for 8-10 hours
- Re-blend this icy mixture
- Freeze again for 8-10 hours
- Scoop and enjoy! :)