Vegan Ice-cream! All of the yum and none of the dairy

This past weekend we went for a visit to my sister's place. The weekend was filled with lots of enjoyable outings (tamper included) and some local sight-seeing but my favourite part had to be the vegan ice-cream. We had discussed ahead of time that we would be preparing this and I was very excited at the notion. I had never made traditional ice-cream (with an ice-cream maker) before, let alone a vegan variety, so needless to say I was very excited about this activity. Given my severe lack of experience and my sister's relatively little experience we decided to consult an expert - Isa Chandra Moskowitz and adapt her pumpkin vegan ice-cream recipe.

This recipe is surprisingly simple and although it requires specific pieces of equipment, it is relatively simple. The longest parts are the boiling of the cashews and the churning and chilling of the ice-cream. However these do not require your attention so you can be doing other things while your ice-cream is being made for you, almost!

In terms of flavours we went for a coconut and cashew ice-cream with hazelnut croquant pieces inside. The flavours come together deliciously and could be augmented with some vegan caramel, I found a delicious looking recipe here but on to our recipe.

Hazelnut Croquant Vegan Ice-cream

Equipment: Ice-cream maker, blender and saucepan

2 Cups Unroasted Cashews
2 cups Coconut Milk (1 can)
1 cup distilled water
3/4 Cup maple syrup
1/4 cup golden syrup
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt

1 cup hazelnuts
3/4 cup sugar

1 - Boil your cashews for 45 minutes.

2 - Meanwhile to make your croquant - melt your sugar in a thick bottomed saucepan and swirl, do not mix, until golden brown, then add your hazelnut and stir quickly before pouring onto a piece of greaseproof paper and let cool.

3 - Once your cashews have boiled, drain the water and add them to your blender. Now add your coconut milk, water, vanilla extract, maple syrup, golden syrup and salt. The blender will look like a delicious ombre bubble tea!

4 - Now blend until completely liquified. The finished product should coat the back of a spatula and hold a line if you run your finger down the middle.

5 - Follow your manufacturer's instructions to churn your ice-cream, first for 20-25 minutes.

6 - Meanwhile chop up your hazelnut croquant with your blender on the chop setting.

7 - Now add your chopped hazelnut croquant and continue churning for another 20-25 minutes.

8 - Move to an air-tight container and eat now, like a soft serve ice-cream or freeze overnight for well frozen traditional looking boules.

Coconut bites - all natural taste of summer

If, like me, you have spent this summer in front of a computer screen or inside an office building then as August starts it can feel like summer is slipping away, and don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to autumn and winter, but it's nice to celebrate summer while it's here. So here is a little taste of the tropical to help you hold on to the summer.

Bounty bars are advertised as a taste of tropical flavour and I bought in, so when I thought tropical I thought about them. But they are not the healthiest thing you can eat, so here's my low fat, low sugar version.

You will need:

3 egg whites
350g dessicated coconut
80g (equivilant) stevia
20g caster sugar (alternatively you can leave out the stevia and use 100g sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp white rum
30g ground almonds
30g  dark sugar free cocoa powder

1 large saucepan
1 metal bowl
1 whisk
1 sugar thermometre

1 - Put your egg whites, sugar and stevia in your metal bowl. Heat some water in the saucepan and then gently bring up the temperature of the mixture, whisking constantly until it reaches 160'F.

2- Remove from the heat and beat vigourously until you have achieve a meringue

3 - Add the vanilla essence, rum and whisk.

 4 -  Add the coconut, ground almonds and mix thoroughly.

 5 - Chill in the fridge for about an hour

6-  Press into squares and use a sieve to sprinkle cocoa powder over all the sides to coat.

They taste sweet, soft and delicious and the hint of rum compines with the coconut to make you think of beach holidays rather than you computer.

Macaroons - (almost) sugar free and so tasty that even coconut haters will fall

Normally at this time of year I want to make nothing more than home-made jam and macarons. This year is no real exception but some days need something different. This week I went to a BBQ and brought some delicious double chocolate chip cookies but I also wanted to bring something a little healthier and decided to go for macaroons.

Coconut is extremely healthy. It's reportedly antiviral, antibacterial and anti-parasitic. The oils in coconut are excellent for hair and nail growth. It's chock full of fiber, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. It's also known for anti-aging and antioxidant properties. So all in all, there's an excuse there for anyone to eat it.

These macaroons are really easy to make and almost sugar free. They went down such a treat at the party that I didn't manage to save any, but photos will follow, because trust me I will be making more.

(Almost) Sugar-Free Coconut Macaroons

500g Shredded coconut
100g Ground Almonds
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp Caster Sugar
10g Stevia
250g 60-70% Dark Chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160'C. Beat your egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks form. Slowly beat in your caster sugar and stevia and continue to beat until you have formed a stiff peaks. Mix together the coconut and ground almonds and then fold into the meringue. Scoop into 1/2 balls on a cookie sheet and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the outside it nicely brown and crispy. Then cool on a wire rack. 

Melt 3/4 of the chocolate over hot water, once the first part is melted, remove from the heat and add the rest of the chocolate and mix until melted. Dip the bases of the macaroons in the chocolate and smooth with a spatula before drying upside down on the wire rack. Once the chocolate has set, serve and enjoy =)