Vegan MoFo: Sticky Date & Salted Pecan Coconut Ice Cream

If you are particularly health conscious or on a diet, look away, this is nor for you! I had been thinking about this ice cream for awhile, but it just wan't warm enough to make and enjoy - I just can't eat ice cream if it's not Spring or Summer! Being warm on the weekend, I thought it was about time I made it. after all, I had my cute vintage ice cream tin! The ice cream maker was already in the freezer, begging to be used, I had my dates and pecans, coconut cream...but somehow completely forgot the cornflour to make the custard. Knowing I could perhaps substitute, I turned everything inside out and upside down to find the packet of tapioca  perused the cupboard and found the tapioca. Mr Sprout pronounced it "pretty wicked" which usually means he would eat a LOT more of it if I let him - it's about the most excited he gets about food :)

Ingredients
2x 540ml tins coconut cream (get the best you can, over 55 % coconut at least)
1 cup rice milk
4 tablespoons ground tapioca
1 vanilla bean
1 cup soaked pitted dates
1 cup pecans
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons vegan butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Method
Heat coconut cream, rice milk, vanilla bean, and ground tapioca in a large saucepan, stirring constantly until mixture thickens to a pouring custard consistency. Pour into a container and leave in the fridge overnight to cool (If you have any little lumps, use a barmix to whizz it up the next day after removing the vanilla bean).

Soak dates for a couple of hours, strain, and puree with maple syrup, and 3/4 cup water.

Toast pecans in a dry frying pan.

Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan, and when bubbling, turn off heat and toss through pecans and salt.
Place pecans onto some greaseproof paper and separate with a fork to dry.

When you are ready to make the ice cream, stir through the pureed dates, and pecans into the coconut custard mixture, and pour into ice cream maker. When it has thickened up and won't churn anymore, tip into a container and put in the freezer to finish hardening up.

When ready to serve sit out on the bench for about 20 minutes beforehand if it is a bit too hard. For me, the first day was ok, but the next night it was a little hard. This may have been because I'd left it out and it had gone a little runny before I put it back in the freezer!

PS The vintage tin worked a treat, think it's better than using a plastic tub!

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Vegan Ice Cream Christmas Trees

I snatched the idea from an issue of Delicious magazine last year, but of course, veganised it. It is such a simple yet fantastic way to style dessert, and you can use whatever flavours you like. For this one, I used finely chopped fruit mince and a splash of brandy. Just add to slightly melted bought vanilla ice cream and mix well. Other flavours you could try mixed through...

Smashed candy canes

Glace ginger

Candied orange peel and dried cranberries

Dried cherries

Coconut and chopped vanilla glazed almonds

Grated chocolate and hazelnuts

Cut rectangles of greaseproof to fit an equally sized piece of paper. 

Wrap around a narrow glass with the greaseproof on the inside to get consistent sizes, and turn into a cone. Tape together to hold.

Put into a glass to hold the cone, and spoon ice cream mixture into the cones. Place in freezer overnight.

When ready to serve, unwrap cones, and then invert onto a plate. Decorate with toasted nuts or fresh fruit.

Lychee, Coconut & Passion Fruit Sorbet

I'm really into sorbet at the moment, I think I was inspired again when Mez made a huge batch of three flavours for Mechelle's wedding. With the hot weather back with us (except today, it's raining again!) I thought I'd give this one a whirl, and dust off the ice cream maker. To make it even easier because I was feeling rather lazy and couldn't be bothered making the sugar syrup (it was just too hot Saturday!), I used tinned lychees and used their syrup instead. I emptied a tin of lychees (about 500gr or thereabouts) and a 540ml tin of coconut cream into my Powermill  and blended it on high for about half a minute so that it was really smooth (bugger the sieving Mez, let the blender do the work!) I put the mixture into the ice cream maker and let it go for an hour. When it was done, I dolloped spoonfuls of the mixture with alternating spoonfuls of passion fruit in syrup straight form the cold tin I put in the fridge. I popped it in the freezer for a few hours, and although it needed to sit on the bench for a little while before serving, I think the flavour was really nice - not too sweet after all.