My youngest grandson requested cherry chocolate chip ice cream a few month ago, but we had to wait until the cherries were in season to delve into an appropriate recipe. The taste of ripe, fresh, juicy cherries is worth all the time it takes to pit them, but a warning: it is a bit messy and time-consuming. (If you are in a hurry, use a can of cherries or try the strawberry-banana ice cream.)

Have prepared and set aside:

• 1/2 C. chopped dark chocolate

Blend well

• 1 12-oz. soy creamer
• 1 frozen ripe banana

Add:

• 2 to 2-1/2 C. fresh pitted red cherries
• 1/2 C. powdered sugar

Have ice creamer base well frozen.  Plug in the paddles and get the machine started.  Slow pour the mixture into the maker.

After about 20 minutes or so, add the chopped dark chocolate into the maker and allow to mix.

When the ice creamer is done, scoop out the ice cream and freeze until solid.  Serve with fresh cherries or your favorite topping.

After the success of the raw strawberry banana ice cream, I wanted to try another fresh fruit combination.  This time I used raw cashews to give the ice cream its smooth, creamy texture and added fresh blackberries to the blender. The results was a lovely violet purple mixture that tasted like heaven. Here is the recipe:

For the blender:

2 6-oz. packages of fresh blackberries, rinsed and cleaned

1 12-oz. container of soy creamer

1/2 C. turbinado or vegan sugar

1/2 C. raw cashew pieces

Puree for 30 seconds. Rest. Puree for another 30 seconds.  Pour the mixture through a wire strainer; use a wooden spatula to force the mix through the strainer into a pourable container.

Get your ice cream maker started; pour the mixture into the moving blades and process until thick and ready to eat. If you like it colder, freeze for an hour or two before eating. (Most homemade ice cream is a bit softer than the commercial brands.) Serve with fresh blackberries. Enjoy!

One of the boys loves homemade strawberry ice cream best of all. Another one loves ice cream, period.  There were the pint of fresh strawberries and the two pristine, just ripened bananas.  One wanted chocolate chips, too. How to please everyone and use up all the goodies?  Try this all fresh, no cooking recipe for a quick and easy treat. It seemed to do the trick.

Add to your blender:

• 1 full pint of fresh strawberries, hulled and rinsed
• 2 fresh ripened bananas
• 1/2 C. vegan sugar
• 1 small carton soy creamer (2 cups)

Have ice cream maker turned on before you begin pouring the mixture into the moving blades of the machine.  It will take about 30 minutes to freeze properly. We added chopped vegan dark chocolates as a topping, along with fresh strawberries.

The strawberries tend to dominate the flavor, but the bananas do add an extra bit of creaminess and smooth texture.

Here is the original strawberry ice cream recipe from last summer – I must have made it a dozen times!

History of Fortune Cookies

Fortune cookies are actually an American invention, created by either a Cantonese or Japanese man in the early 1920s, probably in California, but they have become a standard post-meal offering in Chinese restaurants in the U.S.

Have strips of fortunes prepared before you begin making the cookie dough.  Type them on the computer or write them by hand, but be sure they are ready before the cookies are begun.  Once the fortune cookies come out of the oven, you will need to move quickly, so the fortunes must be handy and ready to insert. Have gloves ready if possible, too, because the fortune cookie shape needs to be formed while the cookies are hot.

How to Make Fortune Cookies

The recipe below makes about a dozen cookies. Once you learn how to make them more quickly, double the recipe.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Blend with a stick blender or electric beater:

• 1 TB ground flax seeds
• 5 TB water

Puree until very creamy, about one minute.

In a bowl, add:

• 1/2 C. unbleached flour
• 3/4 C. powdered sugar, packed

Mix together.  Add:

• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp vegan butter
• the contents of the blender.

Mix together gently.  Add enough water, if needed, to make a batter, somewhat like pancake batter, only stickier and a little thicker.  The batter must be liquid enough to spread on the silpat cookie sheet but thick enough to hold its shape.

Use a silpat if you have one, or grease the cookie sheet with vegan butter or oil.

Use a tablespoon measure, and put 1 TB of dough on sheet for each cookie. Spread the batter thinly and evenly, but not so thin there are any holes. You should have two or three nice rounds.  Pop into the oven and check back in a few minutes. Within ten minutes, they should be lightly browned around the edges and cooked through in the center.  Try to keep your cookies even in depth so they will cook evenly. If the edges are too thin, they will brown too quickly.

Now is the fun part.  Take them out of the oven when ready. Use a large spatula, and remove one circle. If you have heat resistant gloves, use them; otherwise, be aware that the cookies will be HOT! Put a fortune in the middle of the cookie and bring the edges together, into a “D” shape.  Fold the spine of the “D” backwards over the edge of a teacup and put to rest in a small muffin tin or in the teacup.  Allow to cool.

Working quickly, repeat the procedure.  Then put another batch back in the oven and repeat.

This is time consuming, but a simple procedure.  You can personalize the fortunes for special people and put them in a Chinese takeout package for a very lovely gift.  They are also great to have on hand for parties with special fortunes designed just for the group at hand: your book club, tennis partners, or vegan meetup group.  Once you have learned to keep the cookies nice, even and lightly browned, you should have a crunchy sweet fortune cookie to share with your friends!

The thought of luscious red cherries and the almond flavoring reminiscent of marzipan were beckoning to me. Thus was the inspiration for this recipe.  I added some cherry frosting and a big cherry on top (not shown in this photo) and was all set to give to my favorite Valentine in the junior set – you can see by the photo below it was well received.file:///Users/prairiebeat/Desktop/kabir-1.bonobo.jpg

Cherry Almond Cupcakes

• 1/2 C. cherry pie filling
• 1/3 C. vegan buttery spread (or oil)
• 1-1/4 C. soymilk or almond milk
• 1 tsp. almond flavoring

Blend the above ingredients until smooth. Set aside.

In another medium large bowl, mix:

• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1-1/2 C. unbleached flour
• 1/2 C. vegan sugar

Stir to mix well.

In small bowl, mix 2 TB. water with 1-1/2 tsp. EnerG egg replacer until light and creamy.

Add the blender mix to the dry mix, stirring just until well mixed. Add the egg replacer and stir gently.

Spoon into cupcake tins, about 2/3 full each.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Allow to cool, then remove and frost with a butter frosting and decorate as desired.  Makes six very large cupcakes. (Note: when using heart-shaped muffin pans, do not get them too full or they will lose their heart shape.)

Enjoy!

Use 1-1/2 cups fined crushed vegan graham crackers (try Keebler); crush in your blender, or put in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to break down the bits and pieces.  About two internal packages of commercially prepared grahams are about right.

Melt 1/4 C. of Earth Balance.  Add to the graham cracker crumbs, along with 3 Tb. brown sugar.  Mix well, then brown lightly in a frying pan before placing in the pan.  Place half the crumbs in a large glass pan, pressing down firmly.

Pour 2 C. applesaurce on top of the crumb mixture.  Spread evenly, and lightly sprinkle with cinnamon.

Top the applesauce with the remaining graham cracker mixture.  Cover and chill for several hours or overnight.

Serve with a vegan cream topping in small dessert dishes.  Try with cashew cream:

Place a few handfuls of raw cashews in your blender. Cover with soymilk or soy cream.  Add 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. lemon juice, 1-2 TB. vegan sugar. Blend for a few minutes, stopping to allow your blender to cool down if necessary.  Mixture should be completely smooth; it will be somewhat liquid. Allow it to rest in the refrigerator for several hours (at least one) before serving.

1/12 recipe

Following two successful (based on the enthusiasm of the children) forays into making homemade ice cream, I decided to follow up with ice cream sandwiches.  The trick, I soon learned, was twofold: 1) finding a recipe for the cookies that was firm enough to absorb the ice cream without falling apart and 2) getting the ice cream firm enough to hold shape between the two cookies.  For the second, save two or three empty frozen juice concentrate cans.  To make the cookies fit perfectly, use one of the cans for the cookie cutter.

First, the cookies

For the cookies, I started with a recipe I found for making chocolate cookies but it was far too moist to be rolled out and cut.  Then I looked at a sugar cookie recipe designed just for rolling and cutting, and started experimenting with the best of both types.  My first attempt was pretty good: it gave me a brownie-like cookie that was just right as far as texture, but needed a bit more oomph in the taste department.  Here is the final result:

Mix the following in a bowl and set aside:

• 1-1/2 C. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 C. cocoa
• 1 tsp. salt

In another bowl, mix

• 1/2 C. vegan spread (Earth Balance)
• 3/4 C. sugar

Beat together with electric beater or by hand for a few minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar has dissolved into the oils.  Add:

• 1/2 C. soymilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Stir until smooth.  Add the mixed flour-cocoa ingredients and mix until a good consistency. Mix should be soft enough to easily mold but stiff enough to roll and cut.  Place 1/3 mixture on floured cutting board and cut about 12 cookies out of each batch. Cook at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Cookies should be slightly soft but done. They will become firmer as they cool.

Then, the ice cream

For the ice cream, I developed this basic vanilla recipe that turned out very white, fluffy and creamy.  I used an electric stick beater to really get the texture frothy, hoping it would help the ice cream maintain its shape. While the texture was great, it still required freezing the results in empty frozen juice containers to get it just right.  Allow the ice cream to get firm, then push it out one end and cut with a sharp knife. Immediately put it between two of the chocolate cookies, and wrapped it for freezing.  Since the homemade ice cream tends to be more soft-serve style than is typical for commercial ice cream, this extra trick really helps it to hold its shape.

Put into medium large saucepan:

• 2 Tb. arrowroot powder,
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 3 C. soy creamer (may be part soymilk).

Beat until very light and frothy with a stick beater right in the pan.  Cut over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture gets very hot and starts to simmer slightly. Immediately remove from heat and allow to cool.  Add 1 tsp. vanilla and stir.  (To hasten cooling, pour it into another bowl.)  Once the mixture is room temperature or cooler (you may put the mix in the fridge if you are not ready to go to the next step yet), you are ready to put it into the ice cream maker.  Start up the ice cream maker, getting the paddle going before you put in the mix.  The freezing process should take about 20-30 minutes.

Once the ice cream is thickened, remove it from the maker and put it into the juice cans. (To reuse the cans, I rinse them out and then put foil over the bottom, placing the juice cans on a dish to freeze.) Once the ice cream is solidly frozen, take the containers out of the freezer and rinse under cool water, taking care not to get the ice cream wet!  Push the ice cream out one end and slice to desired thickness. Immediately place between two waiting cookies, wrap in plastic wrap and place in a bag for freezing.  When the munchies come looking for you, pop one out of the freezer, put it in the microwave for 15 seconds, and you have a great treat.

]]> http://veganacious.com/2009/08/12/ice-cream-sandwiches/feed/ 0 http://veganacious.com/2009/07/09/danish-raspberry-pudding/ http://veganacious.com/2009/07/09/danish-raspberry-pudding/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:25:50 +0000 veganacious http://veganacious.com/?p=962 I am half Danish; when it comes to food, that half is stretching to veganize some old, traditional family recipes.  I recently came across this Raspberry Pudding recipe and test-drove it within the family.  It received raves!  Admittedly, it is right on the border of my healthy recipes boundary, but I will confess right now: I think it is fine to have an occasional treat.  (I am half Danish, after all.)

• 3 TB cornstarch
• 1/3 C. sugar, turbinado or other
• 1-10 oz. package frozen raspberries
• 2 C. cranberry juice cocktail

Mix the cornstarch and the sugar in a saucepan.  Defrost the berries and press them through a strainer by pressing a wooden spoon against the berries.  This should give you everything but the seeds.  Mix the liquid with the cranberry juice cocktail and add to the sugar/cornstarch mix.  Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until mixture begins to thicken. (It will thicken more as it cools, so do not panic if it is not quite the texture of puddings to which you are accustomed.)  Pour into eight heat-resistant dishes.  When cooled off a bit, place in refrigerator until well-chilled.

Serve with soy creamer. You may add 1/3 C. blanched chopped almonds mixed with 2 TB sugar which is the traditional topping, but it will increase the fat and sugar content, so I omitted those. (To blanch almonds,drop the whole almonds into boiling water.  Let them boil a few minutes, then drain.  As they cool, the brown skin will easily come off and voila – blanched almonds. Chop finely and mix with sugar.)

Almonds with Sugar

1/8 recipe

I made some yummy caramel ice cream which was a big hit with the kids, but the boys both wanted strawberry ice cream.  After many trials and errors with our new ice cream maker (do NOT put the cream into the bottom until the paddle is moving – it will freeze and the paddle will not fit!), this is the winning recipe. Hope you enjoy it, too!

• 2 C soycreamer (1 small carton)
• 1/2 C soymilk
• 1/2 C turbinado sugar (may use regular sugar)
• 1 lb strawberries, hulled
• 2 TB arrowroot powder

Put the berries, soy creamer, soymilk, sugar, and arrowroot into the blender and puree well.

Put ingredients into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken.

Allow mixture to cool.  When it has cooled down, put it in the fridge until it chills.

Set up and run ice cream maker; when the paddle is going, gently pour in the strawberry mixture until the bowl is empty.   It should take about 30 minutes to freeze; it seems to be a slower soy cream to chill than others without so much fresh fruit.  But be patient, it is worth the wait!

When the time is up, or the paddle is slowing down and the ice cream is ready, remove paddles and serve. Add fresh berries if you wish.

1/8 serving