Nutella Triple-Swirl Ice Cream

Wow, I haven't posted for a long time! I guess I've just been so busy with school starting again. Maybe it's a bit late in the year for ice cream... nah, it's never to late for ice cream! Just before school started I had an ice cream party with all my friends. It was a lot of fun, plus I love showing off my new recipes! This is my first one, and it's the simplest (yes, really!). The other ones I made were "Sultan's Treasure" (tahini with dried fruit and other things) and another one that I don't have a name for. It's maple-bacon-pecan-brownie-sour apple-coconut swirl. If anyone has any suggestions on what to call it, I'd love to hear them!

I don't have a recipe for the nutella or hazelnut butter, since a quick google search will give you more recipes than you could ever need. I suggest making the hazelnut butter first, removing some of it and using the rest for the nutella. You can easily switch honey for the sugar and coconut milk for dairy milk in any recipe you find. This is not a quick recipe; none of them are, but this is the easiest of the three. (hey, sometimes great things require effort!)

So this is delicious and you should go make it now (seriously, it's like eating a bowl of cold, creamy nutella. How could that not be delicoius?).

Nutella Triple Swirl Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
8 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups sucanat
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups homemade nutella
1 cup salted, roasted hazelnut butter (optional: slightly sweetened)
Chocolate Swirl:
3 squares unsweetened bakers chocolate
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp honey

1. Melt all the chocolate swirl ingredients in a small pot on the stove top. While making the rest of the ice cream, let this mixture cool so it's still pourable but not hot enough to melt the ice cream.
2. Whisk  the cocoa powder with 1 cup of the coconut milk in a medium pot over medium heat to combine. Add the rest of the coconut milk and mix. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.
3. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until the colour turns lighter. Slowly add the sugar while whisking.
4. Add the cocoa-coconut milk mixture into the eggs very gradually so they don't curdle. Add small amounts at a time.
5. Pour this mixture back into the pot and put over a low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until it thickens and reaches 170-175 degrees F.
6. Pour the ice cream into a bowl and let it cool at room temperature for 1/2 hour. Stir in the vanilla extract. Put the ice cream in the fridge until it's cool enough not to form condensation on a lid, then cover with a lid. Chill for at least 4 hours, until it reaches 40 degrees F or less.
7. Pour into and ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions.
8. Pour the ice cream into a container, alternating layers with the nutella, hazelnut butter, and chocolate. Try to pour the chocolate in thin strips. Swirl everything together with a knife.
9. Freeze until hard. When you serve it, make sure to take it out at least 30 minutes before serving (it takes a while to soften).

Walnut Apricot Chip Ice Cream

I think I've found the perfect dairy-free ice cream base! I got the recipe from this website, and added my own extras. This ice cream is so rich and creamy! If you leave it out for a few minutes, it can even be scooped after being in the freezer! It's not like other dairy-free ice creams, which can be icy and watery, this is the full-on ice cream experience!

I first realized that walnuts, dried apricots and chocolate go well together when I was making chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies and realized that I didn't have any raisins or chocolate, so I used dried apricots and carob chips. Oh my, were they ever delicious! The flavours just work so well together! Needless to say, I ate way too much of that batch of cookies. :P

It was a little later that I thought to combine the walnuts and apricots with cocoa nibs instead of carob chips. And since I had ice cream on the brain, this ice cream recipe was born.

 For vegan ice cream, just substitute any liquid sweetener for the honey. If you can get turkish apricots, they are definitely worth the extra cost; they taste so much better! The walnuts can be raw, soaked and dehydrated, or toasted. Soaking nuts makes them healthier, so I soaked and lightly toasted mine. If you don't have/like cocoa nibs, carob chips would make a great substitution, just make sure they're homemade, the store bought ones are full of yucky hydrogenated oils and other icky stuff. One last note: the combination of the cashews and cocoa nibs are slightly reminiscent of mocha flavours. It's wierd that I enjoy that, since I hate coffee! But if you like mocha, that's just another plus to an already delicious ice cream!

Walnut Apricot Chip Ice Cream

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 dried turkish apricots, chopped
1/2 cocoa nibs
2 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 cups raw cashews
1/4-1/2 cup honey (remember, freezing will make the ice cream less sweet, so use a little more than you think you need)
2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

1. Blend the cashews, coconut milk, honey, vanilla and salt in a blender. Soaking the cashews beforehand in the coconut milk, or blending them into a powder first helps to make this mixture even smoother.
2. Blend for a minute or two, until completely smooth.
3. Taste and add more honey if needed. It should be sweeter than you want the final product to be.
4. Chill the mixture in the fridge for a few hours, the longer the better.

Straight from the ice cream maker

5. Pour into an ice cream maker and make ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
6. In the last 5 minutes or so, add the walnuts, apricots, and cocoa nibs, making sure the apricots pieces don't stick together.
7. Pour into a container and move to the freezer to freeze until solid (although it makes great soft-serve too!).
8. Take out of the freezer a few minutes before serving so it softens up a bit.
9. Scoop and enjoy!

As you can see, I garnished my ice cream with a sprig of tarragon. The flavour of tarragon works really well with this ice cream! If you want, I would highly recommend adding some fresh tarragon to the blender with the rest of the ice cream ingredients. Or make an ice cream sandwich with these cookies (or a healthier version of that idea). That would taste AMAZING!

Next I think I'll make either a nutella ice cream or a tahini one.

This post was shared at healthy vegan Fridays.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream

I have and obsession with peanut butter. I know it's not very healthy (peanuts contain toxic substances), but I just can't stop myself. It's sooooooo good! And peanut butter and jelly is a match made in Heaven. So peanut butter and jelly ice cream was obviously something that I came up with right away when thinking about what ice cream flavours I should try, and just had to make it. I'm glad I did, because it was utterly amazing! Besides, my peanut butter's organic, so it's not that bad. ;) This is for all the peanut butter addicts out there: eat it in moderation, but when you do eat it, be sure to savor every last sweet, creamy, toasty, fruity, peanut buttery bite!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Berry Jelly Swirl

Jelly

2 cups mixed berries, fresh or frozen

1 Tbsp honey

2 tsp arrowroot powder

water

1. Put the berries, honey and a splash of water in a saucepan and simmer until the berries start to break apart and the liquid reduces. Keep cooking until the mixture starts to thicken. This may take a while.

2. Puree either with a stick mixer or in a blender. You can strain this if you want, to remove the seeds, or just leave them in. Put this mixture back in the pot over low heat.

3. Mix the arrowroot powder with warm water in a small bowl (similar to a cornstarch slurry). Pour this into the berries slowly, stirring constantly. If you notice the mixture becoming thick, you can stop pouring in the arrowroot. If the mixture is still too thin, make more slurry and add it. Remember that it will thicken as it cools.

 4. Allow mixture to cool.

Ice Cream

3 cups organic full fat coconut milk, chilled

3/4 cup raw honey

3/4 cup smooth organic peanut butter (no sugar added)

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt (or more, I usually use twice this much because I like salty peanut butter)

1. Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and well blended.

2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturers directions.

Peanut Butter Chunks

3 tablespoons coconut oil

6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (I use lightly salted)

4 tablespoons Honey (don’t sub sugar here, you want soft chunks)

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

pinch of salt

1.In a small saucepan over a low heat, stir and combine all ingredients.

2. Cook until melted. Keep it slightly warm, because it's harder to add to the ice cream when cold and thick.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream

peanut butter ice cream, straight from the ice cream maker

jelly

peanut butter chunks, warm

1. Put about one third of the ice cream in a container.

2. Add half of the jelly, or less if you want a higher peanut butter-to-jelly ratio.

3. Pour another third of the ice cream over the jelly.

4. Add the rest of the jelly.

5. Pour the rest of the ice cream over the jelly.

6. Pour the peanut butter chunk mixture over the ice cream. Try to spread it in as thin a layer as possible.

7. Close the lid and freeze the ice cream for about 30 minutes, or until the peanut butter chunk mixture has hardened.

8. Break up the peanut butter chunk mixture into chunks with a knife (I actually find this easier to do with my hands, but it's really messy that way. You can make smaller chunks, though).

9. Swirl everything together with a knife, making sure to reach the bottom to spread some jelly there too. Just be careful not to swirl too much, or the colour will be muddled and it won't freeze as nicely.

I over-swirled this a bit, but it was still delicious!

Coconut Cookies

These delicious cookies were made as an accompaniment to my coconut lime ice cream, but they're also delicious on their own. They have crispy edges, and they're soft and chewy in the middle.

They're based on these cookies, but they're a bit crispier. They're healthy and so delicious, you won't even miss the grains, refined sugar, dairy, or grains! Enjoy!

Coconut Cookies

Ingredients

3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. fine sea salt

2 egg whites

 Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300*F.

2. Put 1 2/3 cups of the coconut in a mini food processor (I haven't tried a regular food processor, but you'd probably have to add more coconut so it blends better), and blend for about 10 minutes, or until it turns into coconut butter, scraping the sides as necessary.

3. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl.

4. Scoop tablespoons of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and flatten into thin circles.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges get crispy and brown.

6. Let the cookies cool a bit before eating.

7. Enjoy coconutty yumminess!

Coconut Lime Ice Cream

I wanted to call this lime sherbet, but it's not extremely sour, it's not lime green (ironic, I know), and it's creamier than most sherbets. This is why I decided to call it ice cream. This is just another one of coconut milk's incredible advantages; it doesn't curdle!

Since it's getting warmer and I haven't used my ice cream maker nearly as much as I've wanted to, I'm planning on trying out a lot of different ice cream flavours this summer. I'll try to post an ice cream recipe every 1-2 weeks.

Coconut Lime Ice Cream

3 cups full-fat coconut milk

2 egg yolks

zest and juice of 3 limes

1/2 avocado

pinch of salt

1/3 cup maple syrup (or more, this doesn't make a super-sweet ice cream)

1. Throw everything in a blender.

2. Blend.

3. Follow the instructions for your ice cream maker to freeze the ice cream.

4. Put the ice cream into the freezer for a few hours to harden it up.

5. Devour your healthy, delicious ice cream!