Á La Mode e-cookbook review

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

In my greedy little hands I have a copy of Hannah Kaminsky's newest ebook, "Á La Mode: Vegan Desserts That Will Keep You Churning All Year Round." This little gem, sent to me for review by Alisa Fleming, author of "Go Dairy Free," contains a selection of beguiling recipes for very unusual ice cream treats. These are not high-speed versions of cool confections, but require a bit of time and patience in exchange for highly unusual and scrumptious frozen delights. I was magnetically attracted to Birthday Cake Ice Cream, Buttered Popcorn Ice Cream and Chai Latte Ice Cream, but settled on the homey-sounding Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream, because I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand, and who could refuse an oatmeal raisin cookie?


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Hannah gives us permission to tweak the recipes, and I did tweak a little to suit my lazy-cook ways. For example, after I ground the oats in the food processor, I went ahead and emulsified the rest of the ingredients (except the raisins, of course) in the processor rather than whisking in the pot. I didn't pre-melt the margarine (sorry, Hannah) and I added an extra cup of soymilk and an extra teaspoon of vanilla. I also added some chocolate chips just before the ice cream was finished freezing because I like my oatmeal cookies with said chips.

So how did it turn out? Well, if you like oatmeal cookies and you like ice cream, you will love this. I agree with Hannah that it would go well in an ice cream sandwich, but really, it sparkles all by itself. It's luxuriantly rich and creamy (even after spending time in the freezer) as well as pleasantly crunchy from the praline and chips. If you like to experiment with unusual and intensely flavored ice cream - anyone for Peanut Butter Bomb Shell? - you should buy this book. It's gorgeously illustrated with Hannah's photos, and a bargain at only $5. Available here. There are provisions in the recipes for non-soy and gluten-free ingredients.

Notes for this recipe:
1. Although I ground the oats as fine as I possibly could, when I took the chilled mix from the fridge, it resembled tapioca, a mass of teeny bumps. Plus, it had a thick skin. (Was it from one of my shortcuts?) I put it back into the food processor and blended it until it was perfectly creamy, figuring that it couldn't hurt to buzz in as much air as possible anyway. The only problem with doing this was the raisins got puréed along with everything else.
2. I don't own a microwave so I cooked the syrup for the praline on the stove and it worked out fine. To save myself from cleaning two sticky containers instead of one, I added the toasted oats to the syrup instead of vice versa as in the recipe.
3. Here's a David Lebovitz post about how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.
4. I was so anxious to eat my ice cream that I just couldn't wait for it to firm up in the freezer, hence its less than photogenic shape in the photo. Really, you should let it firm up a bit, but it's just so good that it's hard to be patient!
© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Wheeler's pear balsamic vinegar ice cream recipe

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

As part of a virtual book by Wheeler's Ice Cream, I've made ice cream using an exclusive recipe Wheeler's sent me to use and share with my sweet-toothed readers. Wheeler's published "Vegan Scoop," a vegan ice cream cookbook, in June, thus enabling premium vegan ice cream-making at home. Although I've never personally tasted Wheeler's ice cream, I've read the reviews by others who've raved about it, so I was very excited to try a Wheeler's recipe. And the combination of pear juice and balsamic vinegar is intriguing, don't you agree?

Now, if you've read this blog before (or noticed the title), you know I prefer to keep my recipes easy without compromising quality or taste. Sometimes the definition of easy gets confused with the definition of fast, though I do my best to keep those two words united. The yummy mango ice cream I posted about recently, for example, was easy and fast. The Wheeler's ice cream was very easy to make, but required cooking and chilling prior to the actual freezing, making it easy but not fast. These two extra steps can be a deal breaker for me because it means planning ahead — cooking and chilling the night before the actual freezing when I'm more inclined to be chilling and not cooking, if you know what I mean. (see note)

One thing I have to mention is that although I followed the directions, and the finished ice cream tasted rich and flavorful, in my ice cream freezer it came out a little icy, and after freezer storage it was very hard and icy. I really don't know why this happened. When I make cashew-cream and fruit ice cream, it comes out smooth and creamy and stays creamy even after freezing. I haven't seen this noted in other reviews so it could be my ice cream freezer isn't suited to this recipe. Also, be aware that the combination of the pear juice and sugar made for a very sweet product. Even my husband, who likes his desserts sweet, thought it was extremely sweet. Adjust accordingly.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Pear Balsamic Vinegar ice cream

• 1 cup (235 ml) soy milk, divided
• 2 tablespoons (16 g) arrowroot
• 2 cups pear juice
• 2 cups (470 ml) soy creamer
• 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
• 2 to 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) soymilk with arrowroot and set aside.
2. Mix soy creamer, remaining 3/4 cup (175 ml) soymilk, pear juice, and sugar in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. This will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably.
3. Add vanilla extract and balsamic vinegar.
4. Refrigerate mixture several hours until chilled. (*see note) Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

Yield: 1 quart (approximately 600 g)

note: After 2 hours my mix was still very warm. After 3 hours it was sort of cool but not cold enough to make ice cream. I ended up letting it chill for about eight hours. I recommend making the mix the night before you plan to use it, or early in the morning of the evening you'll be making ice cream.

The other thing about this recipe is it uses an ingredient I don't normally use or recommend - soy creamer. The only brand I could find was Silk, and I'm a little down on that company (agri-giant Dean Foods) right now. The creamer wasn't organic and it had ingredients I don't like to use. But, if you don't share these qualms, have access to a better soy creamer, make your own creamer or don't mind compromising your standards occasionally, give this ice cream a try.

I Scream Ice Cream: mango-banana-ginger-chocolate chips

©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

I've been seeing lots of ice cream posts lately, so naturally, I wanted ice cream, too. The post that finally sent me over the edge was this one at eat'n veg'n. After I saw it all I could think about (other than gardening) was making ice cream. It's also been at the back of my mind that Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream is releasing an ice cream cookbook ("Vegan Scoop") in June and is going to do a virtual book tour on lots of blogs. The blog you are reading right now will be hosting Wheeler's virtual tour on July 7, and they've sent me an exclusive recipe to try out and share. But this isn't the recipe. I thought I'd wait until closer to the date of the tour before I posted that recipe. You're probably wondering how a virtual book tour works, and so am I. Guess we'll find out together.

The ice cream I saw on Diann's blog was made with cashews and fruit, and although I've made cashew ice cream before, I've never done it quite this way. She made hers with peaches and strawberries but mine is made with banana and mango. I used frozen mango so I could eliminate the "chill in the refrigerator for several hours" part because I am impatient that way. And I happened to have a bag of frozen mango from Trader Joe's that I've been adding to smoothies. And I wouldn't have to touch the mango skin.


©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

I used to love mangoes, especially the champagne mangoes I used to find three for $2 at Whole Foods. They were fabulous, and I ate them whenever I could. Then one day I must have gotten a little too enthusiastic and was kind of gnawing the inside of the mango skin to get every last drop of fruit. The next thing I knew my lips and the whole area around my mouth were red and swollen and covered in nasty, itchy, burning bumps and welts. I was horrified because for one thing it was ghastly looking and extremely painful, and for another, I did not want to be allergic to mangoes! I didn't eat mangoes for about two years.

My friend Lorraine said I was likely just allergic to the mango skin, but that I could probably still eat the fruit if I didn't touch the skin. She wears rubber gloves to peel the fruit and never touches the mango skin with her bare skin or she gets that horrible rash. I was too afraid to try until recently, when I was missing mangoes so much I bought the bag of frozen fruit. I added a few pieces to a smoothie and told my family that if I stopped breathing they should call 911. So far so good. I've consumed almost the entire bag without incident. However, from what I've learned about mango allergy, you can be allergic just to the skin, or to the whole fruit. So if this has happened to you, make sure you have access to medical help before you experiment with eating the fruit! Allergic reactions can be fatal.


©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Mango-banana ice cream

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1 cup rice milk (or other non-dairy milk like coconut or soy)
  
• 1 banana (at least 1 cup of slices)
• 2 cups frozen mango chunks
• 2 large strawberries
• 1 to 2 teaspoons grated fresh gingerroot
• 1/2 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional but highly recommended because the bitter chocolate contrasts beautifully with the sweet mango flavor)
  

1. In a blender, grind the cashews to a powder. Scrape down the sides to make sure all is ground.
2. Add the rice milk and blend on high speed until very creamy. Check to make sure all graininess is gone.
3. Add banana, agave and ginger, and blend.
4. Add mango and strawberries and blend until mango is puréed.
5. Freeze in an ice cream freezer. When almost frozen, add the chocolate chips, if using.
   

This was the creamiest and best ice cream I've ever made. It was fabulous. In fact, it was better than any of the commercial non-dairy ice creams we've bought. For my taste, it was a little too sweet (my husband didn't think so) and I'll reduce the sweetener next time. I used 1 teaspoon of gingerroot and will probably use 2 next time because I love ginger.

Read more about ice cream makers here. There's also a recipe for chocolate ice cream.

©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Frozen fruit sorbet

Now, this is my kind of frozen dessert. The cashew ice cream was great, but I think a sorbet is more refreshing. Plus it's really easy. I got this recipe from someone I was great friends with for one summer many years ago when we lived in Syracuse, NY. Then she moved to California and we lost touch. The original recipe contained beaten egg whites that got folded into the frozen fruit mixture, but you don't really need them. Besides, do people really even use raw egg whites any more?

So, Friend and I were both grad students the aforementioned summer — she in speech pathology and I in experimental open education (yup) — and my husband and I were house-sitting in an amazing suburban home with a swimming pool and a lunatic Brittany spaniel. The house's owner spent the summers as a nurse at her kids' overnight camp, and the dog's canine brother and sister also went to camp. Timmy, the dog, couldn't go to camp because he was slightly deranged. Among other things, Timmy was afraid of thunder, as many dogs are, but just before we had arrived for our house-sitting stint, Timmy, unlike most dogs, jumped through a plate glass window. This house was located on a totally private lot with gorgeous landscaping that could be easily appreciated because two sides of the sprawling house were entirely made of glass. This was of some concern to us, but Timmy did not jump through the glass on our watch. He did, however, bite the Culligan man, creating a bit of a fuss. I love dogs, and did my best to provide loving care for Timmy, but he was ... difficult.

Lots of other weird things happened while we were at the house - like an neighbor's entire wedding party showing up for an afternoon of swimming saying they had the owner's prior permission. (They didn't) "Oh didn't she tell you ...?" And, after finally getting over my 'city-girl' privacy issues, walking into the living room inappropriately dressed for public, and seeing the gardener on the other side of the glass. Not to mention the time the gas tank in our car leaked into the gravel floor of the garage and filled the house with gas fumes. We hiked to the closest pay phone (the house phones were out of order — another story) to call the fire department to ask if there was any danger, and the next thing we knew, there was a fire truck with lights and sirens racing past us on the road. "You don't suppose ...?" We raced back to the house as fast as we could and found firefighters with hoses and hatchets running around the house and yard and all the neighbors standing in the road. Fortunately, everything was okay. And about those phones. I was quite annoyed with the phone company for letting the phone be out of order for more than a week. The only way we could call them was from other locations — this was before cell phones — and they kept insisting there might be a phone off the hook. Then I discovered there was a phone we hadn't known about in the basement that the cat had apparently knocked off the hook. When the phone repairman finally did show up, unneeded, we were skinny dipping in the pool. Whew.

So, Susan and I had a lot of free time that summer. I was teaching a couple of art and music classes to young children at the Y, and I don't remember what she was doing. We spent a lot of time lounging around the pool, swimming, cooking and eating. We were always trying to find interesting new things to cook. This recipe is the only one I remember from that crazy summer. But, it's a good one.

Frozen fruit sorbet

• 2 bananas, sliced and frozen (or 1-1/2 cups mashed, unfrozen)
• 1 can (15 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice (or 1-1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• sweetener to taste (optional, and I think unnecessary)

I froze my bananas ahead of time because I knew I was going to make this, but it also works with unfrozen, mashed bananas. The quantities are kind of flexible and I wrote what I used and in the ( ) I wrote what the recipe actually says. Blend up everything in a blender or food processor until it's really smooth. (Frozen bananas probably work better in the food processor.) You can either freeze in a container until firm but not hard, and then beat with a mixer, or use an ice cream freezer. If you use the freeze/beat method, you'll have to repeat the process two or three times to achieve a smooth and creamy texture.

Valentine dessert

When the kids were growing up, I always made a Valentine dessert. It was literally a valentine from me to them and it was a family tradition. Every year I tried to come up with a new version to bake in my heart-shaped pan. It usually involved some sort of cake, cookie, or pastry base with non-dairy ice cream and/or frosting and/or a red fruit filling or topping. It was usually pretty good and visually impressive. One year it was so good that I wrote down the recipe. (I must have it somewhere.)

This year I made a dessert for the blog. Maybe my heart wasn't totally in it like when I made it for the kids, but it doesn't look quite as spectacular as I remember. Maybe my little camera isn't up to rendering valentines or maybe I rushed. The yummy taste is there, but I'm sure you can be more artistic than I if you try!

This year I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe posted 1/15/08 for the base. I used 1/2 recipe and pressed it into an 8 x 8 heart-shaped pan. (I just went ahead and made the whole recipe, used half for the heart and made cookies with the rest. The cookies freeze well so I froze them.) I used a non-dairy vanilla ice cream for the center and a bittersweet chocolate frosting for the top. The icing is BITTERSWEET in a big way and will appeal to people who like bittersweet chocolate. If you like your chocolate sweeter, leave out the coffee and add a little maple syrup. I used frozen raspberries to decorate the edge because I had some in the freezer, but use your favorite fruit. I think cherries would be good. You could use fresh fruit if you add it just before serving. Just a thought - if all this seems like a lot of work, you could just serve the cookie with ice cream on the side! One thing I noticed, and should mention, is while this combination tastes great, the cookies are very crisp and a bit hard to cut, especially when frozen. You might want to assemble this dessert closer to when you plan to serve it so it doesn't stay in the freezer too long, or plan to let it sit out for five minutes or so before attempting to cut it. And use a sharp knife! Maybe slightly underbaking the cookie would also help. Mine will be in the freezer for five days before I serve it. It's in a freezer bag inside a plastic container. I'm hoping for the best!


Valentine dessert
Chocolate chip oatmeal cookie base (this is 1/2 of the normal recipe)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (stir it up before measuring)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/4 cup Sucanot (evaporated cane juice)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 or more tablespoons water

-Combine flour, oatmeal, Sucanot, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Stir in chips.
-Mix oil, vanilla and 1 tablespoons water in glass measuring cup.
-Stir the wet into the dry until flour is absorbed. Batter will be thick but if it's too stiff to work with, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
-Press into a lightly oiled 8 x 8 heart-shaped pan.
-Bake on center shelf of preheated 375˚ oven until lightly browned on the bottom, about 20 minutes (or until edges start to brown).
-Cool in pan 10 minutes, loosen edges with a knife and then invert over a wire rack. Tap the pan bottom gently to release the cookie. Carefully turn right side up.
The filling
Rinse out the pan and maybe oil it for the next step. I never do but maybe the ice cream would come out more easily. Anyway, this part can be interesting. I've noticed that some non-dairy ice creams (especially my favorites) seem to go from rock hard to liquid without passing through a soft stage. I used a rice-based product this time and was a little nervous about it liquefying so I cut hard chunks out of the carton with a butter knife and pressed it quickly into the heart pan with the back of a wooden spoon. It actually wasn't too bad. I used about 3/4 of a pint (got tired of pressing) but you can use it all if you want. When I had the surface all smooth and even I put the pan back in the freezer. Leave it there for an hour or two to firm up. While it's firming, make the frosting.

The frosting
My mother didn't make a lot of desserts but when one of us kids had a birthday, she was there for us with cake made from scratch and bittersweet chocolate fudge frosting. I never had much of a sweet tooth but I loved that frosting. Once in elementary school, when we had to memorize a story or poem to present to the class, I memorized the frosting recipe. I wish I could still recite it, but all I can remember is 11 tablespoons of cocoa and 11 tablespoons of sugar. Sound familiar?

Lately I've been using a frosting based on a recipe from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. Her recipe uses sour cream and I have substituted soy yoghurt. I've also made it slightly softer so it would spread easily over the ice cream. It's amazingly fast and easy and meets my need for chocolate to be as bittersweet as possible! With this dessert, even spreading on as much as my conscience allowed, I still had leftovers. (To spread on the leftover cookies from the other half of the recipe!)

Bittersweet frosting
6 ounces semisweet vegan chocolate chips.
one 6-ounce carton of vanilla soy yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon decaffeinated coffee crystals dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water
-Put the chocolate in the top half of a double boiler and melt over hot water. Stir often. I just put a stainless bowl over a pot of boiling water and it works fine.
-Remove from heat and stir in yogurt, vanilla and coffee. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and glossy. Place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to cool it down but not so long as to make it hard to spread.

Assembly
cookie-heart base
ice cream heart
bittersweet frosting
frozen or fresh fruit
unsweetened shredded coconut or other decoration of your choice

Place the cookie on a nice plate where it can lie flat. Get the ice cream heart from the freezer and run hot water over the bottom of the pan for about 10 seconds to loosen it. Run a knife around the edge of the ice cream. Dry the pan and invert the pan over the cookie. It should fit perfectly since it's the same exact size. Thump gently on the pan bottom, and with a little luck, the ice cream should fall right into place on top of the cookie. Good luck. When the ice cream is successfully in place, put the dessert in the freezer for about 1/2 hour or so, to firm up the ice cream.

Spread the cooled frosting on the frozen ice cream. Work quickly so the ice cream doesn't melt. You can frost the top and sides or just the top. I did just the top and left a little white showing. Put the plate back in the freezer and get the fruit for the edge ready. Put it in a bowl so you can get to it quickly. Get the dessert from the freezer and arrange fruit around the edge or however you see fit. Sprinkle with shredded coconut or decoration of your choice. You're done.