cappuccino ice cream

A new thing with me: every week I am going to try to make some kind of sweet or desert for the family. This is a big step for me because I'm not one with a sweet tooth, but after a few decades of living with these folks, I now realize that they might be endowed with the taste for sweets.

Last week I made Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins from Everyday Vegan Eats, my first cookbook. This week I made ice cream. I made aquafaba ice cream and it is creamy and delicious! I tweaked a recipe from my book, Aquafaba and made, as per requested, Cappuccino Ice Cream.

The original version is Chocolate, and the recipe can be found HERE. It is on my publisher's site.

This version is soy based. Because I know there are people who are allergic to soy, people who are allergic to nuts and people who've just about had it with everything tasting like coconuts, I've included three versions of ice cream in my book, each with its own base: soy, cashew and coconut.

It is highly, HIGHLY important that you warm up your ice cream before eating it. If it is too frozen, it will not have the proper texture of creaminess. Leave it out about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature and the size of the container.

I store my ice cream in 1-cup containers that are about 3/4 full. The smaller containers are ideal because they are individual servings and you don't keep thawing and re-freezing the ice cream, which creates ice crystals. I got mine HERE.

Here is the recipe of the cappuccino ice cream in pictures:

(1) After cooking the base and whipping the meringue, temper the base by folding in a large scoop of meringue:

(2) After tempered, add all of the meringue and fold to incorporate well:

(3) Chill this overnight. After chilling, mix it gently because separation is normal:

(4) Add the mixture to an ice cream machine:

(5) At this point it is amazing as is, as soft serve, and you should enjoy it if you can:

(6) Or you can freeze it:

(7) If frozen make sure to warm it to the proper temperature before enjoying:

Cappuccino Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart 

Although this ice cream hardens in the freezer, it will soften perfectly after a few minutes out of the freezer because of the addition of glucose syrup. If you’d like to omit the glucose syrup, add three more tablespoons sugar to the base. 

Cream Base
1 tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch
3 cups plain unsweetened soymilk, divided
1/2 cup lightly packed mashed firm tofu, rinsed before mashing
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder
5 tablespoons nondairy butter, melted
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated organic sugar
1/4 cup instant coffee granules (regular or decaf)
2 tablespoons glucose syrup or light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Meringue
1/3 cup aquafaba (see Note)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 cup granulated organic sugar

1. Cream Base: Combine the starch with 1/4 cup of the milk to form a slurry and set aside. Combine 1 cup of the milk, the tofu, cinnamon and psyllium husk powder in a blender. Blend until very smooth. With the blender running, add the melted butter in a slow, steady stream to emulsify.
2. Transfer the tofu mixture to a medium saucepan. Add the remaining 1 3/4 cups milk, sugar, coffee, glucose syrup, and salt to the saucepan. Stir well with a whisk and bring to a boil over medium heat, making sure all the cocoa and sugar are dissolved. Add the starch slurry and reduce to a simmer, gently stirring until slightly thickened. Remove the cream base from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer the cream base to a medium bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Meringue: Add the aquafaba and cream of tartar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a whisk, whip the aquafaba for 10 seconds. Using a balloon whip attachment, whip the aquafaba on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to whip for another 5 to 8 minutes, or until the aquafaba can hold stiff peaks and is climbing the side of the bowl. Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, over the course of 3 minutes and continue to whip until the sugar has dissolved, about 3 more minutes. 
4. Add a large scoop of the meringue to the cooled cream base and mix well. Add the rest of the meringue to the tempered cream base and fold to mix thoroughly. Chill in the refrigerator until completely cold, about 8 hours.  It is normal if the cream base has separated somewhat overnight. Gently mix the chilled base and, using an ice cream machine, churn the cream as instructed by the manufacturer.  Enjoy it as soft-serve immediately or transfer it to an airtight, freezer-safe container and freeze. Allow the ice cream to soften 10 to 20 minutes before serving if completely frozen.

Note: Although aquafaba is best if homemade using the recipe provided in the book, you can use aquafaba from canned chickpeas. Use the organic, low-sodium, canned chickpeas and strain off the liquid into a measuring cup using a fine mesh strainer. Note the amount of liquid you acquired, then add it to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the liquid reduces by 1/3. Cool the aquafaba completely before using. 



© 2017 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

cheesecake factory (MoFo 27)

The first Cheesecake Factory restaurant was opened in Beverly Hills by Evelyn and Oscar Overton's son, David, because he wanted a place to sell his mother's beloved cheesecakes. Although she had been selling her cheesecakes to local restaurants already, most of her customer's weren't thrilled with the prices they were being charged. David thought he could help her out, and that he did.  By 2010, there were 150 Cheesecake Factories in operation. 

Hands down, the most popular dish on their menu, besides cheesecake, of course, is the Chicken Madeira, a sauteed chicken breast, topped with asparagus spears, mozzarella cheese and mushroom Madeira sauce. Veganize! Our mantra of the month!

Tender chicken-like seitan cutlets serve well here, asparagus is already vegan, mozzarella has many delicious non-dairy options and the mushroom Madeira sauce is as easy as finding a suitable Madeira wine. Serve these with mashed potatoes to soak up the sweet, tangy sauce. Vegetables already included. In fact, if I were you, I'd double and even triple the measly 2 spears of asparagus the restaurant offers per serving.

Certainly cheesecake cannot be ignored. Obviously. And here is where a lot can go wrong, and I am not referring only to the quantity of cheesecake that can be consumed in a single sitting. 

This was one of the many dishes that needed a redo. Surprisingly, when the correct chemical concoction for cheesecake perfection is achieved, the process is quite easy and quick. My first attempt was the Key Lime Cheesecake. While it came out tasting awesome, it was not firm and needed a redo. For the second time (not having the heart to ask the family to eat two of the same flavors of cheesecake in a row..what kind of mother would I have been?), I attempted to make the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake, this time successfully.

I do not like tofu in my cheesecake, so this one is sans tofu, but does use about 3 tubs of Better Than Cream Cheese. Another alteration was needed since I did not have white chocolate and therefore used regular chocolate chips. 

To complete the whole Cheesecake Factory experience, get yourself a can of Soy Whip or some other whip substitute and squirt to your heart's content.. the Factory certainly does.

Seitan Madeira

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

dairy queen (MoFo 26)

Dairy Queen was a total favorite of mine - before it sunk in that the cows 'giving' the milk aren't doing it so I can have the joy of eating ice cream. And they aren't doing it so I, a grown adult, can continue to consume something that I had been weened of years before by the only person who should be nursing me in the first place. Even if we totally disregard the fact that adult humans should not be suckling at anyone's teats, a mother cow is still raped and then her child murdered. Those are the cold hard facts and if you still consume dairy milk, you are still contributing to the violence.

To make your swallowing all of this harsh (albeit true) info easier, how about a nice vegan Blizzard? 

DQ first opened in the 1940's. Their innovative concept was the soft serve ice cream. That made DQ famous and what made them popular was their pioneering of restaurant franchising. In fact, by the end of 1947, they had grown to 100 stores. By 2010, they well exceeded over 5,000 stores world-wide.

In 1985, the year I had my first interaction with DQ, they introduced the Blizzard, soft serve ice cream with add-ins such as Heath Candy Bar, Snickers, Oreos, M&M's, etc. My favorite was the Heath Bar Blizzard. Because of all the wonderful folks at Turtle Mountain, Chicago Soy Dairy, Rice Dream, etc.,  there is no need to turn to dairy for any of your cold,  sweet needs. Grab your favorite vegan ice cream and head to your blender to make your Blizzard!...oh, Heath isn't vegan, you say? 

No worries! Heath Candy Bar is as easy as 5 ingredients (brown sugar, Earth Balance, nuts and chocolate chips) and 10 minutes away to make. Plus cooling time, but at least no babysitting is involved. 

The bars are totally delicious all by themselves...just leave enough for the Blizzard :)

chinatown scramble and coffee cake

Brunch

For today's brunch I continued to cook from American Vegan Kitchen for the Post Punk Kitchen Cookbook challenge and made Chinatown Scramble and Hubby's Home Fries. Mikel and Kate chose the scramble and I chose the home fries - you can't go wrong with anything endorsed by Jim.

The scramble calls for mushrooms, peppers, scallions, five-spice, bean sprouts and snap peas. I had a few adjustments to make, and as it was it was kick-butt-good; I'm sure if I had had the snap peas, bean sprouts and shiitaki, it would have been even better. David totally loved this and kept going back to the pan for more.

As predicted, Jim's Home Fries were fantastic. It is as simple as you can get with potatoes, but that is part of what makes them perfect. Even Cat, my picky potato person, loved it.

For a little bit of sweet I made Around-the-Clock Coffee Cake. I love coffee cake and this one lived up to my expectations. I added a half package of chocolate chips I had lying around.

A big typo here, though!

The pan the cookbook calls for is a 9 inch square pan. This is way too small and the batter needed to be baked in 2 such pans or equivalent. I wound up with half the cake on the bottom of my oven, so make sure to use a big enough pan. In any case, the outcome was worth a little mess - although the kids were disappointed to have lost half their sweet.

My pan was not deep enough, which is where my error, not AMK's error, was. I did wind up with half of the cake on the bottom of my oven, but that was because of my own fault, not American Vegan Kitchen's. My deepest regret to calling fire in the middle of a packed theatre and sounding a false alarm. Lesson learned the most difficult way: with cake on my face, as well as the oven.
My apologies, Tami!

Cost Breakdown

tofu: $2

spices, herbs: $1

onion, garlic, pepper: $2

mushroom, lime: $1

peas, ginger: $1

potato: $3

Total to make 5 serving of both:

$10.00

red robin (MoFo 9)

Red Robin is an American Burger joint which happens to be all over the U.S. While not veg they do serve Boca burgers (vegan) and Gardenburger (vegetarian). While all that is well and fine, sometimes a stomach gets to hunger for one of those fancy-pants burgers, sans dairy and eggs but with the authentic flavors still intact.

As an appetizer, we are quite partial to jalapenos and making them into golden little Jalapeno Coins is very appealing. I mean, who doesn't want a few extra coins to toss around? I made mine with pickled jalapeno slices, but you can use fresh jalapenos or ones that aren't pickled. I made a simple tempura-beer batter (anything with beer is better, right?) and fried them to a crisp. Yumm.

Choosing the burger was more challenging, they have so many, but I picked one that isn't really a burger, even by their definition, but a chicken sandwich. I replaced the chicken with an Amy's Quarter Pounder (a little sweeter than the Bocas - be warned) and made the Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich into a Vegan Bruschetta Burger. This one has a pesto-aioli, tomato, onion and basil salsa, cheeze (Daiya in this case), balsamic cream on a ciabatta roll. Yumm.

Going to Red Robin is not really complete without those aromatic Garlic Fries. Make the steak fries as you would make any crispy fries (using the double fry method) and coat it with your premade garlic oil. Yumm.

Lastly, since it has been so long since I've made anything sweet, I made the Mountain High Mud Pie. Unfortunate Red Robin customers can only get this dessert with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, but us brilliant vegans can use any combination that we find tasty. I used Prailine Crunch Almond Dream and Chocolate Almond Dream. In addition to the ice cream, it has a layer of crushed cookies, peanut butter and chocolate syrup. I used Rice Whip for the whip cream but you can do without it. This was a double Yumm.

Cost Breakdown

coins:

jalapenos: $3

flour: $1

beer, baking powder: $1

Total to make apps for 4:

$5.00

burger:

Amy's burger: $6

Daiya: $2

lettuce, tomato, onion, basil: $2

veganaise, vinegar, pine nuts, garlic: $1.50

ciabatta: $4

potatoes: $3

Total to make 4 burgers:

$18.50

(each of these sandwiches at RR is $11.50)

pie:

Almond Dreams: $8

cookies: $2

chocolate: $1

peanut butter: $1

Rice Whip: $3

Total to make 5 giant servings:

$15.00



Jalapeno Coins



Bruschetta Burger



Mountain High Mud Pie

JALAPEÑO COINS PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Bruschetta Burger Recipe

MOUNTAIN HIGH MUD PIE PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

cinnabon + auntie anne's pretzels (MoFo 8)

Today we are hitting the sweet spots. Not only is the cookbook giveaway Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly, but to kick it off we are making Cinnabon's HUGE cinnamon roll and Auntie Anne's Pretzel.

Both are made with a sweet dough and both are gigantic. Here are two more reasons that getting a bread maker is smart, it is not just for whole wheat bread and seitan! So if ever you see a great buy on a bread machine, do yourself a favor.

The Cinnabon bakes up at three and a half inches on each side and three inches tall. Oh, yeah! Filled with brown sugar and cinnamon, this is one of those treats that is a pain to walk past in malls, but walk we must since they contain eggs and dairy. Now put your boots on because we are walking all over Cinnabon - right up to the oven to grab one of these delectable, gooey sweets. Pop the dough in your bread machine and when it has risen, roll out, sprinkle with the filling, roll up and cut large. 

Auntie Anne's Pretzels dough is just as easy: throw the ingredients in your machine, when it has risen, roll the dough into 8 - three feet long ropes. Dip in baking soda water, spray with oil and bake for 10 minutes. These beauties bake up to be almost six inches wide. Couldn't be easier. Or tastier. At least I think they were since they were all gone by the time I was done in the kitchen.

To win the cookbook, just comment. Tell me something that you like or don't like about mall food. Contest ends on Tuesday night, Nov. 16 and is open to US, Canada, Mexico and UK residents.

Cost Breakdown:

rolls:

flour, milk: $3

yeast, cinnamon, sugar: $2

Better Than Cream Cheese: $.50

Earth Balance: $.50

Total to make 8 rolls:

$6.00

pretzels:

flour, yeast: $2.50

baking soda, cinnamon, sugar: $3

Total to make 8 pretzels:

$5.50

Cinnabon

Auntie Anne's Pretzels



mexican snickerdoodles - gluten free

Not only did I bake cookies that were gluten, nut, dairy and egg free, but I also made them without bean flour! I would love to take the credit, but Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Moskowitz and Romero beat me to it. They use a combo of coconut flour, white rice flour, millet flour, cornstarch and flax meal to sub for the gluten.

I love it! No bean flour.

I made the Mexican Snickerdoodles out of the book and while they say to sub the GF flour on a one to one ratio, I found that the batter needed a little more. Next time I will try refrigerating the batter for a bit since coconut flour absorbs liquid very well and giving it some time might help.

The cayenne pepper in the batter was a little too much for the kids, though, so if you are planning on making them with kids in mind, skip the cayenne. I had made two batches for my group, in case the pepper was too spicy.

The kids loved them and I had no complaints. I'm loving this book :)

Cost Breakdown:

coconut, rice flour, millet flour: $2

cornstarch: $.50

maple syrup, cocoa powder: $1.50

sugar, oil, baking soda: $1.50

Total to make 24 cookies:

$5.50

milanos cookies

I baked these Milanos cookies for the Lit Group this week. This is a recipe out of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Moskowitz and Romero.

What is fabulous about this book - besides all of the delectable recipes - is that the authors make it clear that not only are eggs not needed in cookie recipes, but neither is the boxed egg-replacer. What a fabulous revelation! No more whipping the egg-replacer! I am free of that extra, annoying step, not to mention the cost involved :)

Starch is the binder or ground flax seeds. In these cookies, it was just cornstarch! I baked 40 cookies - there was not a single one left after the book club - except for the ones I hid for David, who, btw, thought they were very authentic, these having been his favorite cookies.

Have I mentioned how easy they were to make? I don't think I have made an easier cookie, with less ingredients involved, than these 3 batches. A true pleasure and a heartfelt gratitude to those two geniuses. I can't wait to make something else - and neither can the kids.

Cost Breakdown:

flour, cornstarch, baking powder: $1.50

vanilla, almond milk, orange zest: $.50

chocolate: $1.50

Total to make 18 cookies (1 batch):

$3.50

scones

It is back to (home)school!

I have the kids doing a domestic class this year, sewing, fiber work (knitting, etc.), gardening, cooking, baking and house management. I have a list of items they need to cook and bake to pass this 'course' and Cat was the first inductee in the Domestic Arts. She chose to bake scones for her first assignment.

Part of the cooking assignment is to clean up after yourself, which my daughter will find most challenging.

Her scones are delightful, though! Next time she wants to add more flavors to it: vanilla, cinnamon, maple, etc.

Cost Breakdown:

whole wheat flour: $1

Earth Balance: $.25

sugar: $.25

Total to make 6 scones:

$1.50

sugar cookies

I was all excited to make this very yummy, eggless, sugar cookies! They came out so well, that I am going to freeze a few logs of the dough and have it ready to make cookies when I 'need' to.

Everything was hunky-dory, until the kids arrived for the Preteen Lit Group and I found out that two of them are allergic to gluten! Well, back into the kitchen they went and in two weeks I will be posting gluten-free sweets. I knew this was going to happen at some point, and here it did.

My kids had a grand time having all of the leftover sugar cookies, though, as bad as they felt about the group missing out on them. My kids are well acquainted with going somewhere and everyone else enjoying something while they just get to watch.

Cost Breakdown:

flour: $1

Earth Balance: $1.50

sugar: $.75

Total to make 30 cookies:

$3.25

mocha fudge brownies

Every other Fridays we hike. On alternating Fridays I host a Teen Literature Group. On Literature days I have decided to make a treat for the group and today's was brownies. I made Mocha Fudge Brownies and man were they good! It still bewilders me why people put eggs in these; some recipes I looked at call for 4 eggs! I hope I was able to capture how moist, dense and delicious my eggless brownies are.

There is a bonus...no need to worry about licking the bowl! My kids really appreciate that :) 

Cost Breakdown:

flour: $.50

Earth Balance: $.75

sugar: $.75

chocolate: $2

coffee: $.50

Total to make 16 pieces:

$4.50

Mocha Fudge Brownie Recipe

cinnamon rolls

Kate made today's lunch.

She has been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for a few weeks now. I told her she is welcome to make them as long as there is a vegetable dish to precede the meal. She agreed.

This left me with finding an easy and fast cinnamon roll recipe. I remember making one from Baking with Julia cookbook, but as we all know Julia was neither vegan-friendly nor quick. I think that particular recipe took me a day to make.

So I opted for having her make a quick sweet dough, using half whole wheat flour, and the rest using just cinnamon-roll-additions - sugar, cinnamon and Earth Balance. This is a quick dough because it does not use yeast to rise the bread; it has baking powder to do the work. Having Kate make it, it was ready in about an hour, an adult making it, it would be ready in less than 45 minutes, including baking.

Cost Breakdown:

flours: $1

sugar, cinnamon: $1

Earth Balance: $.50

maple syrup: $ 1

almond milk: $.50

Total to make 6 big or 12 smaller rolls:

$4.00

raw collard wraps

Monday Night is Raw Night

It seems my children have gotten used to the idea of Raw Night. I didn't say they've gotten to like it - just that they now remember to moan...'oh, yeah. It's Raw Night,' sigh and walk away.

No matter! Onward we go!

Tonight's culinary delights involved a marinated collard wrap, encasing a puree of fresh-shelled peas and kohlrabi. The puree is mixed with walnut pieces, slivered spinach, bean sprouts and minced Fresno peppers. Accompanying the wraps are a cucumber salad, marinated shiitake and nama shoyu vinaigrette.

I found the meal well-balanced, the flavors, textures and colors all complementing each other. David thought it wasn't bad. Kate liked it. Mikel and Cat humored me tasting the wraps. Mikel told me making raw taste good is hard. After I gave him a Mom-look, he amended that to getting him to like raw is difficult.

When dinner was almost ready, Cat sprang on me that it is her Half-Birthday. Great! So? Well, we have some dear friends who do celebrate all five of their children's half birthdays, and since I was just jumping out of my skin that my daughter was doing math of any kind, I immediately set to work to produce some dessert in celebration. ...a raw dessert.

Mudslide Pie.

No fear, blog readers, desserts of any kind - raw or otherwise- are always welcome at our house! Desserts are not collards, after all.

By the way, this pie has three fillings - almond butter, chocolate and vanilla. My blender needed to be cleaned thrice. And the food processor once. This is a gluten free, albeit not soy free dessert - the thickener is soy lecithin.

Cost Breakdown:

1/2 collard bunch: $1.50

filling: $4

mushroom: $3

1/2 cuke: $.50

nama shoyu, limes, pepper, oils: $2

Total to feed 3 people:

$11.00

Raw Mudslide Pie Recipe