I have been making vegan ice cream for several years using unsweetened, organic, flaked coconut, which I blend into a rough-and-ready form of coconut cream in my Vitamix blender. I have also at times attempted to add more depth of flavor and creaminess to my ice cream by using a combination of flaked coconut and raw cashews. The latter are a tried-and-true vegan substitution for cow’s milk. In both cases, my ice cream turns out well, but it never tastes quite as rich as commercial vegan ice cream.
Speaking of commercial vegan ice cream, I love it but, unhappily, it has several major strikes against it: (1) it is exorbitantly expensive, (2) it is enormously high in calories due to containing huge amounts of sugar, (3) it often contains corn syrup, which is only marginally less unhealthy than high-fructose corn syrup, and (4) all commercial ice cream, whether vegan or non-vegan, seems to include carrageenan, an emulsifier and food thickener which, unfortunately, causes inflammation.
Recently, I had been reading recommendations from many different vegan chefs that nothing beats actual, canned coconut cream for giving vegan ice cream an authentic texture and flavor which is very close to being as satisfying as commercial ice cream. And with no corn syrup or carrageenan! So I decided to give this brand of organic coconut cream a try.
Boy, am I glad I did!
Rather than carrageenan, that ubiquitous, processed-food thickener, this brand of coconut cream uses guar gum as its thickener. Guar gum is not only harmless, it can actually be beneficial to health. Studies have indicated that, because it is a form of fiber, it can help reduce blood sugar and cholesterol levels and improve bowel function. The only other ingredients in this product are coconut (which is naturally high in fat) and water.
The texture and flavor of the ice cream I make from this product is fantastic! My husband and I both love it. And my homemade ice cream has about one-fourth the calories of commercial vegan ice cream because I use stevia and monk fruit extract instead of sugar.
I will definitely be testing out this coconut cream for many other flavors of ice cream in the future, and I will also be using it for Indian and Thai curries.
For any who might be interested, I’ve included below my vegan ice cream recipe. Note that, sad to say, some people experience stevia as tasting bitter rather than sweet, so I’ve included an approximate substitution for the stevia in the form of raw sugar in my recipe.
Vegan Cherry Ice Cream
1 5.4-ounce (10 tablespoons) can of Native Forest Organic Coconut Cream Premium (600 calories)
60 organic frozen cherries (300 calories)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I personally make my own)
1 tablespoon cherry extract (I make my own) OR 1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pure stevia powder (sweeten to taste) OR 1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon monk fruit extract
3 cups water frozen as ice cubes (I use 2 full ice cube trays consisting of 16 large cubes, with each cube being 1-1/2 tablespoon of water; typical ice cube trays have 16 cubes which are 1 tablespoon each)
Yield: 6-1/2 cups with 69 calories per standard, 1/2-cup serving, compared to 240-300 calories for commercial ice cream.
Instructions
1. Add all ingredients but the ice cubes to the Vitamix container. (Note: I’m not sure any other blender but a Vitamix is capable of making ice cream like this.) While stirring with the tamper stick, blend on highest speed until the cherry mixture is very thick and creamy.
2. Add the first tray of ice cubes and shove them down with the tamper stick until they are in the bottom of the container next to the blender blades. While stirring with the tamper stick, blend again on highest speed until the ice cream is even thicker and creamier.
3. Add the second tray of ice cubes and shove them down with the tamper stick until they are in the bottom of the container next to the blender blades. While stirring with the tamper stick, blend again on the highest speed until the ice cream is the thick, creamy consistency of a Dairy Queen Blizzard. In other words, it is so thick, it will not drip off the tamper stick.
4. Even if I plan to serve it immediately, I personally divide up my blender ice cream into several double-walled, insulated, wide-mouthed, 20-ounce, stainless-steel water bottles that I have on hand. I do this because there is nothing so irritating as having my ice cream melt before I can finish eating it. If I am making the ice cream before dinner, I put the insulated containers that I’ve filled with ice cream into the refrigerator. The ice cream will remain well frozen that way for hours.
5. If I need to store any leftover ice cream in the freezer, I place it into an ice cube tray. Note that the ice cream will freeze quite hard, and the cubes of ice cream will therefore need to be re-blended before eating the ice cream later. This ice cream is so good, though, we rarely have any leftovers!
Organic Coconut Cream (Organic Coconut, Filtered Water, Organic Guar Gum).
