East Coast Ice Cream Roundup

The best ice cream that I have ever had is the pumpkin sundae from Franklin Fountain. I mentioned it last year, and will definitely be heading back to eat it once more now that it's October again. When we went a few weeks ago, it wasn't quite pumpkin time so I got a cone of their only non-dairy non-vanilla ice cream available, local blueberry. It was pretty good, but definitely no pumpkin sundae. Aside from ice cream cones & sundaes, Franklin Fountain also offers a variety of sodas all made from hand crafted syrups. We tried the lavender and the raspberry, and they were both awesome.
If it's not pumpkin season, I would also suggest heading to Little Baby's! They have ice cream sandwiches that are always stellar. All of their cookies are vegan, and they always have several interesting flavors available. I have gotten molasses peanut chew ice cream with sugar cookies & speculoos ice cream with snickerdoodle cookies. There's always the most interesting flavor selection, like thai peanut and coconut chai. Both store fronts are also super cute, so it's worth the venture to one of their shops.


FoMu also took me by surprise in Boston. I heard how good it was, but never really believe all the hype until I can try something for myself. I went to both the Allston and the Jamaica Plain shops. Both are overwhelmingly adorable. Maybe it's just because I have a thing for store fronts because I have a bunch of ideas in my head?! The flavor list was also overwhelming. While Little Baby's has lots of interesting flavors, there are only a handful of vegan ones. It's so terrific to walk into a shop and be able to select any ice cream flavor you want from a board. I tried both the rocky road and then I got a banoffee/ peanut butter mud pie double scoop. Coming the banoffee and peanut butter was a totally brilliant move on my part, and I highly recommend it if you are a fan of this flavor combination!
Probably my favorite thing about the shops was the giant case full of pints of ice cream, just waiting for you to take them home. I have never really seen such a thing. It was pure magic. You can also get donuts from Sabertooth Bakery at FoMu! Donut sundae anyone?!


Everyone and their mother knows about Lula's Sweet Apothecary. While the business was closed for a bit and is now open under a new name that I haven't heard yet, it's still in the same spot with the same recipes and definitely just as good as always. The shop wasn't open when I was in town, but I was able to get a scoop of my favorite flavor, Dream Cone, at Sustainable NYC down the street!
There's obviously all sorts of other places to get vegan ice cream on the East Coast. I didn't even consider all the places with soft serve like Vegan Treats and B2 in Philly. There's really too many to list. But these are a few of my favorites. Are you an ice cream fanatic too?

Mochi & Passion Fruit Sorbet

There isn't a ton of great ice cream options as far as DC goes. There are generally a few flavors available at some of the local gelato shops, and if you're lucky, there is soft serve as the DC soul food restaurant Everlasting Life. My main go-to for "ice cream" dates throughout the summer is the non-dairy frozen yogurt carried at a number of shops like FroZenYo. My cup normally consists of a tiny bit of frozen yogurt & tons of fruit & mochi. If you haven't ever had mochi, they are like pillowy sweet little marshmallows. Most people make daifuku, which is filled mochi. But that's not what I want in the cup with the rest of my dessert, so I didn't worry about the extra steps.
Buy a pint of Ciao Bella passion fruit sorbet, a box of mochiko (glutinous rice flour) at your local Asian market, and you probably have everything else you need at home. I used Vegan YumYum's recipe, and it takes around ten minutes start to finish. If you cut the mochi with a pizza cutter, it's even faster. Which I realized half way through my process of cutting tiny half inch squares with a chef's knife. After it cooled totally, I tossed the squares in a mixture of half powdered sugar/half potato starch. Easy peasy last minute end-of-summer treat!

Coffee & Cinnamon Ice Cream

I have the luxury of working at a little organic market, where I have access to all sorts of wonderful food. Last month we got in the amazing Earth Balance cheese puffs & popcorn and then Phoney Baloney's coconut bacon. Today we finally got in Cocomels Coconut Caramels! Most of the time I am anxiously awaiting the new products, like the Daiya cream cheeses, but sometimes new products sneak up on me. And it can be so wonderful to be caught off guard by them! This is exactly what happened with Steve's Ice Cream. The Brooklyn company's sweets are mostly dairy based, but they offer a few non-dairy flavors. Steve's makes a mint cacao chip, but our little store currently only carries the cinnamon coffee & blackberry honey. Since I avoid honey I haven't tried the latter, but the coffee cinnamon knocked me out of this world. It's like the best latte that I have ever tasted, spun into this smooth & rich dessert. Not surprisingly it's made from coconut cream and cold brewed Blue Bottle coffee (no wonder the coffee flavor is so fantastic). My favorite ice creams are all coconut based, but you won't detect even a hint of coconut flavor if you have an aversion to it. It also doesn't hurt that their packaging has a really pleasing aesthetic, because I do judge my ice creams by their cover. If you can try this ice cream in Brooklyn or find it in a shop near you, I urge you to try it! I ate the whole pint by myself, which I don't think I have ever done before, but it was really that good. Normally I have to share my sweets with Greg or hide them before he devours them, but luckily he hates coffee. If I can figure out how to leave a pint in my freezer without eating it all, then this will be a great thing.


It's hard to believe that it's July already, but that means that Google Reader is closing shop. You should join me on Bloglovin' here if you haven't switched over already! They even created a handy little guide to import your reading list from Google Reader to Bloglovin', but you're gonna need to do it quick!

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

In the summer, I have a tendency to keep the bowl for my ice cream machine in the freezer as often as possible. This allows me to make ice cream as soon as the urge hits. Which happened late at night this past week. It was too hot in the house to even consider turning on the oven, and a popsicle or smoothie wasn't going to cut this craving. The fro-yo place closest by was already closed, and I knew it was time to learn to make it myself. I made chocolate, because that was the ingredient that I had on hand. But I am going to make it again with fruit (Raspberry with dark chocolate chunks?! Top of the to-do list).
I have been trying to eat a little less sugar at home while my recipe development at work is at a recent high. I have been working on a new gluten free product line, and while that's really exciting, it has led to several stomach aches from constantly nibbling on cookies and quick breads that I am in the process of tweaking. So this recipe has just enough sugar to take the bitter edge off the yogurt, but not enough to give you a sugar buzz.


Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
makes 1 quart

1 cup almond milk
9 ounces chocolate (I used Agostoni Gianduia)
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups yogurt (I used Amande almond yogurt)

In a small pan combine almond milk, chocolate, and sugar. On medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is totally melted and smooth. Allow to cool several minutes and whisk into the yogurt. Chill batter before adding to your ice cream machine, freezing as directed.
If it is the middle of the night and you need your frozen yogurt now, then you could take a shortcut by simply throwing the almond milk, chocolate, and sugar in your blender and pureeing until as smooth as possible. Then you could add the yogurt and pulse is briefly before throwing this mixture directly into your ice cream machine. It will not be as smooth as the melted version, but you will save an hour or two & the little chocolate chunks you end up with aren't so bad. Not that I know from experience.

I used an unflavored almond yogurt which tastes much less sweet to me than the coconut yogurt I normally eat for breakfast. If you opt to use coconut yogurt in your fro-yo, you might not need to add any sugar at all. It's all about personal preference, but I like mine fairly tart. Also the chocolate that I used is hazelnut flavored, which lends a bit more kick to the yogurt. I am sure that it would be equally delicious with plain dark chocolate, but you could add some chopped hazelnuts to replicate the flavor I enjoyed & add a bit of texture. If it hadn't been near midnight when I was making this, I probably would have stirred in a few teaspoons of instant coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor.

Tin Roof Sundae & Chocolate Milk

Aside from Just Like Honey & Ricemellow Creme, I have found a third product that I really love from Suzanne's, their Chocolate Rice Nectar . The easiest thing to liken it to is Hershey's syrup. It's thick and pourable. It's smooth and chocolatey and sweet. The best part is it doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup, potassium sorbate, vanillin, and other artificial flavors. Their rice nectar is just brown rice syrup and cocoa powder. It stirs into almond milk to make chocolate milk, much like Hershey's syrup. The chocolate syrup also makes a great topping, in case you too wanted to make a sundae. A tin roof sundae is generally vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and spanish peanuts. I didn't have any spanish peanuts around, so I just used what was lying around in my cabinets. I also used Luna & Larry's Vanilla Island coconut ice cream. It is currently my favorite store-bought vanilla ice cream. Homemade will always be better.


I know it's a little late for spring cleaning, but I have been feeling that urge strike me. Maybe it's just because people are moving in and out of my house again. Maybe it's because I am feeling a little too cluttered. Last night I finally hung up some of the artwork I have had leaning against a wall since January. This week I am hoping to clean out my closets and get rid of all the clothes I never wear anymore, or don't fit, or bought intending to alter but won't get to. I also want to clean out the kitchen cabinets and donate all the pans and dishes we don't need.
I feel like I have to purge a lot of my possessions about once a year to keep myself from gathering way too many unnecessary objects. In the last week I have been given a second ice cream machine and a milkshake machine! While neither of those are going anywhere, I also have at least one broken blender, a griddle I have never used, and two panini presses.
There is a shed full of bicycle parts that haven't seen daylight in years. They have been stacked in there with half used bottles of spray paint and gardening equipment since several seasons before I moved in. I am hoping to tackle it all. Let's hope I can keep up this motivation to get further than just reorganizing the spice rack again.

This week I have also cleaned up my Google Reader finally too. I decided to switch to Bloglovin, since I have heard a few dissapointing things about the way pictures look in Feedly. I pared down my reading list and am hoping to feel a little less overwhelmed when I unplug from my computer for a few days in a row. If you want to join me on Bloglovin, you can do so here!

Root Beer Floats

December has been a wild month. I can't believe 2012 is nearly over. The last quarter of the year is insanely busy in the bakery world. I went from a non-stop production of pies to making endless trays of cinnamon buns & gingerbread. It's now slowed down for a few days. There are still a fair amount of sweets to make for New Year's celebrations, but nothing like the last few weeks. After a long string of twelve to thirteen hour days, having yesterday off was a much needed relief. I wanted sweets, but nothing that required me to whisk or bake or measure. I settled on root beer float shooters! I decided to make them the wee-est bit fancier by dipping the juice glasses in white chocolate and coating the rims in nonpareils. I bought Luna & Larry's Vanilla Island coconut ice cream because it is my favorite vanilla flavor available in the store and I didn't feel like churning my own batch. This might have been a slight mistake, because the coconut flavor is a little too prominent. It doesn't really pair well with the root beer, so I highly recommend using a soy or almond ice cream with a more neutral flavor. I used a small cookie scoop and added 2 portions of ice cream before slowly pouring in the root beer. If you have never made a float before, then you should be forewarned that there is a lot of foam when the soda and the ice cream meet. I let the soda hit the nonpareils because I like the way the colors slowly diffuse into the frothy top of the glass.


I went into work early this morning to bake bread and fill the bagel bins and even managed to bake a few batches of cupcakes before the snow set in too hard. I am quite happy to be back home and warm before the sun sets. I have the next two days off! I am not sure what things I will try to accomplish, but there is a strong possibility that I will watch Love Actually for the fifth time this week. I cut all the pieces for mini gingerbread houses several days ago, so maybe I will finally find time to assemble & decorate them! I finally caved and joined Pinterest, so it is also likely that I will be browsing that for a few hours. I need to find some inspiration for my 'to bake' list. It's getting a little low for the first time in many months. What's on your to-do list? Have you joined Pinterest yet? It's so addictive!

Cranberry White Chocolate Ice Cream

Cranberry White Chocolate Ice Cream
3 cups almond milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar, divided
3 cups cranberries
1/2 cup water
1 tbl vanilla extract
1 tbl vodka or coconut oil (to help it freeze softer)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
In a saucepan combine the berries with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Allow to come to a boil, and simmer for at least 10 minutes until the berries have burst and the sauce is fragrant. After it has cooled slightly, you are free to strain this if you want your ice cream free from pieces of the berry. Reserve 1/4 cup of sauce for later.
In another pan heat 2 1/2 cups of the almond milk with 1/2 cup sugar. While this is coming to a boil whisk the cornstarch into the remaining milk. Once the mixture is boiling, whisk in the cornstarch slurry and heat until it has thickened slightly. Once it has cooled slightly stir in the unreserved cranberry sauce, vanilla, and either voda or coconut oil. Allow to cool completely before churning. After the ice cream has churned to a soft serve consistency stir in white chocolate chips and drizzle in remaining cranberry sauce. Allow to freeze for another hour if a firmer texture is desired. Top with more fresh berries or additional chips.

Local Favorites: Franklin Fountain

This weekend while we were in Philadelphia, we ate a lot of amazing food. We always make multiple stops at Grindcore House and Blackbird, but this time we also tried a few new places. We got chicken ranch sandwiches at HipCityVeg that were pretty decent. But the highlight of new food was definitely the pumpkin sundaes we got at Franklin Fountain! They make a coconut based vegan ice cream, a caramel sauce, whip cream, and throw in a handful of salted pecans and a pinch of malt powder on top. It really surpassed all of my expectations when I heard about it. I feel like generally when non-vegan shops try to create vegan ice creams they tend to fall a little short, but this was certainly not the case! If you haven't been here before and are in the area, you should definitely check it out. The people also own a little candy shop that is a few doors down. I didn't ask about most of the candy because I was already maxed out on sugar, but it did appear that several things were likely vegan!

Cider Poached Pear Sorbet

Originally when I made my first "to do" list for this intense month, I placed poached pears on it. A few weeks later, I had seen so many baked fruit dishes on the internet that I got a little less interested. I spent the evening yesterday skimming through a few cookbooks, and saw a recipe for Cider Pear Sorbet in Hannah's Vegan a la Mode. I knew this was the perfect way to still poach my pears but also make a more interesting dessert out of it. I used a local spiced cider and a mixture of Bosc and Red Anjou pears. I didn't peel my pears, because I wanted a bit of texture in the sorbet. The sorbet ended up a beautiful color, a light peachy pink with flecks of spices and pear. I loved it! If you are intending to share this with anyone besides yourself and maybe your best friend, then you should just go ahead & double the batch. You won't regret it.

As American as Apple Pie

I am not the wordiest or most eloquent blogger by any means. This is my first year attempting VeganMoFo, and I am hoping to gain a lot of from it. Aside from discovering all sorts of new blogs and great foods, I am hoping that this will teach me to blog smarter. That I don’t need to take thirty pictures of the same thing to find one I like. That I don’t have to write a soliloquy for every post. That sometimes simple is better.



The first time that I made the french vanilla ice cream recipe from Vegan a la Mode, I used Earth Balance rather than coconut oil or some other fat. The ice cream batter tasted so warm and buttery, that I knew even before churning it that I had big plans. I have had a huge amount of apples on hand the last few months, and they were just waiting to be roasted with spices. So after making a tiny portion of apple pie filling, I swirled it into the ice cream. I topped all of that with a creamy caramel sauce and a handful of crumbled graham crackers. It was a frozen apple pie a la mode. I couldn't have been more content with how it turned out.



Apple Pie Filling
3 small apples of your choice, I used Granny Smith
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Peel and chop your apples into third inch chunks. In a large bowl mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Toss the apples in the mixture, throw in a glass pan, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Apple Pie Ice Cream
makes one quart

1 batch french vanilla ice cream. Churned, but not frozen solid
1 batch apple pie filling
a few tablespoons caramel
a few crumbled graham crackers

After ice cream is churned, pour 1/3 into a plastic container with a lid. Spoon in several dollops of completely cooled pie filling, then repeat twice more. Allow this to freeze for 3 hours before scooping. Top with caramel and graham cracker crumbs.

Vegan a la Mode (Giveaway!)

It's no secret that I love ice cream. It is quite possibly my favorite form of dessert. I have Hannah's two other cookbooks, and adore them both. So when I heard she was writing an ice cream book, I pre-ordered it months in advance. I bought my standing mixer attachment, and anxiously waited. And then being the ditz that I am totally forgot I was waiting for a cookbook to come in the mail.
I got an email from SkyHorse Publishing asking if I would like a review copy and immediately said yes. So I got two copies in the mail. One of them has got a few splatters of almond milk and cocoa powder on it already, so that one will stay tucked away in my shelf. But the other shiny new copy is up for grabs! If you are interested in receiving a copy of Vegan a la Mode, comment here by noon on September 22nd. Congratulations, Lauren! And happy churning!
Now I'm going to let you know all the reasons that you want to have this cookbook. Hannah is pure brilliance. Her classic flavors are tried & true, but her innovative flavors are where she really shines. The gravel path, her take on rocky road, and her german chocolate are wonderful. Her vanilla ice cream recipe is the best that I have ever tried… and I own three books dedicated to ice cream and have tried several other recipes from the blogosphere. However, my absolute favorite is the toasted marshmallow ice cream. It's pictured below on some chocolate chocolate chip waffles. A perfectly sinful breakfast!

I would have taken more pictures of the ice cream, but it was devoured a bit too quickly. I also don't want to show you pictures that don't do the ice cream near the justice that Hannah's photography does. If you want to know more about Vegan a la Mode, Celine of Have Cake, Will Travel gave a much more eloquent review than I could hope to muster.
I still have a few more recipes that I am hoping to get to soon. Especially her blue moon ice cream! It's such a vibrant shade. And I'm a sucker for bright colors. I know September might seem a little late for ice cream, but that's just false! I will confess that even though it was so chilly in my house last winter, I took a hot bath one night just so that I could eat ice cream while I was in the tub. No shame.
Have you bought Hannah's cookbooks? Do you have a favorite recipe?

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I'm warning you now that as summer approaches this blog might devolve from a baking blog into a blog devoted to frozen desserts. Maybe a few raw treats too, but I know I'm not going to want to turn on my oven. Baking in the summer heat is like going to bikram yoga without feeling better about your health after! I went to a few bikram yoga classes last summer and was not the biggest fan. But then again I think it's definitely one of those practices that many people hate while doing it, but love it after they have left. I just can't get over with overwhelming sweaty-ness. Yoga poses that I could do in my sleep become something completely challenging because there are ounces of salt water dripping into my eyes and causing my feet to slip across my mat. No thanks! I will stick to antigravity yoga. Still a bit of the shock factor, but I find it much more rewarding. Hanging upside down for a few minutes at a time stretches out my spine and limbs in ways that I crave.


Speaking of craving, I have been daydreaming about all sorts of ice cream and sorbet and popsicle flavor combinations. I'm feeling really inspired by The Vegan Scoop. I've made several recipes now, and all of them have exceeded my expectations. This peanut butter ice cream was no different. Chock full of peanut butter, it tasted just like the inside of a frozen Reese's cup. To keep up with the frozen Reese's cup taste, I sandwiched a scoop of ice cream between two chocolate chocolate chip cookies. It was a mess. I was far too impatient to wait for the ice cream to harden enough to cut it with a cookie cutter, so I just scooped a mostly frozen blob of ice cream on the cookies and devoured it. Be thankful that I spared you from the pictures. It was gluttonous and magical and sinfully sweet.
If you are a fan of nut or seed butters, then this recipe is something you should definitely try out. I'm sure it would be just as wonderful with almond butter or sunflower butter!
Are you a yoga fan? Or do you have another favorite type of exercise? My gym hours have been on a resurgence with all the recipe testing I have had to do for work lately. I do a one hour antigravity class once a week, and then mostly stick to the elliptical and a few weight machines the other days. I use to be a huge fan of zumba and spin, but our the classes at my gym are so packed that it's difficult to make it in. I've done a few kickboxing classes, but none are offered at my current gym. I'm interested in trying a few other things. Do you go to a gym or workout at home? Do you have a favorite workout video?

Strawberry Lavender Gelato

Last week I saw a quart of early season strawberries in my local organic market, and I knew I needed to turn them into ice cream. Last summer I had a strawberry lavender gelato at the restaurant Cafe Green here in DC. While I have really mixed feelings about the food and service at Cafe Green, it was one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. This was my first attempt to replicate it.


Strawberry Lavender Gelato
2 tbsp arrowroot
2 tbsp lavender blossoms
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp melted coconut oil
3/4 C sugar
1 C soy creamer
1 C almond milk
3 C strawberries

Wash & hull the strawberries. Puree and set aside. In small bowl, mix 1/3 cup almond milk with arrowroot and set aside. In medium sauce pan combine sugar, creamer, lavender, and remaining almond milk. Bring to a boil. Stir in slurry until slightly thickened, around 2 minutes. Remove from heat and seive to remove lavender blossoms. Add the strawberry puree to the ice cream base through the sieve to remove seeds, or simply stir in if the seeds are desired. Add lemon juice and coconut oil. Refrigerate until chilled and process according to ice cream machine directions.


For a first attempt I think this was a decent ice cream. However, it is not as creamy as I desired it to be. When I make it again, I think I will slightly reduce the amount of strawberries added and use only creamer.
Are you a fan of lavender? It seems to be one of those controversial flavors that people either love or hate. I have a few more lavender recipes up me sleeve this spring, and am hoping to convince a few more people that lavender doesn't have to taste like soap.

Rocky Road Ice Cream

So maybe last night when I told you about my cupboard full of marshmallows, chocolate, and waffle bowls you could have guessed what was coming. Winter aside, my ice cream maker has been getting a lot of use. I made this rocky road ice cream to try and finish up a few loose ends. A bag of slivered almonds left over from the fruit tarts, a few marshmallows left over from rice crispy treats, and a bar of dark chocolate that only got partially eaten during a stressful study session.


I used the chocolate ice cream recipe from The Vegan Scoop, my new favorite cookbook. I used a mixture of regular Ghiradelli cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate, because I wanted the ice cream to be pretty dark. It was definitely chocolatey and rich, but next time I might even try a higher percentage cocoa. Seventy eight didn't have quite enough of a bitter edge for me.
For the batch of ice cream I used around 1/3 cup of slivered almonds and I cut around 8 Sweet & Sara marshmallows into fourths. I would recommend hand mixing those into the ice cream just as you are placing it into the container for the freezer. If you put them in the machine they are more likely to get stuck together or so covered in ice cream that they look less appealing.
This ice cream was my favorite so far. The chocolate flavor was rich, the almonds added just enough crunch, and the marshmallows froze really hard to add a bit more texture and creaminess to the mix.
I recently signed up for my first CSA, so I will have fresh fruits and vegetables for most of the summer and fall. I am pretty excited to turn some of those fruits into seasonal ice cream flavors! There are so many great ice cream flavors in my head already and with Hannah Kaminsky working on an ice cream book, I know there will be plenty more I am adding to that 'to spin' list.
Do you like really dark chocolates? I use to think they were too bitter for me to eat. But recently I have been finding them really enjoyable. Do you recommend any chocolate brands?

Strawberry Ice Cream

I am still quite confused on the distinctions of frozen desserts, especially when one starts considering vegan frozen desserts. If ice cream is defined as a 8-10% milkfat frozen treat, and sorbet is just a non-dairy frozen desert, then where's the distinction for vegan ice creams?! I obviously need a primer on this. Basically what I am saying is that the strawberry ice cream I made I suppose is somewhere in between an ice cream and a sorbet. It's a puree of fresh strawberries, blood orange juice, and coconut milk with a slight hint of agave and vanilla. The texture is definitely more sorbet like, as it lacks the creaminess of what I consider to be ice cream.


I used a recipe from My Darling Thyme which is a variation on a recipe from David Lebovitz of The Perfect Scoop. Confusing enough yet? I substituted blood orange juice for regular citrus and used agave rather than brown rice syrup. The consistency of the ice cream was perfect. It was easy to scoop and yet melted quickly in my mouth. It was simple and wonderful. I wish the blood orange flavor had come through a little more, but I remedied that by eating it with the remaining blood orange syrup from my coconut blood orange bundt cakes.


I am officially hooked on making my own ice cream. There are several more batches on my "to make" list, so I hope you're ready to get churning. There's also a few tips on making ice cream without an ice cream maker in the recipe links above, so no one feels left out.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Ice Cream (Take Two!)

This weekend I took another stab at the salted caramel pretzel ice cream that I told you about earlier in the month. Last time I tried to follow Chloe Coscarelli's recipe but forgot the sugar, which is pretty crucial in ice cream. This weekend I tried out some new things. I instead opted for the vanilla recipe from The Vegan Scoop. I got the book over the holidays was pretty excited to finally put it to use. The grocery store near my work doesn't carry Silk soy creamer, so I bought two pints of the vegan brand they did have. While the label was pretty misleading and showed white creamer being poured into a steaming cup of coffee, the creamer itself looked like chocolate milk! I'm not sure if that is only true for their french vanilla flavor, which maybe has additional vanilla extract tinting it? The ice cream tasted delicious, but it did look like it should be chocolate or coffee flavored rather than vanilla.
I also went a different route for the mix-ins. Rather than add the chocolate covered pretzels to the ice cream, I allowed everyone to throw a few on top of their scoop to accommodate for different tastes or potential gluten allergies. The caramel recipe that I used was a recipe I had bookmarked years ago from Dog Hill Kitchen, but hadn't made yet because I only recently bought a candy thermometer. It was perfect! I made a quarter batch and cooked it to 230 degrees F, like suggest for a sauce. I threw in 1/4 tsp sea salt with the vanilla after taking it off the burner. The warm caramel hardened as it hit the cold ice cream, which was really magical for me. I can't wait to make individually wrapped caramels from this recipe.


I yet again apologize for the quality of the picture! This was taken with a phone while friends were quickly devouring the ice cream in the dark. I promise to document things better soon.
I have been thinking about ice cream quite a bit lately. There are several flavors I plan on making soon. At least it's been unseasonably warm while I experiment with more frozen treats. Do you have any favorite ice cream recipes or flavors?

*I'd also like to thank everyone who has been reading my blog posts! Today I reached 10,000 page views which is so exciting. I'm also happy to hear feedback from so many people lately!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Ice Cream

Ever since I laid eyes on my beautiful pistachio standing mixer, I knew that I would get an ice cream attachment. Last week I decided it was high time to purchase it already, and two days later the box was on my doorstep! I am not sure why I want to start experimenting with frozen treats in the winter, but maybe I will have a head start on all the best recipes once the summer heat sets in!
The first ice cream I wanted to try was a salted caramel pretzel recipe I saw on Chloe Coscarelli's website. After waiting for the freezer bowl to chill for 16 hours, I was so impatient! I couldn't figure out how to make the machine work, because I didn't realize there was an adapter ring attached that I didn't need for my specific standing mixer. Somehow in all the confusion and anxiousness, I forgot to add the agave nectar! I didn't taste the ice cream until after it was already frozen and too late to add the sugar. It was so disappointing. I haven't ever done that before, and I really hope to not leave sugar out of a dessert again.
I didn't love the intense coconut flavor of the ice cream or the texture (which was pretty icy). I'm not sure how much adding the agave nectar would have diluted the flavor or made the ice cream smoother. While I will give the recipe a fair chance sometime in the future, it might be with a few modifications. I didn't love the caramel sauce, and might try using a different one. I also wouldn't throw the chocolate covered pretzels in the ice cream unless you are planning on serving it immediately. By the next morning they had turned into a soggy goo that was totally unappealing.
At least with such a dreadful start, there is a lot of room for improvement. Next time I will stay calm and collected while adding ALL of the ingredients! How often do kitchen errors like these happen to you? I feel like most of the time I catch them before it is too late, but sometimes you need a mistake to remind you to slow down a little and think about what you are doing.

Faux-Butterfinger Milkshake

It has been so long since I have turned on my oven! For a week I was in Tennessee, and then I spent a 4-day weekend in the Midwest. Despite it being the coldest week yet this winter, the only things I can think about are ice cream and milkshakes. While I was in Chicago I drank the two best milkshakes of my life. One was the chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter milkshake from the Chicago Diner and the other was a strawberry milkshake from Pick Me Up Café.
While I was in Tennessee I also finally found Chick-O-Sticks again! Chick-O-Sticks are a delicious gluten free candy made from coconut and peanut butter. They are the closest thing to a vegan Butterfinger that I have ever found. Toy Joy in Austin makes a Chick-O-Stick milkshake that I had the pleasure of trying last fall. Ever since I have tried it, I knew I wanted to create my own version. There’s was a little thing because it is made from soft serve ice cream and lacks the hint of chocolate that really brings out the ‘Butterfinger’ness I desired.


Chick-O-Stick Milkshakes
Makes 2 large glasses

1 pint vanilla ice cream
1/3-1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
2 large Chick-O-Sticks or 20 individually wrapped bite size pieces
4 tsps chocolate syrup

Pour chocolate syrup in glass and set aside. Grind candy to a fine powder. Add to ice cream and milk and blend until desired consistency. Serve immediately.


I used Tempt ice cream because I had never tried a hemp-based ice cream before, but I was not a fan. If I were going to try this again, I would have used coconut or almond. Normally when I am making a chocolate syrup to drizzle, I melt chocolate with coconut oil. Unless you want a crunch, I would recommend using shortening, as coconut oil will produce a ‘magic shell’ like gets poured on top of sundaes. You don’t have to worry about that if you happen to have a store bought chocolate syrup around. Alternatively, you could also just throw a handful of chocolate chips in the blender with the milkshake. If you washed your glass right before you decided to make the milkshake, I also suggest making sure it is very dry because any remaining water will mix with the chocolate. Note the discoloration of the chocolate at the bottom of my glass (whoops!).
What’s your favorite flavor for a milkshake? I highly suggest checking out the restaurants/cafes mentioned above if you are in those areas!

*If you live in the DC area and like vegan snacks and punk music, you should check out Venomous Fest this Saturday. My friend Sheena and I will be having a vegan bake sale. There will be tons of cupcakes, cookies, donuts, rice krispie treats, and even a few savory snacks.