Hannah Kaminsky - Vegan à la mode: more than 100 frozen treats for every day of the year

HANNAH KAMINSKY

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2012 by Hannah Kaminsky

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61608-724-1

Printed in China

Thanks are due to many people for making this book possible, including all of my thoughtful, supportive blog readers, and especially my mom and dad. Without their endless patience, expert dish washing, and tireless enthusiasm, my penchant for churning out frozen desserts would likely result in little more than an overstuffed freezer.

Im also indebted to the brave and open-minded recipe testers who helped verify even my wildest recipes as accurate, easy to follow, and above all else, delicious. Those who lent their time, taste buds, and freezer space to the cause were Jenni Mischel, Amanda Crow, Sophia Magnone, Lisa Pitman, Lori, Dawn Hodose, Cat DiStasio, and Ted Lai.

Dishes provided for photography by Steelite on pages (18, 56, 164, 206, 208)

I f ever there was one dessert that could capture my heart, ice cream would be first in line, flowers and love letters in hand. From an early age, the attraction was undeniable. A forbidden, rare pleasure at first, reserved only for birthdays and holidays, the chance to enjoy ice cream again elevated any event into a day worth waiting for. Be it a generous scoop melting over the tender crumbs of a layer cake or a glassful topped off with a bubbly swig of root beer, that sweet, creamy treat never got old. Unadventurous at first, vanilla, chocolate, and mint chocolate chip were the only flavors acceptable until that fateful trip to Italy as a teenager. Artful mounds of gelato in every color of the rainbow glittered behind frosted glass cases, luring me to taste a new world of possibilities. Rose petal gelato, scooping out as a lovely shade of pink blushwhat girl could resist? How about salted caramel? Cinnamon? Just as suddenly as ice cream had become an acceptable daily affair, the sky was the limit for new taste sensations.

Never ceasing to pair flavors and dream up new ideas, my frozen dessert experiments grew only more daring over time. The best part about making your own ice cream, other than being able to control the quality of the ingredients, is having the freedom to mix up exactly the blend you crave. Toss peanuts into your chocolate fudge if you wish, take out a caramel ripple and add toffee pieces insteadlet your sweet tooth call the shots and go wild! Approach the following recipes with an open mind and curious palate for the best results.

Ice cream, gelato, frozen custard, ice milk, sherbet, sorbetdeep down in the core of their frozen hearts, what is it that separates these distinct varieties of frozen desserts? At the end of the day, it all comes down to butterfat. Typically, the fattier the concoction, the richer the end results, beginning with frozen custard and moving down to the lightest of the batch, sorbet, that never includes dairy at all. Those minute differences become far more difficult to define when talking about vegan frozen treats, containing none of the telltale dairy component. For the purposes of keeping things nice and simple, no overwrought fancy terms needed, I refer to anything creamy or made with non-dairy milk as ice cream, and anything with a fruit or vegetable base as sorbet.

Derived from the same plant as tequila but far less potent, agave is the sweet syrup at the core of cacti. It is available in both light and dark varieties; the dark possesses a more nuanced, complex, and somewhat floral flavor, while the light tends to provide only a clean sweetness. Unrefined, agave nectar has a much lower glycemic index than many traditional granulated sweeteners, and is therefore consumed by some diabetics in moderation. Any health food or natural food store worth its stuff should readily stock agave nectar.

Known also as agar agar or kanten, agar is a gelatinous substance made out of seaweed. It is a perfect substitute for traditional gelatin, which is extracted from the collagen of animals connective tissues and obviously extremely not vegan. Agar comes in both powdered and flaked form. I prefer to use the powder because it is easier to incorporate smoothly into puddings, faster to thicken, and measures gram for gram like standard gelatin. However, if you can only find the flakes, just whiz them in a spice grinder for a few minutes and, voil! instant agar powder! Agar can be found in Asian markets and some health food stores.

Standard sorbet and ice cream bases are naturally gluten-free, but some of the fancier recipes call for baked goods to be mixed or blended in. Its easy enough to switch out the wheat flour for a more allergy-friendly mix, though. Many ready-made combinations of gluten-free flours exist in the marketplace now, and though there are varying results based on the brand and the exact blend, most can replicate the texture of standard flour fairly well. My top pick is made by Bobs Red Mill, which can be substituted 1:1 for all-purpose flour. If youd like to whip up your own blend, thats also easy enough as long as you have a well-stocked pantry.

6 Cups White Rice Flour

2 Cups Potato Starch or Cornstarch

1 Cup Tapioca Flour

2 Tablespoons Xanthan Gum

Simply whisk all of the dry goods together until thoroughly mixed. Store in an airtight container, and measure out as needed. If the recipe youre following already calls for xanthan gum, you can omit it from this blend.

While wonderful flours can be made from all sorts of grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, the gold standard in everyday baking would be all-purpose. Falling somewhere between cake flour and bread flour, all-purpose flour has the ability to create light desserts which still have substance. It is therefore used most often in my recipes, and stocked as one of my pantry staples. All-purpose flour may be labeled in stores as unbleached white flour or simply plain flour.

Almond flour is simply the end result of grinding down raw almonds into a fine powder; almond meal is generally just a bit coarser. To make your own, just throw a pound or so of completely unadulterated almonds into your food processor, and let the machine work its magic. If you opt to stock up and save some for later, be sure to store the freshly ground almond flour in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer. Due to their high oil content, ground nuts can go rancid fairly quickly. To cut down on labor and save a little time, almond flour or meal can be purchased in bulk from natural food grocers.