I don't like to have too many gadgets around my apartment, but sometimes a case can be made if something is going to save me a lot of money. Case in point: ice cream maker. A 2-quart Cuisinart model set me back 60 dollars on Amazon, and it probably won't take long before Jeff and I have eaten that much ice cream and sorbet.Excited to receive the package a day earlier than I expected, I anticipated scooping beautiful mounds of creamy perfection later that evening. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that although ice cream can be made in roughly half an hour, it takes time to make the "ice cream soup," and even longer to let it cool down enough before churning. Lesson learned! But that wasn't enough to set me back from using my awesome new gadget. I figured I'd just have something sweeter than usual for breakfast.
My first try was Vegan Dad's basic vanilla ice cream, mixing in some chocolate chips (both dark and white chocolate) at the end. But what is even better is the stuff I made last weekend. Looking to recreate the caramel macchiato recipe from The Blooming Platter, I decided to do a sort of mash-up of recipes between that and the aforementioned Vegan Dad vanilla. The results were nothing short of amazing. While the frozen product can tend toward the icy rather than the creamy, waiting 30 seconds or so before eating (if you can exercise that much restraint!) yields a delectably creamy mouth feel, without having to spend big bucks on So Delicious at the store.
Caramel Coffee Vegan Ice Cream
Yield: Approx 1 Quart
3/4 C brown sugar (packed)
2 T vegan margarine
1 T soy milk
2 C soy milk
Heat the brown sugar, margarine, and 1 T soy milk in a saucepan over medium heat until everything melts, whisking continuously. When the consistency gets thick (but not hard), add 2 C soy milk and whisk to combine. Let simmer on low while you do the next step:
1 can full fat coconut milk (cooled so the cream has separated)
Soy milk or creamer
2 T arrowroot or cornstarch
1 T coffee (you can use instant, I didn't)
1 T vanilla extract
Skim the cream off of the top of the coconut milk until you get to the watery stuff left over, and put it into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add enough soy milk or creamer to make 2 cups of liquid. Stir, and also mix in the coffee and vanilla extract.
Take half of this mixture and put it into a small bowl. Add the arrowroot and whisk until it is combined. Pour this into the saucepan with the brown sugar and soy milk, and whisk. Let it bubble and thicken, and the texture should be (as Vegan Dad puts it) glossy. (It's an apt description.) Then add the other bowl of coconut milk / soy milk / coffee / vanilla and whisk until it becomes glossy again.
Pour the (almost) finished product into a bowl, cover, and put it in the fridge until it is thoroughly cold. Then churn it up using your ice cream maker's instructions.