There’s a popular ice cream shop in our neighborhood that makes exquisite dairy ice cream but their vegan ice cream is eh. It’s not the flavors, they’re okay, it’s the texture. Sorbet is more rich than that pea protein-made ice cream. I emailed them to offer my recipe developing services but they didn’t reply, yet. We also have Salt and Straw in our neighborhood but their vegan ice cream (and regular) can burn a dragon’s throat with its sweetness. We’re paying to get diabetes.
I always wanted an ice cream maker, though I didn’t want to actually buy one. If I started buying all the things I wanted, our house would look like a storage unit! My husband doesn’t mind living in a storage unit, so when he stumbled upon a like-new Cuisinart ice cream machine at Goodwill that cost as much as two scoops of ice cream, he bought it. The pedal was missing, but no worries – Amazon had a replacement. I thought the churning would take forever, yet it took only 20 minutes.
Don’t let lack of an ice cream machine stop you from making this delicious ice cream. You can make it the same way I make my no-machine banana “ice cream.”
Last week I developed two coconut milk-based flavors: this fig ice cream – August is when the figs get chubby and ripe – and apple cinnamon ice cream. I roasted sour apples with cinnamon and maple in the oven. You can either cook or roast the fruits before mixing them with the coconut milk. You don’t want to make it with raw fruits. It would brown.
Every spoonful of this ice cream was thick, creamy and perfectly sweetened – the way vegan ice cream should be. Maybe I’ll drop off a pint at that shop, or open my own place, or just keep my day job and continue to make vegan ice cream at home.
To get more ideas for ice cream think of your favorite desserts or look at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream at Home book.
Easy Plant-based Fig Ice Cream
Equipment
- Blender
- Ice cream maker optional
- Pint-size container
Ingredients
- 8 oz. 200g black or green figs, about 8 medium figs
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 2 cups coconut milk
Instructions
- Cut the stems of the figs and slice them in half lengthwise. Put in a small saucepan with coconut sugar, vanilla extract, and 1⁄4 cup water. Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until figs are tender. Let it cool for 10 minutes.
- Put in a blender with 2 cups of coconut milk and blend until smooth (if you like chunks in your ice cream, blend until 80 percent is smooth).
- Prepare your ice cream machine and turn it on. Pour the mixture slowly in it and churn until it’s ice cream. Transfer to a container and store in the freezer. Daah, where else would you store an ice cream?!?
