The Vegan Ice Cream That Could

All summer I drooled over the mouth-watering ice cream recipes popping up on blogs across the Net. I had such a passion to make my own little batch of cold vegan goodness, but there was only one problem: I don't own an ice cream maker. :(

So, I drooled and drooled. I sent recipes to my mom, who owns an ice cream maker, trying to lure her into giving animal-free ice cream a go. She offered to loan me her machine but I didn't want her to go without, so initially I declined and went back to the visions of ice cream dreams dancing in my head.

Then, Tofu-n-Sprouts posted an irresistible-sounding pumpkin spice ice cream recipe that reminded me of the delicious "limited edition" pumpkin ice cream I've had from a certain mass-manufacturer of the cold stuff. The temptation was growing and I wouldn't be able to wait much longer... so I asked to borrow the ice cream maker from my mom.

I was so giddy when I finally had the machine in my hands. Like a child on Christmas morning who must decide which present to open first, my mind was spinning as I contemplated my first recipe. Pumpkin. It had to be pumpkin. Dammit, it's 30 degrees F outside but I wanted pumpkin ice cream.

I tried to be smart about it. I printed off both Tofu Mom's recipe, and the one at A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. Both recipes contained an ingredient I wasn't sure if I could find, but if I took both recipes along, I was bound to be able to make one if not the other right?

Wrong! It was as if some higher force was telling me it was too cold to be making ice cream. "You should be making hot cocoa or baking warm muffins instead," I heard the voice taunt. I searched high and low but I could not for the life of me find the Silk brand Pumpkin Spice soy milk for Tofu's Mom's recipe, or the arrowroot for the Vegan Paradise recipe. Dammit! What's a girl craving ice cream to do?

Find another recipe! LOL Thankfully, I remembered that one of the recipes I had sent to my mom was the vegan ice cream base from Vivacious Vegan. The magic ingredient in her recipe was coconut milk... and I knew I could find coconut milk! Finally! The vegan ice cream that could! :)

After all the frustration, I chose to keep it simple and made the vanilla ice dream recipe (pictured above) from VV. My fiance and I sampled it over an episode of Heroes recently. Good, but for me, the texture was a bit off. And, the coconut milk seemed to leave an aftertaste I could've done without. I'd have to do better to convince my omni-fiance that vegan ice cream is worth eating.

So once again I went in search of arrowroot and ended up at my local bulk food store. They had it. Yippie! I bought close to a pound. :) And I rushed home to make Agnes' Pumpkin Ice Cream.

Tom Petty has it right. The waiting IS the hardest part. The time period to wait for the ice cream to firm up was grueling, especially since my sample taste in the soft-serve state told me it was divine! Oh, but this ice cream was worth the wait. I loved this recipe. I felt the texture was more along the lines of what I had hoped for, and I felt it was a healthier recipe without the coconut in it. I think this recipe gives that famous E brand a run for its money. My omni sister thought it was delicious too!

My fiance, on the other hand, hasn't had a chance to try it yet... somehow the batch disappeared before he could come over for a taste! ;)