When I was just a wee tyke, the Grade 3 class in my school would learn songs from the Anne of Green Gables musical – Canada’s longest-running musical; who knew? – in music class, and as part of this curriculum, would actually get to make ice cream, just like they sang about*. This was probably the most hotly anticipated moment of my entire educational career, particularly when my cousin, who was a year ahead of me, got to do it and I got to hear about it in greater detail than ever before. For reasons I still don’t understand, her class was the last to do it, and I felt sorely robbed of the opportunity to waste valuable class-time making ice cream, of all the crazy things.
I eventually got over this snub, and really hadn’t had much of a burning desire to make ice cream since, because you can buy it at the store/I don’t eat dairy anymore/you can buy non-dairy ice cream at the store, too. Besides, ice cream is just not one of those things I really crave too frequently. But…every so often, in perusing a cookbook or website, I’d see an ice cream recipe and think, “Dang!” Since we’re having a heatwave (a tropical heat wave), I finally took the plunge this weekend.
This product is particularly awesome for three reasons (besides the taste!):
1. It’s homemade (duh – who blogs about store-bought ice cream?)
2. It’s vegan
3. I made it without an ice cream maker
Yes! Thanks to the Brown-Eyed Baker’s handy tutorial (found here), I was able to experiment with homemade ice cream without having to shell out for an ice cream maker that would sit and collect dust in the basement roughly 360 days out of the year.
Oh, the recipe? Just a little gem from Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan Desserts, “Toasted Coconut Key Lime Ice Cream”. I’ve fiddled with key limes exactly once in my life, decided they weren’t worth the trouble, and employed one standard lime instead to get the necessary juice and zest. It yields approximately one pint once all is said and done, which was the perfect amount to slake that cold-n-creamy craving. The texture was nothing short of velvety, and it tested very well with omnivores. Although the coconut milk makes it rich, the tartness of the lime provides the perfect balance.
Oh, yeah. This opens up all sorts of possibilities….
*”Ice cream! Is anything more delectable than ice cream? Why, even the most respectable eat ice cream! It’s wonderful on a summer’s afternoon in June,” etc.
The Witty Child 