Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Choc-orange pudding pops and Molasses-Vanilla ice cream with candied walnuts

Last weekend was full of pot lucks. WTB holding an ice cream pot luck on Saturday and Lisa a Christmas themed one the next day.

I decided to make two dishes for the ice cream pot luck. If one of them was crap hopefully the other one could make up for it. For weeks I had my heart set on making the "choc-orange pudding pops" from Vegan Soul Kitchen, but was lazy in tracking down popsicle molds. I eventually found some cheap ones at woolworths on Friday, but I'd already decided to just make the "molasses-vanilla ice cream with candied walnuts" by then. However, I eventually managed to twist my own arm into doing what I had originally intended and made both dishes.

Chocolate-Orange pudding pops

This is just the recipe for choc-orange pudding, but you freeze it, after placing it in molds, rather than putting it in the fridge.

Ingredients

6 tbs coconut millk
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/2 tsp orange extract (I made my own using this recipe)
1/2 cup cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used raw cacao powder)
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
340 grams silken firm tofu (I used the joyce brand from woolworths)

  • Whisk everything but the tofu together in a saucepan and bring to a boil and then simmer for a minute.
  • Blend in tofu.
  • Let cool and pour into molds.
  • Freeze until frozen ;)

I struggled to get these out of the molds in one piece, but there was success later in the day when I took some over to an MVS training session, where the skilled ice cream hands of my friend Dan pulled out the excalibur of popsicles (pictured above).

Molasses-Vanilla ice cream with candied walnuts

3 cups coconut milk
2 tbs arrowroot powder (I was tricked into buying tapioca powder thanks to tricky labelling, but seems to work okay)
6 tbs agave syrup
1 tbs black strap molasses (probably could/should have used carob molasses)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup candied walnuts (toast walnuts for 8 mins, rub off skins through sieve, mix in EV olive oil, agave and raw sugar and stir constantly in a frying pan on med-high heat until liquid has mostly evaporated)

  • Mix 1/4 cup of cocount milk with arrowroot powder.
  • Heat rest of coconut milk with agave, molasses, vanilla and salt with the coconut & arrowroot mixture.
  • Refrigerate until totally chilled.
  • Pour into ice cream maker and hope for the best. Add nuts in the last minute of freezing. Place in freezer for a couple of hours until it firms up.
The flavour of this was quite interesting, tasting a bit like licorice with an occasional kick of sweet candied walnut. A different type of molasses would probably add a milder and fruitier element.

    4 comments:

    1. These were both great! I love crunchy bits in my icecream so I was particularly taken with the molasses-vanilla one.

      Thanks coming along and humouring my icecream obsession. :-)

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    2. I'm in awe! First time to your blog but, as someone who adores blackstrap molasses and just bought a jar of carob molasses, seeing this is pure serendipity :)

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    3. I didn't try the orange pudding pops but they sound good - I usually get mine out by pouring a bit of hot water from the tap (I think boiling water is too hot). They look impressive - I had some molasses icecream but I think it got all mixed up with my other icecreams as I later wondered which one it was - what sort of potlucker am I!!!

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    4. Thanks Cindy. Thanks for inviting me too :)

      Hannah, great to see there are some molasses fans out there. However, I usually prefer to drown out the flavour of the blackstrap molasses with sweet things.

      Johanna, I tried the hot water thing and eventually refined my technique, using a knife to encourage it out of the mold, and got some proper looking popsicles.

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