Ice-Cream and Giggles

Have you ever had a recipe idea in the midst of essay writing that just makes you stop and go "I have to make this now!". Well, this recipe was formed in such a moment. As soon as I had the idea, and since my progress writing a new chapter for my thesis wasn't going so well, I decided to make these tarts ASAP. For those wondering...yes, after my supervisor requested me to write a new chapter, and when I sent her the new draft, she told me to re-write it from scratch. Yep, just 12 days out from submitting my thesis, I am trying to write another chapter. Not exactly the situation you want to be in, to be honest. Though on the bright side, the formatting is 95% done and the rest of the thesis about 90% finished, so potentially I have time. But stress levels, you know, are not the best. But tarts do help, my friends!

So if you have made it through this ramble, you must be wondering what's the go with these tarts? Is there even a recipe here? Well, yes there is! These tarts taste like creamy ice cream with a crunchy base. Yummy! And lavender and blueberry are a match made in heaven, I have no idea why I haven't tried it before! Plus, this is another experiment in oil-free recipe phase, so enjoy!

Makes around 6 small tartlets, or around 1 small 10cm diametre cheesecake.

Prep: 20 minutes, Freezer: 2-3 hours. Total Time: 3h 20 mins.

You will need:

For the base:

1 cup almonds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1.5 tbsp melted coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the filling:

1/2 cup soaked and drained cashews
1 tbsp melted coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut yogurt or cream
1/4 cup blueberries
1-2 tsp dried lavender

Method:

1. In a food processor/blender, blitz almonds until crumbly. Add the rest of the ingredients until combined, then press into small tartlet moulds.
2. Combine all ingredients for filling in high-speed blender, except lavender. When smooth, add 1 tsp lavender. Add more according to taste.
3. Pour filling into parts, then place in freezer to set for a few hours.

Yep, another cake! Ice-cream, vegan, banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and it is healthy! Here is pretty much another reason why bananas are a magical fruit: they make ice-cream, popsicles, smoothies, cakes, they can be used as an egg replacement in muffins, pancakes, cookies, donuts, and! You can even dehydrate bananas to make crepes. If you don't like bananas for some odd reason (or you're allergic, in which case I feel sorry for you), you are really missing out! But in the future I will try and make a soy or coconut cream based cake, to cater for everyone's needs!

You will need:

3 small frozen bananas (separated)
1/4 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup raspberries


+ a spring-form tin, approx: 5 cm high and 12 cm in diameter.

1. Strawberry layer: combine banana and strawberries in a food processor until smooth. Pour into a small spring-form cake tin and spread out evenly.
2. Blueberry layer: combine blueberries and banana in a food processor until smooth. Pour on top of the strawberry layer and smooth out.
3. Raspberry layer: combine raspberries and banana in a food processor until smooth. Pour on top of the blueberry layer and smooth out.
4. Place in freezer for 1-2 hours.
5. Serve!

Okay, so the title kind of of super long, but it really does capture what this recipe is all about: raw vegan and gluten free chocolate tarts, covered in blueberry sorbet and topped with strawberries and banana, and more chocolate sauce. It is also refined sugar free. Delicious, I know. I made this during a breakfast experiment (I am trying to incorporate fully raw meals into my diet), and it is so yummy, I had to share it here! However, I wasn't taking progress shots like usual, because it was an experiment, so not only is some of the measurements a little vague, but I only have the one iPhone photo, so I hope that's okay!

Makes 4 chocolate mini tarts, approx. 20-30 minutes to make.

You will need:

For the chocolate tart:

5 pitted and soaked medjool dates (soak in warm water for 5 minutes!)
1 large handful of almonds
1 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp maple syrup

1. Combine all ingredients for the tart in a food processor until sticky and forms a ball.
2. Between two sheets of non-stick baking paper, roll out the dough with a rolling pin until around 5 mm thick. Using a large circular cutter, cut out 4 mini tarts. You might need to cut two, roll dough back together, and start again.
3. Place these tarts on a plate and in the fridge until ready.

For the blueberry sorbet:

1 large handful of frozen blueberries
1-2 tbsp water/coconut water

1. Combine blueberries in a food processor with water, add more water as needed. Scoop out into a bowl and place in freezer until ready to serve.

For the chocolate sauce:

approx 2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cacao powder

1. Place maple syrup in a small bowl. Slowly add the cocoa powder and mix until it reaches a smooth consistency. You might not need all the cocoa powder.

Assemblage:

4 chocolate tart bases
blueberry sorbet
3 chopped strawberries
1 chopped banana
chocolate sauce

1. Place one large spoonful of blueberry sorbet on top of each tart base.
2. Layer the strawberry pieces and banana on top of the sorbet.
3. Coat with chocolate sauce!
5. Serve!

After experimenting with Coyo with pretty much everything (popsicles, granola, and various smoothies), and still having a significant amount left, I decided to try it with ice-cream! I used banana, blueberries and coyo, and it turned into a super smooth delicious ice-cream, and the coyo added another dimension to the texture. The result was a rich, smooth and thick ice-cream! Though coyo is high in fat, it really is the key to gaining that "cream" texture, which can be hard to achieve in any vegan recipes. You can probably use soy yoghurt or coconut cream to acquire the same taste and texture.

Serves 1-2 people, approx: 5 minutes preparation and 1 hour freezing time.

You will need:

2 frozen bananas
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup plain coconut yoghurt (coconut cream or soy yoghurt may also work)

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
2. Serve immediately or place in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour to harden up.

Watermelon is probably my favourite fruit, and there are three ways that I love it: one, is just by itself, two is as a watermelon pizza (simply cutting watermelon into triangles and serving it with an assemblage of fruit on top: see photo below), and three: as popsicles. Now, these are the cheater's popsicles: you only need watermelon and Popsicle sticks. You can have them plain, or you can mix them up. Today I thought I would share three different ways you can serve these delicious popsicles, and they are great for hot summer days (or even winter: let's be honest, to any Sydney-siders we are getting 20 degrees Celsius + in the middle of winter!).


You will need:

A large slice of watermelon (try and aim for seedless), cut into triangles
Popsicle sticks for however many triangles you have

Toppings:

Blueberries
Edible flowers
1 banana + 2 tbsp almond milk combined in a blender or food processor.

1.  Cut your watermelon into reasonably thick slices/triangles. To insert the popsicle sticks you will need a knife to slice a hole though the watermelon skin. Insert sticks.

2. Blueberry popsicles: squish in blueberries (preferably frozen) into the watermelon flesh.
3. Flower popsicles: make sure they are edible flowers! Then stick the stem into the flesh of the watermelon.
4. Banana drizzle: combined 1 banana and 2 tbsp almond milk in a food processor until smooth. Drizzle over watermelon. You can add before you freeze it or after.
5. Place watermelon slices in freezer until frozen!

You will need:

1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup chia seeds
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
handful of blueberries

1. Combine the milk, chia seeds, maple syrup and vanilla in a bowl. Hand whisk until combined. Cover with glad wrap and place in fridge for an hour so that the chia seeds expand.
2. When your mixture is pudding like, pour into popsicle moulds and mix in your blueberries. Place your sticks in the moulds and put in freezer for at least 4 hours.

You will need:

For the pastry stack:
1 sheet of vegan puff pastry
approx 1 tbsp icing sugar

For the ice-cream:
2 frozen bananas
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp almond milk

1. Cut your pastry into roughly even squares (4 for each stack), and around 2-4 triangles (1 or 2 per stack).
2. Put baking paper on a tray, lightly grease and put the pastry squares and triangles on the tray, pierce with a fork. Put in a 180 degrees Celsius oven. Cook for 10 minutes or until brown, then take out of over, turn over squares and triangles and put in oven again for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Meanwhile, combine ingredients for the ice-cream in a food processor. Add more almond milk if it won't mix. Pour into a metal tray and cover with glad wrap. Whisk every 30 minutes until ready.
3. Dust the pastry with icing sugar.
4. When serving: layer the pastry: pastry-spoonful of ice-cream - pastry - spoonful of ice-cream - pastry - spoonful of ice-cream - pastry and then one ice-cream scoop of ice-cream. Stick in a triangle for decoration.

A reason to make healthy sorbet? Well, here it is. You only need two ingredients: blueberries and coconut water. It is easy, filling and oh so healthy. Blueberries are the wonder berry, full of antioxidants, low in fat, full of fibre to make you fuller for longer, full of vitamin C, improves brain function and fights cancer. By making it into a sorbet, it makes eating these berries a little more fun, and allows you to serve it to your loved ones, while little do they know you are serving them a delicious healthy treat!

You will need:
2 cups of frozen blueberries
1/4 cup (or more) coconut water
1. Combine in a food processor. Using a spatula scoop everything down every few spins. If it won't mix, add a little bit more coconut water until you get a thick and smooth consistency.
2. You can serve immediately, or pour into a metal tray, cover in glad wrap and place in the freezer. By putting it in the freezer for 30-40 minutes it will allow the mixture to harden just enough to be able to scoop with an ice-cream scoop.

P.S. The drink is simply lemon and blueberry infused water. If you haven't tried infused water with fruit before, you need to! Lemon is a good option because it is a great detox, and I added berries to sweeten up the lemon. 

I love blueberries. They are so amazing in regards to taste, colour and of course, health benefits. Naturally, I just had to make a blueberry ice-cream that was vegan, healthy, and sugar free. I had this delicious concoction for afternoon tea, with gluten-free vegan chocolate cookies and some blue-chai tea.

You will need:

2 bananas
1/4 cup or more of any plant-based milk (I used almond milk for this recipe)
1/2-3/4 cup of blueberries (can be frozen or not)

Makes:
around 3-4 scoops, should be enough to serve 2 people.

Preparation: 5 minutes + 3-8 hours in freezer.


Method:

Mix all ingredients in a blender, if it will not blend add a little more almond milk, around 1 tbsp at a time. Once mixed, pour into a metal container, cover in glad wrap and place in a freezer. Every 30 minutes whisk the mixture until thick and resembles an ice-cream. Serve!



Details: Gluten-Free Vegan Almond, Chia and Chocolate Cookies, find the recipe here. I followed the recipe exactly, except by adding a handful of vegan chocolate chips. It is ridiculously yummy and easy to make: it reminds me of a rich chocolate cake with melted chocolate pieces inside.
The gorgeous blue tea cup and saucer is from T2 Tea, and I love it because it reminds me so much of Van Gogh's Almond Blossoms.
The plate in which the ice-cream is on is a vintage tea cup saucer of my parents.