Ice-Cream and Giggles

After discovering that Arnotts Chocolate Ripple Cookies were vegan (and used sustainable palm oil), I had to buy a pack. Then my boyfriend told me about an amazing cake made with these biscuits: cream is layered with the biscuits, set in the fridge overnight, and the next morning you have cake! Ah, the wonders of food hacks. Oh, and IT TASTES AMAZING! It is up there with my favourite ever vegan recipes, even if it full of sugar. It even pleases the non-vegans.

So how did I veganize the recipe? Simply used cashew cream; I figured coconut cream would have too strong a flavour and soy cream might taste weird. Cashew cream is loved by all and is a neutral flavour, and is more likely to be enjoyed by non-vegans who might not be used to coconut cream or hate soy for some reason.

Now, this recipe really is an Australian thing, with these chocolate biscuits available only, to my knowledge, in Australia (though America might have some, I am not sure). But, I think the idea can easily be applied to other vegan biscuits. If you want it gluten free, why not try Leda's chocolate chip cookies instead? Oreo's might work too if you remove the filling. The possibilities are endless! I suggest you either make your own chocolate cookies (but effort) or you find a vegan chocolate cookie that is available in your country, and buy a pack!

Prep, 15 minutes + overnight refrigeration.

Serves 10-11 people.

You will need:

250 g vegan chocolate cookies (I used Chocolate Ripple)
2 cups soaked cashews
1 cup water
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
dash salt

+  desired toppings.

Method:

1. Add all ingredients for cream in a food processor or high speed blender. I put my vitamix on 10 then on high to get it to a super smooth consistency.
2. Now, layer your biscuits! Place cream on a plate, then sandwich cookies with cream, lay down on the cream on plate. Once all cookies have been sandwiched with cream and ordered in desired layout, cover entire cake in cream. You will have some left. Save this to cover when serving.
3. Place in the fridge overnight.
4. Your cream will go a delicious chocolate colour, so just add some more cashew cream before serving!

Oh my goodness. You know how great Neapolitan Ice-Cream is? Well, now imagine it in a cookie sandwich. So scrumptious! I used Oreo's as the sandwich, the lazy way out as I couldn't be bothered to make cookies, but the chocolate biscuit went so well especially with the strawberry part of the ice-cream...note to self: make strawberry ice-cream sandwiches with Oreos! I made this with one of my leftover Neapolitan Ice-Cream cups, and simply sliced it and used cookie cutters to get the cross-section of the ice-cream to put in between the cookies. Too easy!

Makes 4 sandwiches, approx 5 minutes to make (if you already have an ice-cream cup prepared).

You will need:

1 Neapolitan Ice-Cream Cup
4 oreos with the filling removed (or biscuit of choice, just keep in mind you will need 8 biscuits for the 4 sandwiches).

1. Slice your ice-cream cup into 4. Using a cookie cutter which is similar in size to the Oreo, cut out circles of Neapolitan Ice-Cream.


2. Place your circle in between two Oreo's. Done!

In Australia there is an ice-creamery called Cold Rock in which you can choose any ice-cream flavour, such as mango or bubblegum, and add something to it: such as smashed bounty, gummy bears, sour worms, nerds etc. What they pretty much do is scoop out the ice-cream and smash these additions into the ice-cream, then serve. This is the same principle I followed for this recipe, or perhaps I should call it creation, as it really is simply the mixing of two ingredients. Then you are done. Cookies and cream ice-cream is one of the more popular ice-cream flavours, but unfortunately, you will rarely see a vegan version. This is meant to be an easy, delicious and vegan option, that takes less than five minutes to make and no cooking or food processing, and as a result is another "dessert hack". Obviously I used Oreos again for this recipe (I swear I am not sponsored by Oreos or anything, I just really like Oreos, though I am sure my waistline doesn't!), but during the next few recipes I intend on returning to my usual healthy and fruit based ice-creams.

Serves 1-2 people, approx. 5 minutes to make.

You will need:

3 scoops of vegan vanilla ice-cream 
2 smashed Oreos

1. Smash your Oreos (not too finely though)
2. Scoop out your 3 scoops of ice-cream
3. Using two spoons, smash in the crushed biscuits, but not too well.


4. If yours has melted significantly, you can place in the freezer for 10-20 minutes for it to harden up, or serve immediately, so that the cookies are still crunchy.

During one afternoon after high school a few years ago, my friend and I went to McDonalds and ordered a chocolate chip cookie sundae; the idea was a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice-cream and chocolate fudge sauce on top, though of course my cookie came out frozen (thanks, McDonalds!). I decided to recreate this sundae as an easy, but super effective and delicious, dessert. I decided to put it under one of my "dessert hacks", as though you do have to make cookies, they don't take too long to make. A fresh warm cookie really does take this dessert a few notches higher, and I have used this recipe at least 10 times and it has never failed me! I used the same cookie recipe that I used for my peanut butter ice-cream and chocolate chip cookie sandwiches.

For the cookies. I got the recipe from here, but I halved it. It should make 6 cookies.

You will need:

1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp almond milk
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1/2 cup vegan choc chips

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Cream the coconut oil with brown sugar, add almond milk and vanilla.
3. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder over mixture, mix in. Add salt, and mix in the chocolate.
4. Divide mixture into 6 cookies onto a tray. I used egg rings to create the perfect circular shape, and pressed the dough into the circles.


5. Bake for 10 minutes (with the egg rings) or until brown.



Serves 6 (i.e. 6 cookies), approx. 5 minutes preparation time:

You will need:

6 vegan chocolate chip cookies
6 scoops of vegan vanilla ice-cream (I used "So Good: Vanilla Bliss")

Toppings:

Vegan chocolate sauce
Vegan chocolate chips

1. Put a scoop of ice-cream on each cookie, cover with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips.
2. Serve!

Have you ever been in a situation where your planned dessert for a dinner or birthday party fails catastrophically? Maybe you drop it on the floor just before serving, maybe the cupcakes explode in the oven, or it isn't cooked in the middle, or maybe you even burnt it? Well, I have decided to post a series of (ice-cream) desserts that are easy and can be used in emergency dessert situations, which will be under the tag "dessert hacks".  In this instance, I will be using something you (should) already have in your household: oreos and vegan vanilla ice-cream, to eliminate the pain of making your own ice-cream (plus, making your own vanilla ice-cream is a hard one to achieve: I have tried it with banana, coconut and soy, but I find the bases tend to overpower the vanilla flavour). I will be using "So Good: Vanilla Bliss Ice-Cream", as it is the only vegan vanilla ice-cream alternative in my local supermarket, but you can use your favourite vegan vanilla ice-cream! This makes four ice-cream sandwiches, but the general ratio is one tablespoon of ice-cream to each sandwich, so you can work out how many you need for a party, or for your specific emergency dessert situation!

Serves 2, approx 5 minutes to make.

You will need:

4 oreos
approx 4 tbsp vegan vanilla ice-cream

1. Open the oreos and scoop out the vanilla filling, you should be left with eight biscuits.
2. Place one tbsp of vanilla ice-cream on four of the oreos, and place the remaining biscuits on top. You may need a butter knife to help shape the ice-cream.
3. Done! You can place in the freezer for around 15 minutes if the ice-cream melts too much!