Ice-Cream and Giggles

Ah, these magnum moulds are the bomb, I tell you! They definitely have got my creative juices flowing, so I am super keen to keep on making new flavours of magnums, until I run out of ideas or time (my thesis is due in less than 2 1/2 months)! Basically I am considering re-making magnum flavours vegan, before going wild. Like PJ and J swirl ice cream with a white chocolate shell? Salted caramel? Mulberry chunk? The possibilities are wild and endless.

Today's flavour is another vegan rendition of a magnum classic: the creamy vanilla ice cream with a white chocolate shell. But in this case, it is also refined sugar free! Hallelujah!

Makes 4 tiny popsicles or 2 smallish ones.

Approx. 20 minutes prep, 6-8 hours freezing.

Ingredients:

For the ice-cream:

3/4 frozen banana
1/4 cup coconut cream
1/4 tsp vanilla powder or 1/2 scraped out vanilla bean

For the chocolate (recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie):

60g raw cacao butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp natvia sugar free icing sugar, or a few drops of stevia, to taste.
2 tbsp raw cashew butter
dash of salt

Method:

1. Combine frozen banana, coconut cream, and vanilla in a food processor until smooth. Pour into moulds, and stick in the popsicle sticks. Place in freezer for 6-8 hours or overnight.
2. When the ice-cream has set, melt the cacao butter in a small saucepan on low heat. Once melted, add the rest of the ingredients, whisking as you go.
3. Remove popsicles from mould, dip in chocolate, place on a tray lined with baking paper. Repeat for all popsicles, then dip them in again for a second coat when the first layer has set.
4. There will be chocolate left over, but you need that to even coat the popsicles. So just pour the spare into some chocolate moulds! Otherwise you can take the measurements at 2/3 of the quantities to reduce waste.

Last week, I bought a new popsicle mould for mini magnums, and I'm in love! I am glad I did, and it has inspired me to get creative in the kitchen again with ice cream and popsicles (something that has been lacking lately, especially since I started this blog as a place to store my ice-cream recipes!). To start with though, I thought I would try and recreate a classic: double chocolate.

I tried to make these as healthy and low-fat as possible, which is why the ice-cream is made from banana, though the chocolate shell does have fat from the coconut oil. But it is refined sugar free, so hey, can't complain!

As I made this to fit my new magnum moulds (which are tiny!) this makes a really small batch: I would suggest doubling for larger moulds.

Makes 4 mini popsicles.

Prep: 10 minutes. Freezing time: 4 hours. Total time: 4 h 10 minutes.

You will need:

For the ice-cream:

1 frozen banana
1 tbsp cacao powder

For the chocolate shell:

1/4 cup coconut oil
3 tbsp cacao powder
2 tbsp maple syrup

Optional:

1-3 tbsp crushed peanuts

1. Combine frozen banana and cacao powder in a food processor until smooth. Spoon into mould, insert popsicle sticks, and place in freezer for 4 hours.
2. For the chocolate shell, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan on low heat until smooth.
3. Once the popsicles have been in the freezer for 4 hours, remove from mould, and carefully dip each into the chocolate. If you want peanuts on top, work quickly before the chocolate sets! There will be chocolate left over (as this much is needed to dip each popsicle in chocolate), so I put mine in some chocolate moulds so it wouldn't be wasted.