Ice-Cream and Giggles

Sundaes. A girl's dream dessert. Ice-cream with multiple sauces, flavourings and toppings, a mix of sweet and savoury, a melted sweet drip with vanilla bean, a crunch of peanut butter, a dash of salted pretzel, and a smooth chocolate sauce to tie it all together *drools*. Have I convinced you that you need to try this combo? However, if you are like "hmm" and "ahh" and aren't entirely convinced, please at least take away the fact you NEED to try fresh vanilla bean in your nice-cream. It may only be a small amount, but trust me, it takes it up few notches, without really even trying. To here's to summer and spending those hot days slurping and drinking our nice-cream!

Serves 1-2, Total time: 10 minutes.

You will need:

3 frozen bananas
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 scraped out vanilla bean
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp du chocolat drinking cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp boiling water
handful of vegan pretzels (I used vegan GF pretzels as they were what I had in my cupboard, but use what you have)

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the du chocolat with the boiling water and stir until you get a sauce.
2. In a food processor/high-speed blender, combine the bananas, almond milk and vanilla bean until a smooth nice-cream is made.
3. Roughly mix in the peanut butter and combine with the chocolate sauce and pretzels. Eat!

This is just a brief post to serve as a PSA: namely, carob. I know, I am late on the bandwagon, but this magical powder has quickly become a daily staple in my kitchen. Carob is kind of like chocolate, but not. It is safe for dogs to eat, has no caffeine, and is high in protein, potassium and magnesium, and cheaper than cacao. But probably my favorite part: it is super sweet. So if you want to make chocolate? Just mix equal parts of carob powder with coconut oil and set it in the fridge. If you want sauce, just mix water with carob power! It's freaking amazing, as my preferred chocolate sauce in the past has been cacao with maple syrup. Now, here is a totally awesome chocolate sauce that has no sweetener added at all! Naturally, I made a chocolate fudge sundae with this magical syrup.

Serves 2 or one hungry munchkin.

3 frozen bananas
2 tbsp carob powder
2-3 tbsp water

Optional: crushed nuts like peanuts, pistachios. 

1. Combine carob powder and water in a bowl until smooth. Add more water if too thick, or more carob powder if too liquid-y. It really depends on your preference!
2. Combine frozen bananas in food processor until smooth.
3. Serve the sundae by mixing and layering the carob sauce with the ice-cream. Top with nuts.

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!