Ice-Cream and Giggles

After being vegan for 2 years, there are still some things I have forgotten that I used to love. One of them is top deck chocolate: white chocolate spliced with dark chocolate, ugh so good. And so easy and quick to make! It really doesn't deserve a recipe, but I decided to upload it to remind people of this delicious chocolate perfection.

Easy recipes are kind of my thing now, and are all I really have time for since I started my PhD two months ago, and work 2 days a week. So somehow I have to accomplish 40 hours of PhD work in the remaining 5 days, write an article by the end of June, have a social life, and cook. So I apologize if I won't be posting regularly here (not that I really do anyway), but I will try to update here every so often! If you want to see what I am up to food-wise, you can always check out my instagram.

Makes 2 x 100 g blocks.

You will need:

100 g vegan white chocolate
100 g vegan dark chocolate

Method:

1. Melt the white chocolate in 1 minute intervals in the microwave. Once melted, divide between 2 chocolate moulds and smooth out. Put in the fridge for 10 minutes.
2. Repeat using dark chocolate, and pour on top of the set white chocolate. Smooth out and let set for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

When I saw this post on A Beautiful Mess, I just had to make a vegan version of their birthday cake popcorn that was much, much easier to make, i.e. didn't involve packet cake mix (because: effort!). And dayum, it did not disappoint! I warn you: this popcorn is supremely delicious and addictive! So make sure that someone else is with you when you make this so you don't accidentally eat it all yourself ;).

Serves 4.

Prep: 8 minutes, Refrigeration: 10 minutes. Total Time: 18 minutes.

You will need:

5 cups of air popped popcorn
100g vegan white chocolate
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp vegan butter essence
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp baking soda
Vegan sprinkles, for topping

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan on low heat, and add the coconut oil, butter essence, vanilla essence and baking soda. Once smooth, mix it with the popcorn. Place on a tray, and sprinkle with sprinkles.
2. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes before eating/inhaling.

Vegan white chocolate is one of those elusive commodities, rarely found and every more rarely, sugar free. This recipe is altered from Vegan Baking (my go-to site for all the how's/why's and vegan recipes), but I simply switched cacao butter for cocoa butter, and natvia sugar free icing sugar for icing sugar! 

Recipe altered from: Vegan Baking.

Makes 1 x 100 g block of chocolate

Prep: 30 minutes. Refrigeration: At least 1 hour. Total time: 1 h 30 mins.

You will need:

1 tsp soy milk powder
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp natvia sugar free icing sugar
60 g raw cacao butter
1 tsp vanilla essence or 1 vanilla bean, scraped out
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. In a high speed blender, combine the soy milk powder, icing sugar and salt until a fine powder is reached.
2. In a double boiler on low heat, melted the cacao butter. Once melted, whisk in the vanilla, and then whisk in the icing sugar/soy milk mixture.
3. Temper the chocolate by heating the mixture up to 49 degrees, whisking all the time. Then place in the fridge, whisking occasionally, until it reaches 26 degrees. Then place back on heat, and heat up to 31 degrees. Then let the chocolate cool to room temperature and pour into chocolate mould.
4. Let chocolate sit in mould for around 10 minutes before placing in the fridge. Let harden.

Notes: I used this mould for the chocolate.

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.