7 Flavours of Summer 1. West Indian Pumpkin Butter Pecan Ice cream

Pumpkin and summer? Something is not adding up but FYI I live in the Caribbean so there is no fall to be eating pumpkins. Actually West Indian Pumpkin also known as Calabaza squash is quite plentiful during these times and quite cheap so I used what was in season .

This has been my second “summer” experimenting with vegan ice cream and from making over forty batches in my vegan life I had a lot of ups and downs with it. To make  vegan ice cream creamy you need fat may it be from the soy creamer you use to adding additional vegan butter or even using raw cashews you need fat. Soy milk is not fatty so using that as your base would not give you a creamy non icy ice cream. Thickeners and binders are quite important as the mixture needs to be thick when putting into the ice cream maker. Thin ice cream mixtures result in icy ice-cream because most of the time this means there is too much water in the mixture and not enough fat.

Ice cream Profile

For this ice cream I used two thickeners xanthan gum and arrowroot flour alternatives arrowroot alone or cornstarch alone

Base: Soy creamer full fat made in France alternatives full fat coconut milk

Result creamy  and scoopable out of the freezer after a 5 minute wait ( I do have my freezer on high so maybe that is why)

Low in ice crystals.

Sugar sources: West Indian light brown sugar, agave and maple syrup

Flavour profile of star ingredient: medium

Kid Friendly: medium high

Pairs well with brittles, molasses and sugar cones

Additional Info: Get the sweetest pumpkin and steam it, mix in the xanthan gum really well in the sugar and whisk in briskly to avoid clumps of binder forming in the ice cream. Over use of xanthan gum can turn mixture into a slimy mess.

Vegan Pumpkin Butter Pecan Ice Cream Copyright Taymer Mason

Vegan Pumpkin Butter Pecan Ice Cream Copyright Taymer Mason

 

 

Recipe Advanced Prep

1 – 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin

1 tsp pumpkin spice  I used this recipe as who has that knocking around in their home outside of America?

Ice cream Base

2 1/2 cups soy creamer ( If you stick around I am working on a home-made version of this for people who cannot get this)

1 1/2 cups of soy milk plus 1/2 cup to dissolve the arrowroot

1/3 cup of vegan butter

1/4 cup sugar

Scant 1/4 tsp plus scant 1/8 tsp xanthan gum

2 1/2 teaspoons arrowroot

2 tablespoons agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp. vanilla essence

 

Add soy creamer, 1 1/2 cups soy milk and butter to the pot and cook on medium heat. In the meantime mix the xanthan gum into the sugar really well. Grab a whisk. When the mixture starts to bubble slightly turn down the heat and add the xanthan sugar mixture. Whisk gently and you would begin to feel the mixture getting thick. Mix the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the arrowroot flour and turn up the heat until there is a slight bubble again and take the mixture off the heat. Add in arrowroot milk mixture and feel the ice cream mixture get even more thick. Cool and add agave and essence. Refrigerate until very chilled.

 

To make ice cream add the pumpkin until the custard and add to the maker and process as per instructions of the ice cream maker. Put ice cream into container and swirl in butter pecan mixture. Chill overnight, take down for 10 mins and scoop.

Butter Pecan Mixture

1/2 cup vegan butter (margarine without animal products)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup chopped pecan

Toasted pumpkin seeds optional

A generous pinch of cinnamon

A generous pinch of allspice

A generous pinch ginger

A generous pinch nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method ( make this when the ice cream has started to churn in the maker)

Add vegan butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and let it simmer on medium heat until it starts to become thick. Watch mixture and still and reduce heat when mixture starts to get significantly thick. Add pecans and stir and spices and cook until pecans are coated with thick syrup. Cool and wait for ice cream to finish  churn before swirling it in.

 

Do submit your ice cream wishes via the Facebook Page. Next week I am leaning towards lemon ice cream and its evil twin lemon pepper. If you have an even more exciting request do submit.

 

 

About these ads