The icy hand of fate
First a friend gave me some black-raspberry ice cream she had made from berries that we picked during a trip to the mountains. It was delicious, and she said she has been having a lot of fun making ice cream.
Next, I came across Wheeler del Torro’s new book, The Vegan Scoop, chock-full of recipes for non-dairy ice creams in flavors ranging from vanilla to wasabi. Tempting … but I resisted, since I lacked an ice-cream maker.
Then I came across a used ice-cream maker – a Cusinart, no less - for $10. Clearly fate was pointing me toward homemade ice cream. And when fate points to something so pleasant, who am I to resist? I bought the maker, dashed over to the bookstore to get The Vegan Scoop, and finally to the store for the soy milk, soy creamer and arrowroot powder that form the base of most of the recipes in the book.
It was so easy to make a batch of Cherries Jubilee (fresh cherries and almonds in a vanilla base) - and it was so enjoyable - that I’m already thinking about the possibilities of an H.P. Lovecraft ice cream social. The old gentleman loved ice cream, as the story of him and two friends sampling all 28 flavors available at a parlor one afternoon in 1927 attests.
In addition to the fun of making the vegan ice cream, it will be interesting to experiment with such possibilities as making low-sugar ice cream, using stevia or artificial sweeteners; or making raw-foods ice cream….
