Coconut, Rum & Raisin Ice Cream – Vegan

I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on this recipe for over a month. It needs to be shared!

From around 2000, I’ve always had this thing about coconut ice cream. It was only then, it started becoming readily available within the UK supermarkets. T, a Thai friend of mine, could never understand why I was ranting and raving about it so much. She said that coconut ice cream – blurgh… it’s all over Thailand!

It’s taken me over 10 years to make my own! I grabbed out my vegan scoop ice cream book and modified a recipe accordingly.

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Squidgy Chocolate Brownie Cookies – Dairy Free

These cookies are fabulous. They are quick and easy to make, chocolaty, squidgy, soft, rich, dairy-free and absolutely scrummy. Did I mention they are only around 100 calories each? I think they went down a treat at work.

I needed to create a cookie platter (along with 5-6 other platters) for a recent wine tasting event, where I was donating the catering. Since my cookie recipe repertoire isn’t very big, I scoured the internet for something quick and easy. This platter alone consisted of chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, lemon bars and these brownie cookies.

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Taai-Taai – Dutch Chewy Spiced Honey Cake Dolls

It’s closing in on December 5^th, and it’s this time of year when there are normally gifts and wonderful Dutch goodies in the house. Only this year, there are none. It was J who introduced me to these wonderful culinary delights, and for 10.5 years we had been together, I had never made taai-taai, speculaas or gevulde speculaas. This was because my mother-in-law would furnish us with a food parcel at this time of year.

Taai-taai aren’t exactly cookies, they are closer to gingerbread. They are spiced differently too, similar to that you would find in Dutch spiced biscuits (cookies), speculaas. They are soft, tough, chewy and incredibly moreish, made to be enjoyed with a cup of tea or coffee,

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Banana and Hazelnut Muffins – Gluten-Free & Vegan

These muffins were intended to be flavored with banana and walnuts… only I didn’t have any walnuts, so made do with the hazelnuts in my pantry. The recipe was created to use up the bananas in my freezer, and to free up some space in preparation for Christmas/New Year.

The results were awesome! These muffins easy to make, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan-friendly, fluffy, banana-ry, nutty and ~165 calories each! Enjoy them in packed lunches,

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Grapefruit Ice Cream – Vegan

Here’s a not-so-familiar ice cream flavor to tantalize your taste buds: grapefruit.  You never see this flavor when made with dairy. I’m assuming the tartness of the grapefruit would split the cream/custard base. Anyhoo, being of vegan and dairy-free variety, we don’t have that problem. The resulting ice cream is refreshing, creamy and bitterly like grapefruit. It’s a wonderful change from the overly sweet grapefruit sorbets that you may find in shops.

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Real Vanilla Ice Cream – Vegan

As you may have noticed, I’ve been quite engrossed in making ice creams over the last couple of months. Since summer has abruptly ended, and Autumn (Fall) is now here, this has to stop!

The change in season fills me with a little sadness, but also with a little joy. Sadness because the long, warm summer days will turn into long cold, dark and rainy nights, and the abundance of wonderful summer produce is now all but gone. Joy because the autumn brings the most beautiful colors in the Pacific Northwest, the trees are tinged with reds, auburns and yellows;

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Yorkshire Puddings

Yorkshire puddings are similar to popovers. There are differences though, for example, Yorkshire puddings are usually unflavored and are intended to be eaten with roasted meat and gravy, whereas popovers can have a variety of additions, including herbs, cheese and garlic etc, and are often eaten as a bread roll. Some loonies actually buy “special” pans to make popovers?!?!?!

Anyhow… I’ve was craving a plate of roast beef (sorry vegan/vegetarian friends), roasted root vegetables, crisp roast potatoes, gravy and Yorkshire puddings at 9 AM one work day. After that, I just could not get them out of my head.

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Toasted Black Sesame (Goma) Ice Cream – Vegan

Ever since I ordered black sesame jin dui (fried sesame glutinous rice balls) at a dim sum restaurant in Vancouver B.C., J has been slightly obsessed with the aromatic flavor of black sesame seeds. He refused to eat any jin dui stuffed with red bean paste! I, on the other hand, am no stranger to the wonderful aromas of black sesame seeds. One of my favorite desserts is sweet black sesame soup.

When I saw the recipe for “black sesame ice cream” in my latest test book “The Vegan Scoop”, I just had to try it! I adapted the recipe by toasting

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Perfect Pistachio Ice Cream – Vegan

There are so many food items, especially vegan/dairy-free foodstuffs that contain either xanthan gum or guar gum. I used to avoid xanthan gum, because I knew it was most likely derived from corn, one of the highest GMO crops produced in the US. I now avoid both xanthan and guar gum because I have discovered that I am allergic to them.

I have a love for ice cream. It was one of the things I missed immensely when I gave up US dairy (due to allergies to organic dairy). A lot of dairy-free/vegan ice creams

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Chewy Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies – Gluten-Free

If you ever have a recipe that calls for a load of egg yolks, you’re often left in a quandary – what to do with the egg whites? I normally chuck them into a zip-lock (freezer) bag and freeze them until needed… only I rarely get around to using them.

So, what to do with egg whites? This recipe will give you one option. Whip them up into a meringue-like batter, stir in some cocoa,

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