Healthy Green Tea Ice Cream

Remember that peculiar photo of ice cream ingredients from my ice cream sandwich post? Well, the green tea ice cream I made was vegan, adapted from a recipe in Veganomicon. I have a bunch of cookbooks that I haven't used much, so I am going to try some recipes from them this summer.

This recipe uses coconut milk and tofu. It's a lot healthier than ice cream made with egg yolks and heavy cream. This summer, I want to experiment with making vegan ice creams. Some recipes I've made in the past turned out too icy, watery, and too hard after freezing. This recipe was just okay; it could be better. Because of the coconut cream, it ended up with a coconut-y flavor, not surprisingly. It was also a bit icy, and the mouth feel wasn't what I wanted. I'll have to tweak this some more, or use a different method.

Here's the recipe, anyways. It gets pretty hard in the freezer, so just let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before scooping.


Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream
Adapted from Veganomicon


6 oz. silken tofu
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1/2 cup coconut creme (see note)
1/2 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
1 Tbsp matcha powder

In a blender, blend all ingredients until completely smooth. Chill in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. Churn in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Eat immediately for soft-serve consistency, or place in the freezer for a few hours to harden.

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Coooookies!

This past weekend, I was planning on going on a trip to a farm. However, we've been having nasty weather here lately, and the trip got cancelled. Seriously, these tornadoes and thunderstorms put a damper on my weekend plans. Boo.

Since I have nothing better to do (homework, what's that?), I decided to make cookies with a friend. Such a good use of our time, no? Since I don't bake much at school (having a kitchen would help), I don't have as many baking supplies at my disposal as I would have at home. However, we pooled our resources and adapted a cookie recipe from the Internets.

We decided to make these Sweet Potato Cookies. They are vegan, low-sugar, and pretty darn healthy. They are originally called Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies, but I think they are good for whenever the hell I want a cookie. I pretty much had these for dinner and late night snack. I think the original idea was that they are healthy enough for breakfast, but if they are healthy enough for breakfast, then why not dinner as well?

I have to admit, these cookies aren't like conventional cookies made with a ton of butter and sugar. They are chewy from the oats, a bit bready, and only slightly sweet. The sweet potato flavor was very faint, and almonds added some crunch. We like super-healthy tasting things, so they suited us just fine. However, if you like sweeter baked goods, feel free to add a bit more sweetener to your liking. Taste the dough to see if it's sweet enough, which is totally safe since the batter is vegan. We made sure the "taste test" the dough. Yes, we tested it very thoroughly ;)

Sweet Potato Cookies
adapted from Live Laugh Eat*

1 cup sweet potato, pureed or mashed
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
1/4 cup almond milk, or other non-dairy milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar, or sweetener of choice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup oat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda OR 2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups oats
1 cup nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sweet potato, flax, milk, oil, sweetener, and vanilla. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon cookie dough by the tablespoon on a lined and greased baking sheet about an inch apart. Wet your hands with water and use your palm to lightly flatten the dough. The cookies won't spread out during baking.
Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Notes:

• The original recipe called for less sweet potato, but the flavor wasn't very pronounced, so I would add more next time
• If you use a dry sweetener, add a bit more milk if the dough seems too dry
• Feel free to add your favorite nuts, seeds and/or dried fruits

*which is adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

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