January 3, 2007: Creamy Vanilla Cashew Ice
Summer has me in the mood for stone fruit and ice cream! It was these twin cravings that had me impulse-buying a slim book of vegan ice cream recipes just a couple of days before Christmas. Most recipes within rely on a combination of raw cashews and water blended together to get that creamy base, then maple syrup for sweetening. I thought I'd kick off with a batch of the original Vanilla Delight so that I could get a sense of how the cashews and maple taste and feel. I struggled to get the cashews down to a perfectly smooth texture, and for this reason I'd hesitate to serve this up with the name 'ice cream' for fear of disappointing the afficionados. Even so, the nuts were blended very finely and softened by the water in the mix, ensuring a dessert with a velvety texture - not icy or gritty as I feared. The flavour combination of maple syrup, cashews and vanilla is gently sweet and more complex than any vanilla ice cream I've tried. Thus it's an excellent...