Coconut Mango "Mock-Cream" and Granola

I decided it was time to make some ice cream… or what I am now going to call “mock-cream” since people get a confused look on their faces when I say ice cream, “wait, I thought you were vegan.”  I am, I’m just so used to calling anything of that consistency coming out of my freezer “ice cream”.  Sorry, habit.  So, until I come up with something more clever to call my frozen treat creations, mock-cream it will be.

 

I got some inspiration for this recipe from a couple of recipes from vegweb.com, and then changed it up to meet my specific preferences and tastes.  (For example, their recipes called for regular sugar but that's not how I roll, as I’m avoiding refined sugar, so I used maple syrup and date sugar instead.)

Yield: about 80 oz/ 2½ quarts 

2 cups SO Delicious unsweetened coconut milk

4 cups unsweetened original Almond Breeze

13.66 oz can Lite coconut milk

½ cup SO Delicious original coconut creamer

1/3 cup date sugar

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 TBSP vanilla extract

splash rum extract

1/3 cup pureed mango

1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1.  Whisk together all ingredients in mixing bowl.  Refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes.

2.  Place in ice cream maker for 40-45 minutes.  

It came out quite delicious!  It has a very light taste, nothing overwhelming, which I do enjoy.  I did make a few notes for next time (although I will be eating this batch for a while):

1 – I would definitely add more mango.  The coconut is very dominant in the taste and I’d like a bit more of the mango flavor.  I would have put more in to start with but I used all that I had, so, what can you do?

2 – Yes, but why is the rum gone?  Rum extract that is.  The recipes I looked at called for vanilla extract but I thought with coconut and mango, maybe something more tropical, so I went digging for my rum extract.  I found the bottle, but there was only a couple drops left.  I tossed it in anyway.

3 – Speaking of running out of things… 2 cups of unsweetened coconut milk was all that was left in the bottle, so that’s all I could use.  Next time I would want to use more coconut milk, at least 3 cups to even it out with the other non-dairy milk.  I think I would also try something other then the almond milk… maybe rice or oat milk, for a slight taste change.

As the ice cream maker was whirring, I thought to myself, "hmmm, some granola would be really great on top of this."  I do sometimes like a little crunchy on my mock-cream.  Since I didn't have any, I also made some granola, which I had been meaning to make anyway.  I have used different recipes and changed ingredients around.  My favourites I’ve found in “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone and in “Skinny Bitch In the Kitch” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  So, out of those, came my spin, which changes every time I make it:

My Twist-On Granola

3 cups Old Fashioned oats

about ½ cup wheat germ

1/8 cup pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup sunflower seeds

2 TBSP maple syrup

1 TBSP brown rice syrup

½ cup raisins and chopped dates and figs

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.  Spread the oats out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine wheat germ, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.  In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup and brown rice syrup.  And in a third bowl, combine dried fruit.

4.  When oats are done, add to bowl with wheat germ mixture, toss.  Stir in syrup mix until everything is moistened.  Spread the mix back onto the rimmed sheet, and bake for 5 minutes.  Stir in the dried fruit and respread the mixture; bake for 5 minutes more.

5.  Let the granola cool on the pans.  Store in an airtight container.

Voila!