Tag Archives: chocolate sauce

Chocolate Shell for Ice Cream

chocolate shell for ice cream
chocolate shell for ice cream

We are nearing the end of Plant Milk Week. I hope you enjoyed the journey from the origins of World Plant Milk Day, to advice for making milk at home, and through to a soup that obtains its creaminess from plant-based milk.

Plant milk is also an important ingredient in vegan ice cream, as I’ve demonstrated in my posts for Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches and Cookies and Cream Vegan Ice Cream. I show how to make ice cream with your homemade plant milk, but to complete this excursion I decided to provide a chocolate shell to dress up the ice cream.

If you are unfamiliar with this ice cream topping, you may have heard it called Magic Shell. Why is it magic? Because the liquid chocolate hardens on ice cream as if by magic. The chocolatey, oily dip gets its “instant-hardening ability from oils like coconut and sunflower that are high in saturated fat. As temperature drops, saturated fats harden, and coconut oil in particular turns firm, almost glassy, when cold,” according to Serious Eats.

So, dish up some vegan ice cream (DIY or store-bought), pour this chocolate shell over it, and have fun cracking the coating so that you can reach the luscious frozen dessert underneath.

Chocolate Shell for Ice Cream

8 ounces vegan bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons refined coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the chocolate and oil in a large bowl and set the bowl above water simmering in a pot. (This is the double boiler method for melting chocolate.) Be sure that no water or steam gets into the bowl. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and let the contents come to room temperature. Stir in the vanilla. Serve over very cold ice cream. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

Until next time, happy non-baking!

Coffee Ice Cream Pie

coffee ice cream pie

coffee ice cream pie

While writing this post I learned a few things: 1) my husband does not like whipped topping, and 2) you can make a fantastic vegan caramel sauce without coconut (coconut, ewww). I had been determined to find a recipe for a yummy caramel sauce for years. In my search I also ran across many chocolate sauce recipes so I decided to make them both. The question was – what to do with them? I grabbed the Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream I’d made over the summer and combined everything into a frozen pie. That’s where my husband’s lack of desire for whipped topping came to light. So, my pie has no vegan whipped topping, but if you want to garnish your pie with some then you go right ahead.

Let’s start with the sauces …

Caramel Sauce adapted from GoDairyFree.org
3/4 cup plain almond milk
3/4 cup vegan sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 TBS water
1 TBS arrowroot powder
2 TBS vegan margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract
Place milk, sugar and maple syrup in a small saucepan and whisk well to combine. Cook over medium heat, while whisking occasionally, for 3 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together water and arrowroot, and then whisk mixture into pan. Cook mixture, while whisking constantly, an additional 2 to 3 minutes or until it thickens. Remove pan from heat and whisk in margarine and vanilla. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Chocolate Sauce adapted from KitchenTreaty.com
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup vegan sugar
1 cup cold water
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 TBS vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan, whisk together cocoa powder and sugar until blended. Add water and salt, and whisk over medium heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Continue boiling until mixture thickens, for 3-4 minutes. It will still be fairly thin. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool. Store in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator. It should keep for at least a month.

Now we put it all together in a chocolate shell …

Coffee Ice Cream Pie
1-1/2 cups vegan chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (can use gluten-free, if desired)
3 tablespoons vegan margarine, melted
4 cups vegan coffee chocolate chip ice cream, softened
1/4 cup caramel sauce (see recipe above)
2 TBS chocolate syrup (see recipe above)
In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and margarine. Press into bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9” pie plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Spoon ice cream into crust. Spread caramel sauce over top. Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Freeze until firm. Remove from freezer 10-15 minutes before serving.

Until next time, happy unbaking!