Tag Archives: coconut oil

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!

Ginger Maple Shortbread — vegan and gluten-free

ginger maple shortbread
ginger maple shortbread

Something odd is going on. Gluten-free recipes are catching my eye and not scaring me. Usually I grimace when someone asks me if I make no-gluten treats as part of my high altitude and vegan baking repertoire. Making too many changes can ruin a baked good, but I must be adapting because this is my second recipe of that style in just a few weeks.

What intrigued me about this shortbread-type recipe was that it called for coconut or palm oil. The cookbook I found it in was from 2009 and so many new vegan butter substitutes have become available since then. It seemed like a good opportunity to test out the recipe with a newer product.

Shortbread cookies have so few ingredients that each one needs to shine. Fortunately I had Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter in my fridge, so that became the base of my bar. With no leavening in the cookie, high altitude wasn’t much of an issue. But I did add ginger because maple syrup and ginger are a match made in heaven.

Ginger Maple Shortbread based on Maple “Butter” Bars

2.75 cups brown rice flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 cup unsalted Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter, at room temp
1 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 10 x 10” (or similar-sized) pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Add the rice flour, salt, and ginger to a bowl and whisk together. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the vegan butter, maple syrup, and vanilla. (This may take several minutes.) Slowly add the flour mixture a half cup at a time, and mix until well combined.

Spread the batter into the lined pan, then smooth the top. Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until the edges are firm. Place the pan onto a heat-safe surface and immediately score the dough into 16 equal portions. (Hubby cut the bars or they wouldn’t look so even; see the picture below.)

scored ginger maple shortbread
scored ginger maple shortbread

Place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, the bars can be fully broken apart and removed from the pan. They can be drizzled with chocolate syrup to keep hubby happy 😉

Until next time, happy baking!