Chocolate Soy Ice Cream

It was quite hot over the past week (possibly over 30 degrees Celsius just after 5pm last Tuesday), so it was decided this morning that we were going to make a batch of ice cream at work today (amongst everything else that we're doing, and it also doesn't take that long to prepare the ice cream to freeze).  The coffee machine that we have used is the Gaggia Gelatiera, which is available to purchase from here, and we have used Maison Routin 1883 chocolate syrup, Alpro Soya Original milk and Alpro Soya single cream to make the ice cream.  This batch turned out to feel a bit watery and was so solid after being left in the freezer until the next day that I needed a knife to remove it.  The ice cream is completely dairy-free and vegan-friendly.  I've included a comparison below of the nutritional content of both the soya milk and the semi-skimmed milk we normally use.  I think that the soya milk turned out to be healthier overall and also cuts out the cruelty to animals, and I hope to experiment with other plant-based, dairy-free milks (i.e. almond, hazelnut or coconut milk) and maybe even make the switch permanently in the future!


Alpro Original Soya milk (per 100ml)
Energy - 161kJ / 39kcal
Fat - 1.8g (of which 0.3g is saturated fat)
Carbohydrate - 2.5g (of which 2.5 is sugars)
Fibre - 0.5g
Protein - 3.0g
Salt - 0.06g
Vitamin D - 0.75µg
Riboflavin (B2) - 0.21mg
Vitamin B12 - 0.38µg
Calcium - 120mg

Morrisons British Semi Skimmed milk (per 100ml)
Energy - 206kJ / 49kcal
Fat - 1.7g (of which 1g is saturated fat)
Carbohydrates - 4.8g (of which 4.8g is sugars)
Fibre - 0g
Protein - 3.6g
Salt - 0.1g

Ingredients

300ml soy single cream
300ml soy/plant-based milk
100ml chocolate syrup

Instructions

1. Pre-freeze the ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions.
2. Pour the soy single cream and soy/other plant-based milk into a large jug.
3. Add chocolate syrup to the jug of milk and cream and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into the ice cream machine, and freeze-churn for approximately 1.5 to 2 hours until the ice cream is cold, smooth and creamy before serving.

Vegan Affogato

A long, long time ago (okay, only about 16 months ago, and I'm totally singing Don McLean's American Pie in my head while writing this), before I started mainly posting vegan-friendly recipes in an effort to build myself an arsenal of recipes for when I eventually go vegan (unfortunately, this hasn't happened yet, but I'm definitely consuming less animal products than I used to), I posted a recipe for affogato that used an ice cream recipe that contained both dairy and eggs from Coffee and Bites by Susie Theodorou.  Last weekend, I ended up helping out at a demonstration stall that Gaggia Milano were hosting in the Trinity Shopping Centre in Leeds to promote their coffee machines and ice cream machine, and helping to make and taste-test some (also unfortunately non-vegan) ice cream last weekend at work to make affogato, so following that I'm now going to redo this recipe using a vegan-friendly ice cream recipe which uses coconut milk instead of dairy and was found at GI 365, but still using the instructions for making an espresso provided by Gaggia. 

Ingredients

2 cans (430ml or 13.66oz each) coconut milk, refrigerated
1 cup high quality maple syrup - add a little at a time to your taste
For espresso (using fresh ground coffee, but if you don't have a coffee machine, you can find alternative ways of making the espresso for this):

• single espresso: 7-8g
• double espresso: 14-16g

Instructions (Espresso)

1. Spoon coffee into the appropriate filter (single or double).
2. Tap the handle to evenly distribute the coffee.
3. Tamp (firmly press down the coffee) to compress the grounds, and brush off any grinds from the edges of the filter handle.
4. Insert handle (hold up to the "group" at an 8 o' clock position and tighten to a 6 o' clock position.  Ensure the handle is securely in position before starting).
5. Start flow of water immediately.
6. Stop when 30ml is reached for a single espresso or 60ml for a double espresso.

Instructions (Ice Cream)

1. Blend the coconut milk and maple syrup until thoroughly combined.  You can whisk it by hand or blend it in a blender.  If your coconut milk isn't chilled, chill the ice cream mixture until thoroughly cold before freezing.
2. Freeze according to the instructions of your ice cream machine - this should take about 30 minutes.
3. Serve a single scoop of ice cream into an espresso cup.
4. Pour the espresso over the ice cream and serve immediately.