Lemon Blueberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

I have really been into going berry picking at local farms here, which are plentiful here in the Northwest. And this past weekend, I went berry picking yet again (....but can you blame me, its around $1/pound!) and I was pleasantly surprised that the blueberries were in full swing! And let me tell you, blueberries grow on the most adorable little bushes! I got a little over 2 pounds in maybe 10 minutes. It was such an amazingly sunny day, and I knew I had to make something special with these berries.

It was a hot weekend, and all I had on my mind were the follow things in no particular order: ice cream, cookies, refreshing, and cold! Immediately, the idea of ice cream sandwiches jumped to mind. And almost like magic, I was struck with the taste of bright, refreshing lemons with blueberries....in ice cream form! And cookies, lemon cookies...! And so began the long journey of making ice cream sandwiches from scratch, every step of the way.

For the ice cream, you make a blueberry compote first, which will get swirled into the lemon ice cream. Then you make cookies, and then you assemble. A little note, making everything in one day was quite the project. I think it would be much more manageable splitting it into two parts. But I needed my fix of ice cream sandwiches, stat! So, right after berry picking I got to work.

Here is what you will need:
blueberry compote
2 c. blueberries
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. corn starch

ice cream
2 - 13.5 fl oz cans coconut milk (not the low fat kind!)
3/4 c. sugar
2 tbsp. arrowroot
4 - 5 tbsp. lemon juice

lemon cookies
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
12 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 Ener-G egg equivalent

First thing first, you want to make the blueberry compote. That way you can put it in the fridge to cool while you make the lemon ice cream mixture. Start by rinsing 2 c. blueberries, put into a medium pot and add the sugar. With a fork or a potato masher, start to crush/smoosh the berries until they release their juice and there are no more whole berries left. Simmer for 5 - 7 minutes. You should have a dark sauce with smooshed up berries that look pretty mushy as well. Add the tbsp. of lemon juice to the 2 tbsp. cornstarch, mix and add to compote. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. It should have thickened up a lot, and be like a thick blueberry syrupy sauce almost. Set aside in fridge to cool.

Next up, the lemon ice cream. Reserve a 1/4 c. of the coconut milk, and set aside. In a medium sized pot, add the rest of the coconut milk along with the sugar. Cook on medium high. While this gets up to temp, take your 1/4 c. coconut milk and incorporate your 2 tbsp. arrowroot. When the sugar/coconut milk just starts to boil, take it off the burner, add the arrowroot mixture, and stir to combine. You should notice this getting a bit thicker as well. After everything is incorporated, add 4 tbsp. of lemon juice. Taste, and if you like it a bit more zingy, add another tbsp. of lemon. Stir, and set aside in fridge to cool completely.

For everything to come together in your ice cream maker, your lemon mixture really needs to be cold. Even just "cool" can be too warm and it will not work. Trust me on this, I too once was anxious to have my ice cream and threw in a cooled mixture into the ice cream maker and it never quite got where it needed to go. So you have two options at this point: 1. make the cookies or 2. take a nice, long break! I left my mixture in the fridge about 3 hours, stirring every once in a while.


Once totally cold, follow your ice cream maker instructions accordingly with the lemon ice cream. After it is done, I layered the lemon ice cream and the compote. For every couple of scoops of lemon ice cream I put into my container, I would add a big, heaping spoonful of blueberry compote. After filling your container in this fashion, simply take a knife and make swirly figures in your ice cream. Place in freezer to harden.

Ok, if you are brave, you will venture onto the cookies. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix to combine all ingredients. One tbsp. at a time, mix in your butter. After all of your butter chucks are well combined, add your vanilla, lemon, and Ener-G egg equivalent. Mix until the dough comes together. Take it out of the bowl, and knead for a 2 - 3 minutes. Roll it into a log, wrap in saran wrap and stick it in the fridge for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. You will notice the dough is super soft, similar to sugar cookies. Freezing the dough a little will make it easier to handle the dough.

Fast forward 1 hour or so, take out your cookie dough log, slice off cookies in 1/4" slices. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place on a non-stick baking tray or onto a tray lined with a Silpat mat. Bake cookies until slightly golden brown, 12 - 14 minutes. You want your cookies slightly softer than normal, this will make it easier to bite into your delicious ice cream sandwich. Let the cookies cool completely.


Ok, now for the fun and tasty part. Finally, right!? If you are not worried how nice and neat the sandwiches look, take the ice cream out of the freezer and set it on the counter for 20 minutes or so to soften up a bit. Scoop several spoonfuls onto a cookie, place a cookie on top, with the edge of the spoon, smooth out the edges a bit. You can eat this now, or freeze it a bit to firm up the ice cream again. Firming up the ice cream is what I recommend, but I have to admit I had one right away. After all of this work, I had to do it, okay!?

If you want really neat, pretty sandwiches, you can do what I did. Simply take some softened ice cream, fill a little ramekin with about 1" of ice cream, throw the ramekin in the freezer for 20 - 30 minutes. Use a knife to line the edge of the ramekin, this will loosen the ice cream circle. Turn upside down and tap onto cutting board. Out should pop a neat, little circle you can simply place onto the cookies to make the sandwiches.

Eat lots of these and enjoy! You have earned it!

Happy B-Day Herbivore Dinosaur!

I just realized that it has been a whole year since I made up my mind to keep a vegan food blog. At first, it started off as this kind of, hey...let me post one or two things then forget about it kind of thing. But something changed this last time around. I decided to be a bit more dedicated and take this blog more seriously. And here we are, a full year later and I just wanted to wish this little blog a (tad late) Happy Birthday! So thank you all again, for those of you who read and enjoy this little blog of mine, it is a pleasure.

It's funny, but I was reminded of this last weekend, when I went berry picking. I realized that it was around this time last year that I went berry picking, made a vegan version of my Oma's strawberry cake, and posted it as a new beginning and a more focused direction for myself. And here we are, a year later, and I am berry picking. Again.

I have been working on a really refreshing and yummy raspberry ice cream recipe, but I need remake it (darn....!) and take better notes along the way. The taste is delish, and reminds me of the ice cream shop down the road where I grew up. I would always order at least one ball of Himbeere ice cream (raspberry). I think it is delightfully refreshing, a tiny bit of tartness and lots of cool yummyness needed on these hot summer days. Hopefully I will have this up by the end of the weekend, I just need to get more raspberries!

Here are a few highlights of my berry picking adventure! I got a total of 2 lbs. strawberries and a whopping 4 lbs of raspberries! And what did that set me back? Six bucks....not bad...not bad at all. And what happened to all of those yummy berries? I made strawberry shortcakes but with cupcakes, made raspberry jam, raspberry ice cream, AND raspberry lemonade!

me finding a rather adorable strawberry

my whopping loot of raspberries totaling 4 pounds!


Rachel's tiniest, cutest l'il berry

delicious raspberry lemonade


playing with Wunder Kerzen (aka german spaklers)

Potstickers

About every 3 out of 4 Fridays per month, I find myself standing in front of what has become a very familiar section of the grocery store. The frozen natural food section where I grab a bag of these dumpling/potsticker snacks. I always think I will be motivated to come home after a Friday afternoon, cook something delicious, but it never fails...there I am. Again. Grabbing another bag of those damn frozen potstickers.


And then something happened. I stumbled upon these vegan, circular wrappers that are used to make things like wontons and potstickers! I had been wanted to make my own version of these frozen delights I instinctively grab almost every week, but I had been having trouble finding wrappers that did not contain milk or eggs. And then I found them and knew what had to be done.

So it finally happened. I broke the cycle, and made my own version of the snacks I was used to buying Friday nights. The recipe is easy to adjust, the filling can consist of anything you really want, but the follow recipe is simply what hit the spot for me. Also, disclaimer here...I am in no way saying this is authentic, it simply tastes like those little frozen gems of deliciousness that I used to buy. But no longer! These dumplings are so much faster than you would expect. Especially if you can find a bag of pre-thinly sliced veggies (I think mine technically is called "Broccoli Slaw"), then you do not even have to worry about slicing everything up super thinly. Now onto the good!

What you will need:

1 1/2 c. broccoli slaw (very thinly sliced broccoli, carrots, and purple cabbage)
1/3 block of firm tofu
1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 1/2 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
3/4 tsp. Braggs liquid aminos
1 pack circular potsticker wrappers
1/2 c. water + a little on more on the side to seal the wrappers

Add 1 tbsp. of oil to a non-stick pan, add your ginger and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add your cubed tofu. The tofu should be cut into fairly small cubes, about 1/4" cubes. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add your veggies aka broccoli slaw. Add the seasoned rice vinegar and Braggs, stir to make sure everything is coated evenly. Cover and let steam for another 6 - 8 minutes, depending on how soft you like your veggies. I cooked mine until somewhat soft, but it still had a bit of bite. This was a nice contrast to the soft shell that the potsticker filling is in.

(a little close up of the yummy filling)

Set the filling aside, and now it is time to play with these potsticker wrappers. The first few turned out a bit funky, but then I got into a groove and they looked nicer and nicer as I went along. Also, you want to have a little bowl of water handy at this point. You will dip your finger in the water, then line the edge of the wrapper with your finger. This allows the wrapper to stay sealed, almost line you have added "glue" to make the edges stick to one another.

Begin by laying out a wrapper. Add about 1 tbsp. of the filling to the center of your circular wrapper, line the edges of the wrapper with water, gently fold in half. I press the top center together first, which sets up the wrapper for the rest of the folding. Now you can go two directions. One: simply press the edges together, forming a semi-circle. Two: you can try to be all fancy schmancy like I did, and press the wrapper together while pleating the edges about 4 - 5 times. Either way, this is simply an aesthetic decision and didn't effect my love for these little semi-circles of yumminess.

Ok, moving on. The filling makes about 12 - 15 postickers, depending on how talented you are in getting the filling to stay in the wrappers. Add another tbsp. of oil to your pan and heat to medium high. Set your potstickers in the pan, as many as it can hold. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the bottoms of your potsticker begin to turn golden brown. Turn down the heat to medium low, that way the bottom will not burn and also because next you will be adding a 1/2 c. water. And as we all know from experience probably, hot oil and water equals splattering oil everywhere, probably somewhere on yourself as well. Ok, let this cook on low for a few minutes to give everything a chance to lower in temp, while still crisping up the potstickers. Add the 1/2 c. water, cover the pan and let cook for an additional 5 - 7 minutes or until all of the water is gone.

See...that was easier than you thought, right? So easy in fact, I have already made them at least 5 times already. And I am so happy to know these are quick, easy and I am no longer tied to getting my fix from the frozen section. Now go make these, throw on a movie and enjoy!