Making vegan ice cream the easy way

Maybe you suffer a Lactose intolerance or you have the vegan lifestyle ...for himself. However, many types of ice cream contain milk, eggs or other animal foods. How do you make ice cream without these ingredients?

Apples, pineapples, papayas and bananas in fruit boxes
It is very easy to make vegan sorbets from fruit. But there are also many vegan alternatives for milk ice cream.

Content

Why purchased sorbet is often not vegan

Of course you could also Sorbets eat. But especially with industrially or commercially produced sorbet, you can't be completely sure that they are actually vegan. For example Gelatine have been used to clarify the juice or even as a binding agent for the ice cream. But sometimes Honey or egg-snow contained. The latter increases the fluffiness, for example.

The procedure is also critical, with fruit ice or sorbets animal dyes to use. Crimson (E120) is often used. This dye is obtained from lice, which are crushed to obtain the red colour. And if you think now that I simply do not eat red ice cream, I will have to disappoint you. Because this dye can also be found in pink or even brown ice cream. So we prefer to make our own ice cream and extend the range of varieties.

red, brown, yellow and green coloured liquids in glasses with ice cubes
Dyes are often used in purchased sorbet. The carmine red (E120) is obtained from lice and is sometimes also found in brown ice cream.

Individual ingredients and the vegan alternatives

1. replacing cow's milk with vegetable products

In many cases the cow's milk can be plant-based substances replace. Examples are Soya milk, rice milk or almond milk. Although the word milk is included, these are water-based drinks. These are obtained from the respective seeds. When sold, they may therefore no longer be called "milk" and bear names such as "soy drink". Ice cream on this basis is therefore actually not "milk ice cream", but strictly speaking a fat-containing sorbet. But who wants to be subtle here.

Soy milk in a glass and soy beans in a wooden bowl.
Soy milk as an alternative to cow's milk. But rice or almond milk is also available in many markets.

The following milk alternatives are available in many supermarkets or organic markets. You can also produce them yourself in most cases.

  • Soya milk: is obtained by soaking the soya beans in water and then filtering
  • rice milk: rice grains are soaked in water, then filtered and enzymes and thickeners are added
  • Almond milk: is obtained by infusion of crushed almonds in water and subsequent filtration
  • Coconut milk: is obtained from the flesh of the coconut by pressing, very similar in consistency to cream or milk, but the taste of coconut must go well with ice cream

These "milk" varieties contain similar amounts of fat and sugar as cow's milk. The taste varies of course more or less.

2. replacement of non-fat milk solids [yes, that's what it's really called]

As I already wrote in another article LINK, an ice cream must meet certain parameters of composition. A vegan ice cream can meet most of these criteria, except for one parameter. It is the presentation of the fat-free milk dry matter. This consists essentially of Lactose, proteins and mineral salts. This is often provided by skimmed milk powder in conventional milk ice cream. It is important to bind the water, create a creamy structure and facilitate the introduction of air.

So how do we make ends meet in the vegan version?

There are the following Substituteswhich can be used alone or in combination:

  • Inulin (e.g. from chicory)
  • Citrus fibres
  • Baobab flour (= baobab tree flour)
  • Bamboo fibres
  • Soy protein
  • Pea Protein
  • Potato protein

Of all the alternatives, it is likely that Inulin one of the best, because it can be used without a smack. However, it can cause gastrointestinal problems in some people, as inulin binds a lot of water. But you can get your body used to it by reaching out and slowly increasing the amount. Anyone who has ever eaten too much Jerusalem artichoke knows what I am talking about. It also contains a lot of inulin.

But you can also do not use these additives. Especially if you are working with a very good ice cream machine, which introduces a lot of air into the ice cream mass during the freezing process.

3. replace cream or how do I get enough fat in my ice cream

By not being able to use cream, we lose a fairly important source of fat. So we have to rely on vegetable fats like Cocoa butter or vegetable oils to fall back on. In ice cream, the Cocoa or Nut pastes (e.g. hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, cashew nuts, pistachios) we have no difficulty in displaying enough fat in the ice cream.

Farmer picking a cocoa fruit
Cocoa or nut pastes can represent the fat content that cream normally provides.

If you'd rather fruity ice cream the above mentioned ingredients are not a real alternative. But in the meantime there are also many cream-like products from e.g. soyawhich have a significantly higher fat content. These can also be found in well-assorted supermarkets or in organic markets.

4. how do you replace eggs in vegan ice cream?

To do this, you first have to understand what the egg means to Functions in ice has. It performs the following three tasks:

three brown chicken eggs
Eggs are mainly used to combine the fatty parts with the water part. Carob bean gum can be used as an alternative.
  • It's supposed to be a fuller flavour can be achieved. This function is probably the easiest to do without.
  • The Increase fat content in ice cream. We have already discussed alternatives for this as well.
  • Emulsify of the ice mass. This means that the fat and water containing components should be combined with each other. Egg yolk is a natural emulsifier, which is locust bean gum, starch, pectin or guar gum can be replaced.

It is often recommended to take 1 teaspoon of locust bean gum instead of one egg yellow. For me personally this is too much. I take about half.


Basic recipe for vegan milk ice cream

A basic recipe for fruity, vegan milk ice cream can be found right here below. This can be modified with any kind of fruit you can think of.

ingredients

2 portions
500 g fruit (strawberries, apricots, raspberries, cherries, banana, etc.)
100 g raw cane sugar
100 ml water
30 ml Soya Cuisine or similar products (approx. 15% fat content)
300 ml soya drink or similar "milk" drinks
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

  • Dissolve sugar and water in a pot with a little heat.
  • Stir in Soya Cuisine until a homogeneous mass is formed.
  • Then puree the mixture together with the fruit, the soy drink and lemon juice in a mixer.
  • Leave the ice cream to cool in the refrigerator.
  • Process in the ice cream machine.

If you keep this type of ice cream in the freezer for a longer time, it becomes very hard. Therefore, it should be defrosted in the refrigerator about 30-50 minutes before consumption.

This recipe can be slightly modified depending on the type of fruit and its ripeness. This means that if I have very sweet fruit, I use a little less sugar and possibly a little more lemon juice. With rather sour fruits the whole thing is the other way round.

Or if the desire for sorbet has overtaken you, I recommend one of the variants from Strawberry or Blueberry.

Strawberry sorbet served with fresh strawberries and mint
Strawberry sorbet with fresh strawberries

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