How To Make Vegan Salted Coconut Milk Caramel Ice Cream with Homemade Hemp Milk

So first things first!  The Spice House Contest is officially over and the winner of the contest is Masha. I will contact you directly to get your address! Congrats! Please check out my current giveaway for unbleached paper cooking and baking products from Beyond Gourmet!

Now to the really important stuff: how to make vegan salted coconut milk caramel ice cream. If you read yesterday's post, I had a little bit of a mishap in the kitchen while trying to making coconut milk caramel candies. But all's well that end's well. I used the caramel sauce for this recipe.


So first you have to make the sauce. I adapted the recipe from Saveur's recipe for Coconut Milk Caramels. I used unrefined Coconut sugar and maple syrup in my recipe instead of the white sugar and corn syrup in Saveur's recipe.

Coconut Milk Caramel Sauce:
Ingredients:
1 tsp Coconut Oil
1-16 oz. can coconut milk
¾ cup maple syrup
1 tsp. Celtic salt
1¾ cup Coconut Sugar
¾ cup water

Process:
1. Line a baking dish (either 8x8 or larger) with unbleached parchment paper and coat with coconut oil (to prevent sticking)

2. Combine the coconut milk, corn maple syrup and Celtic salt in a saucepan.  Heat over medium low, until all clumps have melted (2-5 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.

3.In an another saucepan, combine coconut sugar and the water and stir until sugar is wet.

4. Place over medium high heat and let cook, without stirring until a candy thermometer reads 240°F.
5. Remove from heat and pour melted sugar into the coconut milk mixture.

6. Return saucepan to medium low heat, stirring continuously until all the caramel is dissolved.  Raise the heat to medium high, stir continuously and cook for 8-10 minutes. Make sure that the sauce pan is large enough to hold everything, because it can boil over

7. Pour into baking dish and refridgerate

8. You can enjoy this sauce with apples or pour into yogurt.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can make ice cream. For this Vegan Salted Coconut Milk Caramel Ice Cream, I made my own hemp milk, but you can use unsweetened hemp milk from Tempt.

Homemade Hemp Milk

Ingredients:
2 cups hulled hemp seeds (soaked over night)
4 cups water

Process:
1. Soak hemp seeds overnight

2. Run through a juicer with water or blend using a Vitamix

3. Use a Nut Milk Bag to drain the milk

4. Add water if you want a thinner consistency

5. Enjoy!

Vegan Salted Coconut Milk Caramel Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup Homemade Hemp Milk
1 cup water
2 cups Coconut Milk Caramel Sauce
1 tsp of Celtic Salt

Process:
1. Pour milk into Ice cream maker

2. Slowly pour in Coconut Milk Caramel Sauce

3. Let run for 3 minutes and then pour in water and salt

4. Let run for 25-30 minutes

5. Enjoy!! It's freaking delicious!

So I Decided to Make Refined Sugar Free Coconut Milk Caramels...

Sometimes I get a little obsessive: I get an idea and I can't shake it until I see it through. On Sunday, the hubby, our daughter and I went to the Mill Valley Arts Festival and stopped by the Mill Valley Market to grab something to drink. While in the check out, a colorful bag of candy caught my eye. In bright white letters on a baby blue background, it read "Coconut Milk Caramels." Unable to contain my excitement I yelled "oh sh*t!" at the top of my lungs, frightening my husband and several old ladies standing in line. I didn't intend to be so vulgar, but these are COCONUT MILK CARAMELS we are talking about here and I haven't had a caramel in almost a decade! I turned the bag over to glance at the ingredients and was disappointed to see that they were made with brown rice syrup and so untouchable for the new, grain free me. But that didn't stop me from fantasizing about how I'm going to come up with the most amazing grain free and refined sugar free coconut milk caramels recipe.

So at 10pm, I decided it would a superb idea to try making caramels for the first time ever. Needless to say, by 10:30 the stove was covered in caramel sauce and I was ferouciously scraping off burned and blackened sugar off the burners. Luckily, the hubby was already asleep because had he been awake, I would have been throughly scolded for my impulsiveness. And so, I'm not sure if I actually made caramels, but I did make a tasty caramel sauce, which I can use for dipping apples. I'll try refridgerating it overnight and seeing if it hardens. It it turns out, I'll post the recipe. But lesson learned: do not attempt to make caramels at 10pm after a long hard day at work, especially if you've never made candy before.

But there is some good news, I did manage to make a tasty soup prior to delving into the candy making debacle. When I did the CAN CAN Cleanse last week, I ate/drank the most amazing soup for lunch. CAN CAN Cleanse's, Teresa Piro created a really delicious and satisfying lunch and I really wanted to make it at home. After one failed attempt to recreate the recipe, I decided to shoot Teresa and email. She was so kind to share her recipe with me and so I am sharing it with you.

CAN CAN Cleanse's Zucchini Basil Soup
Ingredients:
3 medium Zucchini
1 stalk Celery
1 Leek (white only)
1/4 Onion
2 sprigs Basil
1 tsp Sea Salt and more to season as you like
1/4 tsp Cayenne
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1-2 cups Filtered Water

Process:
1. Cut zucchini in half length wise and drizzle with olive oil and a large pinch of salt and place on baking sheet on unbleached parchment paper

2. On another baking sheet, place leek, celery, and onion and also drizzle with oil, salt, and cayenne pepper

3. Roast for 45 minutes at 325 degrees

4. Remove all ingredients and blend in a Vitamix or a blender with water to get desired consistency

5. Serve with a little coconut milk and dash of cayenne

6. Enjoy!