Cranberry Orange Sorbet

I asked my teen daughters, Pepper and GirlWonder, to test-drive this recipe for the cookbook. The results tasted fantastic, but the girls' very literal reading of the recipe led them to stuff all the cranberries and syrup into the blender at once, causing a cranberry explosion throughout the kitchen. My advice? Be ye not so literal, and divide the cooked cranberries into two batches, if necessary. I'm off to scrub berry syrup off my cabinets... and ceiling.

Cranberry Orange Sorbet


For 1-quart sorbet you will need:

3 c. frozen cranberries
1 1/2 c. water
3 1/2 c. cane juice crystals or natural sugar
1/2 c. orange juice
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
1 T. grated orange rind
grated orange rind or mint sprigs for garnish

Put cranberries in medium saucepan with water and cane juice crystals or natural sugar.

Heat to boiling and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes.

Transfer to blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add orange juice, lemon juice and orange rind.

Turn into shallow pan and freeze four to six hours, or until solid.

Break up sorbet and place into food processor or blender. Process until light and fluffy.

Store fluffed sorbet in covered container in freezer. When serving, garnish with grated orange rind or mint sprigs, if desired.

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Recipe: Pineapple Creamsicle Vegan Sherbet

Confession: Even my adult, vegan self misses the orange sherbet of my childhood. Even though I know it's colored with chemicals. Even though it's made with milk, which I know is typically harvested in a manner that greatly reduces the quality of life and lifespan of dairy cows.

I know. I know. I know. Still... it's the creamy, flavor-filled, frozen memory that reminds me of summers as a kid.

What's a vegan girl to do? Well, I don't know about other vegan girls, but this vegan mama usually sets out to develop a recipe to satisfy her non-vegan cravings.

So, without further ado, I offer you this cool summer treat:

Pineapple Creamsicle Vegan Sherbet

Ingredients:

1/2 c. vanilla soy milk
1/2 c. cane juice crystals or raw sugar
4 T. instant pectin granules (look for these in the canning section of your supermarket)

1 - 20 oz. can of pineapple, in its own juice (not in heavy syrup), juice included
juice of 3 oranges
1 T. lemon juice

Directions:
In a saucepan, combine soy milk, sugar and pectin, stirring over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

In a blender or food processor, blend pineapple and its juice until smooth. Add juice from oranges and lemon juice, blending until well-combined.

Stir blended fruit and juice mixture into soy milk mixture, mixing thoroughly.

Pour sherbet into the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish (the shallow depth of the sherbet will help it freeze more quickly) and freeze for an hour or two, or until "scoopable."

Tip: For extra-smooth, extra-creamy sherbet, blend the mixture a second time after the first freeze, then return to freezer until firm.

Scoop, and enjoy!

I garnished mine with a twirl of orange peel. To make, use a bar zester to create a long strip of orange peel. Wind tightly around a chopstick, then release. Curl will relax a bit, but remain coiled.

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Berry Mango Vegan Frozen Yogurt: FRO-YO!

Curlytop (age 5) and Snugglebug (age 4)
give their lick of approval!

I don't know about your kids, but mine love frozen dessert treats, above all else. Anything that can be scooped into a dish or a cone rules at my house!

Here's an easy, tasty treat for these hot summer days:

Berry Mango Vegan Fro-Yo
Ingredients:

1 c. vanilla soy yogurt
1/2 c. frozen raspberries
meat of 1 mango, diced
1/4 c. raw sugar
2 T. instant pectin (find this in your supermarket, with the canning supplies)

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Pour into the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish. The shallow depth of the yogurt mixture helps it freeze more quickly.

Freeze for an hour and half to two hours,or until scoopable. Yum!

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Recipe: Mango Pomegranate Coconut Ice Cream

I've been hankerin' for some vegan ice cream these days, even though it's winter. While I love the decadence of vegan "ice creams" like So Delicious and Rice Dream, they get a bit expensive when you have a habit the size of mine.

Serendipitously, Raw Girl in Mumbai posted what looked like a scrumptious recipe for pomegranate ice cream at the peak of my cravings. I don't have an ice cream maker, but neither does she, so I figured it was worth a try.

As is my habit, I made a few modifications and additions, and it turned out delicious! I skipped the lime and added mango, swapped the maple syrup for cane juice crystals, and added some extra blending time. While she said hers was more like an icy sorbet, mine turned out creamy and scoopable - the kids loved it!

Here's the recipe, as I modified it:

Mango Pomegranate Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 pomegranate
1 mango
1/2 c. cane juice crystals or raw sugar
1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk, full fat
1/2 t. vanilla

You'll also need:

A blender
A deep-dish pie pan or cake pan


Directions:

Peel the pomegranate and remove the seeds. Puree them in the blender and transfer the puree to a bowl for the moment.

Peel the mango and cut the fruit away from the pit. Puree the fruit in the blender and add the pomegranate back in.

Add the vanilla, cane juice crystals and half the coconut milk to the blender pitcher and blend well. When the cane juice crystals are dissolved, add the rest of the coconut milk and blend until everything is well-mixed and frothy.

Transfer the mixture to a deep-dish pie pan or deep cake pan and freeze for one hour.

At this point, the mixture will be starting to harden a bit on top but still creamy underneath the surface. Scoop it out and put it back into the blender. Blend until creamy and smooth and put it back into the pan and in the freezer for three to four hours.

Your ice cream should be set up and ready to scoop! (I ran my metal ice cream scoop under hot water to make scooping easier.) Garnish with a sprig of mint and a mango slice.

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