Thursday, August 4, 2011
VEGAN PERUVIAN STYLE LUCUMA "ICE CREAM" OR GELATO, TAKE 2
The color of my Lucuma "Ice Cream" is not as orange as some I've seen-- maybe because it's made with the powder.You can see 132 color photos of many of the recipes in my new book, World Vegan Feast, in this photo album. There are now twenty 5-star reviews of "World Vegan Feast" on amazon.com. Purchasing info in the far right-hand margin (just under photo of my book) in " UPDATES ON MY NEW BOOK, "WORLD VEGAN FEAST".
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August 19th of last year I wrote the following:
"Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it isn't eaten as a fruit, per se. Mostly it is used for a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver last, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!
... I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say "sweetened" and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!
I tried diluting it with more soymilk-- still overpoweringly sweet! ... So, I started over and used no sweetener at all. It still tasted too sweet to me, but I know that when food is frozen, the sweetness is not as apparent, so there was hope. I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best, as I was hoping to take it to a family dinner with my sister and my mother on Friday-- they will remember this treat, too!
Last night I looked for unsweetened lucuma puree in Canada online-- no luck. But I did find lucuma powder
. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments!BTW, lucuma is being called a "superfood", but I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's true that it has lots of fiber and beta carotene, but, then, so do carrots! It is high in natural carbohydrates, so it was used by the Incas to provide energy, and evidently the trees are very prolific-- no wonder it was a popular food. Tasting sweet and butterscotch-y didn't hurt! I just feel that we should not go hog wild over exotic foods that are supposed to provide miraculous nutrients, when, in fact, we have foods at home that are just as good, more available, and much cheaper! For me, this is an exotic treat to relive some childhood memories.
Anyway, that said, we tried a bit of the ice cream when I was photographing it and re-packing it, and it is delicious! I will give you the recipe I used with the sweetened puree, but I plan to try it again with the lucuma powder
and will report back!"So I finally got back to that recipe yesterday, almost a year later, and I think I've got it! I made this version with the lucuma powder, basing it on my Vanilla Gelato using Instant ClearJel, but I omitted the syrup in the recipe because lucuma powder is fairly sweet on its own. I added a little more nondairy milk to compensate for the liquid in the syrup. It's not as good as the original made with the fresh fruit, of course, but it's not overly-sweet, and you can really taste the "butterscotch-y" flavor of the lucuma.
I hope you will try this vegan version of a popular Peruvian ice cream!
Servings: 10
Yield: about 5 cups
3 3/4 cups soy milk, or almond milk (such as Almond Breeze Original
)
)
3/4 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
(if allergic to nuts, use 1/2 cup more nondairy milk, or soy creamer, and 1/4 cup oil)
3/4 cup unbleached organic sugar
2/3 cup lucuma powder 
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Instant ClearJel® 
(see Notes about this product below) OR 3/8 teaspoon Xanthan gum or Guar gum
3/8 teaspoon salt
(see Notes about this product below) OR 3/8 teaspoon Xanthan gum or Guar gum3/8 teaspoon salt
Place the 3 3/4 cups milk into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).
Before freezing
Before freezing
Mix all of the remaining ingredients, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth .
Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into freezer container(s), cover and freeze for several hours before serving.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 208.2 calories; 24% calories from fat; 6.1g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 125.9mg sodium; 68.1mg potassium; 34.1g carbohydrates; 0.3g fiber; 18.9g sugar; 33.7g net carbs; 5.0g protein; 4.6 points.
The machine
in action
Instant ClearJel® Notes:
A while ago, I started playing with my gelato recipe from my book "Nonna's Italian Kitchen
". I wanted to make it richer-tasting, easier to make, and with more servings. One of the things I did was to use Instant Clearjel® instead of the cooked tapioca flour mixture that I generally use (tapioca thickens the mixture instead of eggs, and it has better mouth feel than cornstarch). This eliminates cooking the starch mixture, which means the whole thing takes less time and it doesn't take so long to chill the gelato mixture before freezing..
INSTANT CLEARJEL®
Instant Clearjel®
is a modified corn starch, which simply means that it is precooked, used to thicken recipes. And the vegan ice cream made with it does not crystallize, or get rock-hard. It's creamy, and has no starchy mouth feel.
For clump-free, smooth results: "...it is best when first combined with dry ingredients, before adding liquid. It will begin to swell or thicken as soon as it is added to water, milk or juices; it will impart a smooth, short texture when fully hydrated, reaching its full thickness within 5-10 minutes (without requiring any cooking). Instant Clearjel® can be used in cooking as well. The viscosity will increase slightly upon heating. It has excellent heat and acid resistance and can be used in acid containing foods and in those applications where heating is required. It has good cold temperature storage stability, making it particularly well suited for refrigerated and frozen foods."http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Instant_Clearjel®
America's Test Kitchen recommends it for fruit pies, BTW.
It isn't available on store shelves-- here in Canada I had to get 11 lbs. of it from a bakery supply company (Snowcap), but maybe a bakery would sell you a smaller amount (this will last me for life!).
You can now order it in Canada from the Gourmet Warehouse (Vancouver)
In the US, you can mail-order it from (and I believe that all these sources ship to Canada, too):
amazon.com
Barry Farm
and
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/instant-clearjel-8-oz
The machine in action just before stopping it.
Ready to pack into freezer containers
Ready to enjoy!
The machine in actionInstant ClearJel® Notes:
A while ago, I started playing with my gelato recipe from my book "Nonna's Italian Kitchen
". I wanted to make it richer-tasting, easier to make, and with more servings. One of the things I did was to use Instant Clearjel® instead of the cooked tapioca flour mixture that I generally use (tapioca thickens the mixture instead of eggs, and it has better mouth feel than cornstarch). This eliminates cooking the starch mixture, which means the whole thing takes less time and it doesn't take so long to chill the gelato mixture before freezing..INSTANT CLEARJEL®
Instant Clearjel®
is a modified corn starch, which simply means that it is precooked, used to thicken recipes. And the vegan ice cream made with it does not crystallize, or get rock-hard. It's creamy, and has no starchy mouth feel.For clump-free, smooth results: "...it is best when first combined with dry ingredients, before adding liquid. It will begin to swell or thicken as soon as it is added to water, milk or juices; it will impart a smooth, short texture when fully hydrated, reaching its full thickness within 5-10 minutes (without requiring any cooking). Instant Clearjel® can be used in cooking as well. The viscosity will increase slightly upon heating. It has excellent heat and acid resistance and can be used in acid containing foods and in those applications where heating is required. It has good cold temperature storage stability, making it particularly well suited for refrigerated and frozen foods."http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Instant_Clearjel®
America's Test Kitchen recommends it for fruit pies, BTW.
It isn't available on store shelves-- here in Canada I had to get 11 lbs. of it from a bakery supply company (Snowcap), but maybe a bakery would sell you a smaller amount (this will last me for life!).
You can now order it in Canada from the Gourmet Warehouse (Vancouver)
In the US, you can mail-order it from (and I believe that all these sources ship to Canada, too):
amazon.com
Barry Farm
and
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/instant-clearjel-8-oz
The machine in action just before stopping it. Ready to pack into freezer containersReady to enjoy!
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5 comments:
YUMMY! This looks sooo good.
Your ice cream looks so good! I fell in love with lucuma ice cream while visiting Peru twice in 2005. I had to have it every day.I have now lucuma powder,but I think that ice cream made with lucuma powder is a far cry from ice cream (vegan or any other)made with fresh lucuma. I wish I could find frozen lucuma too...
Yaelian, you are right, but, unfortunately it's what we have to work with. I'm going to do some more experimenting to do better, but it is still delicious in its own way!
Hooray! My copy of World Vegan Feast was just shipped. I opted for the free shipping so it will take a week or so. But it is on the way!
Joanne
Congratulations, Bryanna! My copy is also on the way, Joanna. Can't wait!
Pat Meadows
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