Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Book

We’ve always wanted to make vegan ice cream, and knew that one day we would, but it took us some time to figure out a way to make our vegan ice cream taste as good as our regular stuff. For the first few years at Van Leeuwen, we were focused on perfecting our custard-based ice creams; we wanted to get those formulas right before expanding our product offerings. At the same time, many of our patrons and would-be patrons had been clamoring for vegan and dairy-free options since the day we launched.

In our personal lives, we make a conscious attempt to eat less meat to decrease our impact on the environment and reduce animal suffering; I only eat fish, and Ben and Pete have made a choice to cut out meat from their diets. It is generally agreed that eating a primarily plant-based diet is gentler on the environment. While we’re not suggesting you adopt a vegan lifestyle (did you see our last chapter on dairy-based ice cream?), we do like having the option of ice cream that tastes just as good as one containing dairy or egg yolks—but actually doesn’t.

When we first began experimenting with a vegan ice cream base, we started with coconut milk, cocoa butter, sugar, and guar gum. It was the first and only time we used gums in anything, because we couldn’t get the right texture without a stabilizer. And though our patrons loved it and we were selling a lot of it, we weren’t happy. We had always prided ourselves on not using gums, and we felt we had to find a way around that.

So, we went back to the drawing board, and after playing around with homemade nut milks—with cashew milk coming out a clear winner!—we finally got it. The result is smooth and rich vegan ice cream—no gums needed. We couldn’t believe there was no cream or egg yolks!

If you’re wondering why cashew milk was a winner, we have an explanation: There’s no straining needed for cashew milk, which made large-scale production logistics a great deal easier. Imagine a giant muslin bag of almond pulp that needs to be squeezed out. With cashew milk, we just needed a high-powered blender like a Vitamix. If you’re a home cook, this means you don’t need to go out and buy cheesecloth—and that, in our book, makes life just a little easier. You can definitely blend your cashews using a regular standing blender but, depending on its make and motor power, you may need to strain the resulting cashew milk to get the perfect, smooth consistency.

We also liked cashew milk because blending the cashews into water (and not having to strain the cashew milk) resulted in a thicker product, which gave us thicker, more luscious ice cream. And cashews, in our opinion, are a bit more neutral-tasting than almonds, which means a more neutral base, ready to take on flavors without a funny aftertaste.

Using cashew milk allowed us to pull back on the coconut milk, which helped to create a neutral base idea for all flavors and not just those that blend well with coconut. This is why, when you taste our vegan ice cream, you might note that it doesn’t have that “vegan” taste so many vegan ice creams have.

When we make our cashew milk, we blend it with just enough water to get it to about 12 percent fat. It’s perfect for ice cream making, though if you want to make some for your morning cereal, you may want to add more water to make it looser.

The coconut milk that we use (Native Forest brand is our favorite) has between 14 and 15 percent fat and needs to be shaken well, as it contains no emulsifiers and is prone to separation. In general, it’s a good idea to give your coconut milk a good shake before use.

We then combine the two milks, and to bring our fat percentage closer to that of regular ice cream, which is about 22 percent, we add cocoa butter and extra-virgin coconut oil.

As far as sweetener goes, we decided to stick with organic sugar. We contemplated using agave syrup, but after learning how processed it is, and how much fructose (the really bad sugar) it contained, we decided that regular sugar was actually, if you can believe it, a slightly healthier alternative. Still, sugar is a treat, and we’re well aware that too much sugar is not good for you.

There are two pieces of equipment you will absolutely need to make our vegan ice creams. The first is an immersion blender, which we found to be indispensable in every recipe, as it really helped with emulsification of our ice cream base. Immersion blenders are inexpensive and take up almost no space in your kitchen—so it’s a smart move for any kitchen, big or small.

The second piece of equipment that you’ll most definitely need is a kitchen scale. We were initially tempted to put weights first and volume measurements second in this chapter only, in order to stress the importance of weights over volume when making vegan ice cream. Volume measurements can be deceptive and vegan ice cream formulas are sensitive to minute changes in fat, moisture, and liquid. In the end, we stuck to the original format of volume first, weight following—however, we can’t stress enough that, in this chapter, grams are king. Besides, once you start weighing your ingredients, you’ll find it’s so much faster and easier than measuring by volume that you may never go back to your cups and spoons!

note When making vegan ice cream, it’s important to blend continuously when adding the sugar to the fat. If you don’t, depending on the temperatures of the room and the cashew/coconut mix, the oil could solidify immediately, resulting in a grainy ice cream with gobs of fat. If that ever happens to you, it can be fixed by reheating the entire mixture and reblending once it’s warm.