I've been experimenting with my own nut milks as part of various dessert creations: vegan ricotta stuffing for mafroukeh, also walnut milk for my pistachio birthday cake... because I couldn't justify milking pistachios on top of the massive amounts used in the cake and frosting. I've also been using whatever is nut milk is left over to play around with a vegan response to Halo Top. Ok, ok, I know, Halo Top has its own vegan response to itself. Or something like that.
Except a) there are virtually no vegan flavors to be found within a 30-minute radius of home no sh*t Sherlock, you're surrounded by goats and b) it contains pea protein. Ask me how I know this. It's a fun story that goes something like this:
- Nate buys chocolate-covered banana for himself, to try along with other flavors.
- Nate thinks chocolate-covered banana tastes like artificial banana-flavored socks. Leaves it in the sink.
- Putting stuff away for the night, Quat sees the flavored socks in the sink and, in a late-night ego-depleted state, decides to... taste it. A bite can't hurt, right?
- Halfway through the pint DON'T JUDGE it's awful, but edible... somehow, Quat discovers to her relief that it's a nondairy Halo Top.
- Having finished the pint, Quat reads the ingredient list. Pea protein, huh? Oops. Maybe it'll be okay.
- The next morning, and for the next 48 hours, Quat curses Halo Top for adopting pea protein.
I hear pea protein is a pretty popular replacement of dairy protein in vegan ice cream, so I'll have to be extra careful.
Right now my Fit Nice Cream (ugh, help me find a better name) prototypes have somewhat arbitrary amounts of miscellaneous nut milks based on what's left over from dessert-making, and varying amounts of protein and soy milk powders to balance out the macros. I'll probably work out a more consistent product that relies on storebought milk such as soy and cashew.
Toasty peanutty protein goodness. By no means perfect but it's a damn good start.
Roasted Peanut Base Prototype 1.1
Total batch weight: 1050 (3 servings)
Calories per serving: 260 calorie servings
Macros: 9.4g fat, 36.4g carb (14.9g fiber), 18.6g protein
Dry mix
60g erythritol
40g polydextrose
36g powdered peanut butter, no sugar added
6g (1/4 c) granulated sucralose + dash stevia to taste
20g plain soy protein isolate
15g plain rice protein powder
10g soy milk powder
1/2 t guar-xanthan gum blend (5:1 ratio)
1/8 t salt or more to taste
pinch cinnamon (optional)
Wet mix
620g unsweetened plain cashew milk
190 g peanut milk
4g liquid lecithin
19g corn syrup
15g vegetable glycerin
1/2 T vanilla extract
1/4 t peanut butter extract
Stir the dry mix together.
Whisking vigorously, combine the wet mix, except the extracts, over medium-high heat. Whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet mix. Heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture is warm (30-40C is good) to the touch. Remove from the heat, and let cool to room temperature before adding the extracts.
Churn as usual, babe. Product notes
- Powdered peanut butter: PB&Me Dark Roast.
- Soy protein: Bulksupplements. It's not as fine and fluffy as Bob's Red Mill, but less noticeable in this application. Save the good stuff for protein spreads, where the texture has nowhere to hide.
- Rice protein: Growing Naturals, Original. I have no basis for comparison yet, but find this somewhat coarse.
- Cashew Milk: Silk plain unsweetened.
- Peanut milk: homemade, from soaking and blending unsalted dry-roasted peanuts. For this application, I would have toasted them more for a deeper flavor. I estimated the nutritional facts of this one based on Elmhust Peanut Milk - this brand employs high concentrations of nuts in its milk that seem plausible/comparable to homemade milk recipes (and what others have worked out for, say, homemade almond milk). Reactions, impressions, future directions The total batch volume exceeds the ICE-100's optimal capacity found by Ruben at Ice Cream Science (about 800 ml) and I can confirm that after 30 minutes the ice cream was not as set as I would have liked (slushy texture but riding the dasher) and I did not quite achieve the overrun I was hoping for. Next time, I'll churn in two consecutive batches and maybe play with flavor while I'm at it. Also, most of my Faux Halo Top formulas thus far have been in the 820-900g total batch weight, so this could simply do with less cashew milk and still come out with a comparable final product volume, thanks to overrun. Likely a result of the suboptimal churning, the ice crystals were a bit larger than I'm used to but this was still an enjoyable product in both flavor and texture.
Will make again.