No, this post isn’t actually about “Hot Chocolate.” Well, literally it is. It’s about what happens when you heat chocolate up and use it to make all sorts of strange, wonderful, delectable things, like almond milk ice cream dipped in chocolate. Now, depending on how ambitious you’re feeling, you can actually think of this as more of an assembly exercise than a recipe. Though there would still be some heating involved. Let’s keep it simple for now. The end result will look like these tasty bad boys:
Love Cubes
The way I make my almond milk ice cream is a bit lengthy, but you can adapt the times and methods and see how the recipe turns out. But the result is vegan, mostly organic (except for the flavoring, as I have not been able to find organic saffron or rose extract) and sugar-free! Wowee!
Saffron Rose Ice Milk Granita Cube-o-Licious Pimp Fest
4 cups organic almond milk
3/4 cup organic agave nectar (I’ve been using Madhava’s Light version)
1 tsp organic vanilla extract
1 tsp rose water
2 pinches saffron
Special equipment: blender, ice cream maker
Now– some adjustments are necessary here. First, check the ingredients on your almond milk if it comes in a carton. Lots have added cane sugar. If you are using such a almond milk, use less agave nectar (check the taste). If you’re a stickler about no sugar, make your own almond milk (which requires a whole extra day of advanced planning…).
Once you’ve figured out what and how much you’re actually going to use, toss all this stuff in a blender and blend. For 2-3 minutes. Then chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge. Once the mixture is nice and cold, pour it all in an ice cream maker. I happen to have a Norelco Lickety Split mamajama. I love it. Mama Squid won it 30 years ago in a call-in TV trivia show. Churn the mix until everything is frozen into a slushy wonderful mix. It won’t be very creamy, but it will be delicious straight from the machine.
Melting white chocolate
I decided to put this concoction into some silicon ice cube trays and cover them in chocolate. Silicon trays help, you can pop the ice cream right out after they’ve hung out in the freezer for 4-5 hours. I melted some white chocolate wafers and dipped each cube in. The chocolate solidifies very quickly. Who knew? I didn’t. So you gotta work fast. You can melt just about any chocolate and dip the cubes in. If you want a really thick coating, use the chocolate as-is. If you want a thin coating, melt some coconut oil into the chocolate and you’ll get something thinner and crunchy like magic shell.
Let the cubes thaw at least 10 minutes before serving. Not the neatest treat to eat, but tasty as hell, and probably tastier to lick the drops off someone else’s rippled muscle-y chest. Maybe that’s why it’s an aphrodisiac?
Yours,
Dr. Squid
