Peanut Butter Ice Cream - Vegan and Dairy-Free

The richest, creamiest vegan ice cream I've ever made.

It is hot and steamy here in New England. And I am not cooking. I am not even boiling water for my habitual ritual of afternoon tea. I am sitting in front of a petite blue desk-top fan. Eating ice cream. Homemade ice cream, to be exact. With nary a trace of dairy or gluten. And apparently, it is the best homemade ice cream I have ever made (so says my ever willing, taste-testing husband).

Who am I to argue?

It is indeed fabulous.

The inspiration came via one of our favorite Los Angeles restaurants- Akasha, in Culver City. At Akasha you can always find a lovely gluten-free choice on the menu- as well as something vegan, which by default, is dairy-free. A sigh-of-relief option for those of us saddled not only with celiac disease, but a dairy intolerance as well. (As a side note, I have found it harder to dine out dairy-free than gluten-free-- chefs love their butter, cream and cheese. And because they pre-prepare so many items on the menu, it is often impossible to find a dairy-free choice.) One of the gluten-free dessert choices at Akasha is vegan peanut butter ice cream.

It. Is. Simply. Divine.

So I decided to try my hand at re-creating it.

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Gluten-Free Cherry Almond Crisp

Fresh organic cherries. Mother Nature's ruby gems.

Cherry Baby

Summer is heating up. And so is yours truly in all her hot flashing glory. (We'll get to the cherry almond crisp recipe in a moment- but first I have to get something off my chest.)

Last night my husband was scanning channels on cable. I sat down next to him, (quickie dinner plate perched on my knee) and crunched romaine lettuce, almonds and dried cherries as he watched the end of the Shawshank Redemption. One of his favorite movies. An affection shared by many a cinephile. This is a beloved film.

Then I heard it.

A line that stung and burned so deep and hot I stopped chewing. I stopped breathing. I sat as still as the fork on my uneaten plate of salad.

The despicable, murdering bully of a prison guard is being led away by police. We hear the voice of God Morgan Freeman purr with quiet authority that rumor has it this cruel and abusive man was led away "crying like a little girl".

The ultimate put down. Not only did he cry. He cried like a girl.

Because, really, who would ever want to be caught crying like a girl? It's the ultimate in weakness. The worst thing you could say about a man. It's dependent. It's needy. It's unmanly. Inadequate. Irrational. Disgusting.

Worthy of contempt.

A flood of sneers and mocking imagery ran through my head. All the put-downs of childhood endured and encoded in the hippocampus, stashed away for safe keeping.

You throw like a girl. You run like a girl. You cry like a girl.

Bullies. Belittling. Because girls are less worthy. Less capable. Less whole.

It's a message our culture delivers every day, via media of all kinds. From raunchy punchlines about yeast infections to commercials for thigh cream, from political pundits calling single women sluts, to the latest (oops!) leaked sex tape, from a misogynist song lyric that rhymes with witch to the impossibly high platform heels women teeter in, hobbled for fashion's sake, shoes designed for prey.

I think about this and our nation's Cult of Youth as I walk and sigh at twilight, wearing Converse sneakers and photographing violet shadows with my iPhone.

How often are girls and women celebrated for something other than appearance- a pretty object to penetrate, to own, or rate on a scale of one to ten.

And after a certain age- it only gets worse.

Just look at Botox sales stats. Women fear aging with a depth of disgust unfathomable. We are buoyed on an ocean of revulsion toward aging. Why else would we fail- collectively- to tell the honest truth about plastic surgery and the freakish waxy desperation it exudes? There isn't an actress over the age of 30 who can express worry or surprise with her forehead muscles any more (well that's an exaggeration. There are, maybe... three?).

Ask yourself- how often do we get to see ourselves depicted honestly, as complicated, brave, strong, authentically sexual- never mind brilliant, sassy, dimensional - and not be reduced to mere object or caricature?

Or worse, invisible.

This keeps me up at night. This girl stuff. This aging stuff. This what-do-I-do-next stuff. My hip starts to ache and I lie in the dark and feel no closer to solving my dilemma than I did yesterday. Or the day before.

And tonight?

I am sorry to say, I am no closer to an answer.

But at least I've told something true.

Warm and sweet. Cherry almond crisp. Vegan and gluten-free.

Gluten-Free Cherry Almond Crisp Recipe

The flavor combo of brown sugar, cinnamon, sliced almonds and quinoa flakes creates a melt-in-your-mouth gluten-free crumble topping that gentles the dark tart taste of sweet summer cherries. I used organic coconut oil to keep it vegan.

Ingredients:

6 cups organic dark cherries
1 tablespoon cornstarch or tapioca starch
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour, millet flour, or certified gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup organic virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375º. Lightly grease an 8 or 9-inch square baking dish or four 4-inch ramekins.

Wash, halve, pit, and stem the cherries. Place them in a bowl and sprinkle with cornstarch and 1 tablespoon sugar. Toss to coat. Pour into the baking dish or ramekins. Set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, brown rice flour, white rice flour, quinoa flakes, sea salt and cinnamon. Sprinkle with the almond extract. Add the coconut oil. Stir with a fork until sandy textured and crumbly. Add in the sliced almonds. Stir to combine.

Add the crumble topping to the cherries.

Bake in the center of the oven for 50 to 55 minutes until the cherries are bubbling and soft (ramekins may take a little less time). Note- cover with foil at 30-40 minutes, if the topping starts to get too browned.

Cool the crisp on a wire rack. Lovely served warm.

A scoop of coconut vanilla ice cream is optional.

Serves 6.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you. 

For substitution help, please see my guide to baking with substitutions here.

 

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Olive Tapenade Recipe

Vegan olive spread on a slice of gluten-free French bread.

Summer is officially here. The longest day of the year has paused on her axis for one delightful exhale. The big fat Strawberry Moon will be illuminating the sky tonight. Mother Nature's biggest full moon show of 2013. It is a perfect moment to stop. And put down your various electronic devices (seductive and addictive and shiny as they are).

Turn your gaze skyward. To something bigger than yourself. To something mythic and eternal. Timeless and rooted in dreams.

Celebrate the kind happiness of a warm summer night.

And whip up this simple tapenade.

Perfect for topping slices of a fresh baked baguette (my easy gluten-free baguette recipe using Pamela's wheat-free bread mix is here).

This salty, tangy olive spread is also a lovely no-cook pasta sauce.



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My Favorite Gluten-Free Diet Summer Recipes

Cook Up a Gluten-Free Summer

Make your gluten-free diet fresh, fast, and light. These hand-picked Gluten-Free Goddess® recipes celebrate the abundance of local ingredients and garden-glorious taste. 

Kick up your warm weather meals with local fresh herbs, tender greens, lime infused guacamole,  protein rich hummus, and bright basil pesto. Simple grilled fish, colorful stir-fries, and brilliant quinoa salads  make for light and easy meals, perfect for picnic style get-togethers. 

Strawberries, blueberries and peaches inspire easy crisps and cobblers, cakes, muffins, and dairy-free ice creams everyone will enjoy.

Eating gluten-free couldn't be simpler. 

Or more fabulous.

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Vegan Strawberry Chocolate Chip Sherbet

Ripe strawberries make delicious non-dairy sherbet

Now is the perfect time for a sherbet recipe. Why? Because June is lush and abundant in strawberries. And how do I love these sweet ruby gems? Any way I can get 'em. Popped into my mouth straight from the colander. Rolled in brown sugar and nibbled. Baked into scones (have you tried my Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones recipe?) and Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins. Nestled into Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.

And this week- transformed into a bliss inducing non-dairy frozen confection.

Sherbet- berry pink and creamy and just sweet enough. Studded with vegan dark chocolate chips (darling you know I love strawberries and chocolate together, and I commingle the two every chance I get).

So I hope you dig it.

And dig in.

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Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Strawberry rhubarb muffins with streusel- gluten-free and vegan.

Can't get enough of the classic spring pairing of strawberries and rhubarb? Me neither. So I baked a batch of muffins, dressed up to party with cinnamon streusel topping. These easy to toss together treats are tender pull-apart bites of grainy buckwheat sweetness studded with bits of tart rhubarb. A recipe perfect for brunch or afternoon tea.

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Gluten-Free Blueberry Crumble-Crisp Recipe

Kick-off your gluten-free summer with a blueberry crumble-crisp.

Blueberry Love

Summer is not officially here until the eve of June 20th- the longest day of the calendar year. But why wait to share one of my quintessential Midsummer recipes? The kindest season is far too brief. As the Bard of Avon once penned, summer's lease hath all too short a date. So who am I to hold back and play hard-to-get, to deny you even one day of partaking in this (rather modest) indulgence?

I believe in the here and now more than the promise of ever-after.

Not that ever-after does not hold its enduring charms. The swath we name eternity is threaded through and through with everyday blinks as brief as a silk worm's life. Which, as it turns out, is perilously close to a single, fleeting summer.

In my view, if I am honest with myself and paying attention, eternity can be found inside a June. Within a child's hand clasp. Echoed in a tea cup. All that I long for, wish for, dream of, has already happened, this I know. In some far off starlit part of me that remains forever untouchable and true, eternity is happening now, and breathes within the tiny beating bud of even my fears, and pain. It knows no boundaries, or Gregorian demarcation. It is patient. And full of music.

I see it flicker in my sons' eyes.

This gift of time.

And the moment I spot it, it is already gone, light years away, clean and immaculate.


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Grilled Veggie Quinoa Salad

The jewels of summer- grilled vegetables- make a gorgeous quinoa salad.

Everyone loves a good old fashioned barbecue. The easy conviviality of a family backyard picnic. The smoky summer scent of charred goodies grilling. Lemonade chilling. Badminton birdies sailing. The crack of croquet balls. The last pink of June daylight. Punching lids on firefly jars. It's the stuff of a midsummer night's dream.

But if you need to be on a gluten-free diet- or if you happen to be vegan- or allergic to wheat- barbecues can be a tad less than convivial. Those mysterious grilling sauces and marinades (so often containing wheat-laced soy sauce). Those gluten-rich fluffy hot dog buns. All those meaty manly burgers and boiled egg dotted salads.

What's a gluten-free vegan to do?

Munch on lettuce?

Don't worry, Babycakes. I've got your back.

How about a light and summery quinoa salad with grilled corn, fresh parsley, lemon, and chopped mint topped with smoky grilled veggies- velvety red onion, sliced zucchini, charred bell peppers, portobello mushrooms, tender-crisp asparagus and butter soft eggplant?

A veritable vegan feast.

Gluten-free.

Fabulous.

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Gluten-Free Zucchini Quinoa Breakfast Cake

Karina's Gluten-Free Zucchini Quinoa Breakfast Cake

Packing. Let's Eat Cake.

From the L.A. archives- a personal favorite you may have missed... Remember those maple sweetened almond zucchini mini-muffins? I do. They've become one of our favorite grab-and-go gluten-free treats. I tuck a bag of them- fresh out of the freezer- into my bulging purse knapsack beach bag tote whenever we venture far afield. Like. The Valley. Because, well. You never know. It can get crazy. In L.A. you might end up jammed on the 405. Stuck as in four lanes = a parking lot stuck. Stuck as in, Dude that's my hunger growling louder than Kurt Cobain's rasp on the rattling radio speaker pleading, What else could I be? All apologies.

I know this from experience. I learned the hard way (the way I learn most things in life). Driving in L.A. can lead to stop-n-go squatting in the baking sun. And a where is my nail file and why did I leave the apartment without food and water and ice in a cooler panic. Because the thirty-three minutes it took yesterday to get to Studio City is seventy-five minutes today.

That's when I started imagining a zucchini cake.

For breakfast.

On the 405.

Heading north (allegedly). To sign a lease. On a new apartment with an ample well planned kitchen and an open living room with a fireplace. And two balconies- one sunny for growing herbs, one shady in the afternoon, facing a quiet leafy green street lined with lavender gardens and rose bushes and honeysuckle and song birds.

We'll be moving in two weeks.

Your intrepid Gluten-Free Goddess has some packing to do.

Good thing we baked a zucchini quinoa cake.


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