Peppermint ice-cream sandwiches + a giveaway!

July 13, 2014 by Margaux 23 Comments

Most bloggers in the vegan community that I keep tabs on seem to be in the northern hemisphere, where the theme is barbecues, ice-cream, and summer fruits. Well, it’s icy cold in South Africa to the point where I don’t actually feel my hands most days, but my oven is still broken, and so we’re going to explore the lush world of ice-cream sandwiches. Also, I have the most exciting giveaway for all you wonderful ducks! 😀 NuNaturals has been more than generous and has allowed me to host a giveaway of goodies that I use every day – huzzah!

One of the best presents I ever received as a big kid was an ice-cream cake from one of my dad’s colleagues when I was younger. It rocked because it was food, and, as something of an indiscriminate connoisseur of all things edible, it was magical to receive and gorge myself upon. I still love ice-cream cakes, though my attempts at making shiny and colourful versions were not so well received for some ridiculous reason (I made Emily’s amazing kaleidoscopic layered cake one holiday and had to eat it all by myself!). I guess traditionalists will only let so many things slide before they get antsy, and, in any case, there’s nothing wrong with a deliciously creamy cake that just happens to live in the tastiest place in my kitchen: the freezer. Because we don’t get all that many guests, however, I decided to scale back from ice-cream cakes to sandwiches for practicality’s sake, but one can easily jazz this into cake form by doubling the ingredients.

I was looking over Emily’s layered cake the other day and stumbled across her ultra raw ice-cream sandwiches, which I’d never encountered before, so I used the basis of her method with the sticks, because for some reason I have tons of the stuff lying around (art project gone sour!), and as much as I love eating stuff with my hands (see tofu sprout tacos!), ice-cream on a stick seems decadent and structurally superior :p

Ingredients: (makes 6 sandwiches OR 12 minis)

1. Ice-cream:

• 2 cups sliced and frozen bananas/approx 3 medium bananas
• 1.5 tsp matcha powder
• NuNaturals NuStevia Liquid Peppermint drops to taste (I used about 1.5 droppers because I love the taste!)
• 3 tsp non-dairy milk
• Optional: 2 TBSP Amarula gold, or any other spirits of choice

2. Sandwiches:

• 1 cup dates
• 1/2 cup pecan nuts
• 1/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup NuNaturals oat fibre
• 3 TBSP date soaking water
• 1 tsp ginger spice
• 1 TBSP cacao/carob powder/cocoa
• nutmeg, cinnamon to taste
• Vanilla NuNaturals Liquid drops (approx 1 dropper)
• 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds (optional)

Optional: 1 TBSP no sugar added strawberry jam for spreading.

3. Chocolate coating:

• 2 TBSP coconut oil, melted
• 1 TBSP cacao/carob powder/cocoa
• 1 dropper Cherry Vanilla Liquid NuStevia
• 1/8 cup pistachios, measured then shelled and crushed finely (optional)

How-to:

1. In your food processor, blend together the sandwich ingredients until it forms a nice dough. Spice liberally!
2. Line a loaf pan with baking paper so that there are flaps on top that you can grab. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds evenly if using. If you don’t have the lush seeds on hand you can also use goji berries or cranberries, but this is totally optional!
3. Take half your sandwich dough and spread it evenly along the pan – don’t worry if your pomegranate seeds end up on top.
4. Blend your ice-cream until it becomes smooth like a soft serve (tip: don’t eat it all immediately). Spread on top of your brownie base and make sure it’s nice and even.
5. If you want, paint a stripe of strawberry jam horizontally down the middle of your ice-cream. I love jam in my ice-cream!
6. Place in the freezer to harden for an hour.
7. Take the loaf pan out of the freezer – place the rest of the brownie mixture on top evenly and return to the freezer.
8. After 1/2 an hour take out the brownie loaf by the tips of the baking paper and take the ice-cream sandwich out.
9. Stuff an ice-cream stick up the ice-cream portion down the middle at intervals to ensure 6 sticks are in and place them on a baking tray using the same baking paper. Using the sticks as guidelines cut your ice-cream sandwiches into 6 pieces, and then put back into the freezer whilst you make the chocolate.
10. Melt your coconut oil (I was lazy so the microwave it is!) with the Cherry Vanilla in the microwave for approx 50 seconds until it is clear. Sift the cocoa/carob on top and mix until smooth. (Cara explains different chocolate making/melting methods much better than I can!)
11. Take out your ice-cream on sticks and dunk the non-pomegranate side in chocolate, then sprinkle crushed pistachios on top before it hardens (which is rather quick!). If you didn’t use pomegranate seeds you’re welcome to dip the whole of your ice-cream in chocolate!
12. Place the ice-cream back into the freezer, non-chocolate side down, on a baking tray and let it firm up for 10 or so minutes.
13. If you want to chow your ice-cream let it relax outside for 5 or so minutes so everything is a bit squishy (unless you like ‘crisp’ ice-cream), otherwise store it in the freezer in a tupperware.
14. YUM!

It may seem like a very laborious chore, this ice-cream sandwich business, but it is actually pretty quick since you’re making it in stages. Plus these things are so uber delicious that it’s not really all that much of a crisis!

The actual brownie layer was divine – I’d forgotten how amazing and simple something like raw brownies can be – the oat fiber and buckwheat flour make it amazing though, because I’m obsessed with those two ingredients at the moment.

Nommmm! I LOVE the peppermint ice-cream, and the pomegranates on one side and the chocolate pistachios on the other give a bit of jazz for the palate to consider. Man-thing was suitably impressed by these, and I guess he should at least be relieved they’re done since I’ve been planning to make them for so long – turns out all my procrastination was for nothing because it really took no time at all 🙂 He even modelled them for me!

Delectable, decadent, yet healthy! Seriously, no added nonsense because the fruit is sweet enough. Using the flavours of peppermint and cherry vanilla make this ice-cream sandwich pop, but you can easily do without if you don’t have it on hand, or sub with your favourite flavours. I’ve been drooling over the idea of peppermint ice-cream for ages now, so this was purely indulgent for me.

Now for the exciting part – the giveaway!! I’m seriously not lying when I say these products get used on a daily basis in our household – I use the Cherry Vanilla flavour NuStevia for my smoothies every day because they really just make them amazing, especially if you don’t use too much fruit. The cocoa syrup…is like crack. Can I even say that? There’s no other way to describe it. I finished one of these mammoth bottles rather quickly on EVERYTHING I could get my hands on – toast, frozen fruit, smoothies, my mouth…everything! The simple syrup is also glorious because it means I don’t use agave anymore, and can also be more accomodating to my diabetic FIL – finally my goodies have much more sweetness! The powder packets are nifty because I can sweeten hot chocolate or pancakes without worrying about spiking my own sugar levels, and it really takes very little to get a lot of oomph, so that 50-packet box is something great to have in your pantry for sugar emergencies!

Anyway, can you tell I’m excited? I love this stuff because it’s completely changed the way I think about flavour and taste – everything can be improved with these products, especially if you’re dabbling in raw food (as above!).

Competition guidelines:

1. I will randomly be choosing 4 winners who will EACH win the four delightful products seen above: 1 bottle Cherry Vanilla NuStevia, 1 50-pkt box of NuStevia powder, 1 bottle of Cocoa Syrup, and 1 bottle of Simple Syrup. There will also be a free bonus gift!! 😀 😀
2. The competition is open WORLDWIDE (huzzah!) and NuNaturals will only be able to ship DIRECTLY to the winners (no P.O. boxes!).
3. If you are chosen as one of the 4 winners I will contact you via email, after which you can send me your direct residential address and other such details.
4. If I do not get a response after 4 days via email after announcing the winners I will choose another winner.

The competition opens at 12 a.m. on 14 July 2014 and ends on 21 July at 12 a.m. I’ll announce the winners on 22 July!

Click the link below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! 😀