How this began: I made vegan peanut butter cups for my friend's birthday a couple weeks ago, and the cups were especially recalcitrant about coming out of the molds this time around, leaving me with a bunch of broken ones I couldn't serve. I stuck them in the fridge and figured I could chop them up into ice cream.
Later, I began thinking about how I'd never tried making nonfat frozen yogurt, and how this was marginally better for me than actual ice cream, even if I was still planning on mixing in the peanut butter cups. And that led me to the next problem, which was I knew that given the aforementioned zero fat content in the yogurt, even if I drained it first, I'd end up with a hard, icy rock in my freezer.
Which reminded me of xanthan gum. I have another friend who's allergic to cow milk, but has had excellent luck making coconut milk-based ice creams using xanthan gum to ensure a soft texture. So I figured, why not? Sure, I'd never used xanthan gum before, but it was worth a shot – and a mere $15 later (oof) I now own enough xanthan gum to last me a lifetime.
( Recipe? Who needs recipes? )
Later, I began thinking about how I'd never tried making nonfat frozen yogurt, and how this was marginally better for me than actual ice cream, even if I was still planning on mixing in the peanut butter cups. And that led me to the next problem, which was I knew that given the aforementioned zero fat content in the yogurt, even if I drained it first, I'd end up with a hard, icy rock in my freezer.
Which reminded me of xanthan gum. I have another friend who's allergic to cow milk, but has had excellent luck making coconut milk-based ice creams using xanthan gum to ensure a soft texture. So I figured, why not? Sure, I'd never used xanthan gum before, but it was worth a shot – and a mere $15 later (oof) I now own enough xanthan gum to last me a lifetime.
( Recipe? Who needs recipes? )