Sundaes

The rambling that follows is dedicated to one of life's many pleasures: ice cream sundaes.

With a bit of prep I can think of no reason why vegan sundaes can't be just as delicious and varied as their omnivorous counterparts (minus the pus of course).

The basic formula consists of ice-cream with 2 or more of the following: hot chocolate sauce, fruit, mousse, cream, syrup, sorbet, cookies, cake, brownie, sprinkles and nuts - in combinations and ratios to suit. The picture above is of last night's Black Cherry Chocolate Kirsh sundae.

Chocolate Sauce

Vegan chocolate sauces are simple to make, requiring only a couple of minutes. You can make them in a microwave on half power, but using a pan over a low heat allows you taste as you go. The core ingredients are dark chocolate, soya cream and syrup, with anything else added for flavour. Before freah soya cream came available in the UK I used a small amount of margarine, but as well as being not as good this seriously isn't advisable on health grounds!

You can use white chocolate if you want, but I find you just end up with an over sweet, off white, vanilla sauce that you could have made for half the price without. White chocolate is IMHO much better melted and drizzled on top.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• 75 - 100g Dark Chocolate
• Fresh Single Soya Cream
• Syrup: Simple / Agave / Golden

Warm a pan over a super low heat (use a bain marie if you like faffing around / washing up and are scared of burning the chocolate) and add the broken up chocolate and a splash of soya cream. Stir and remove from the heat as the chocolate starts to melt. Add a dash of syrup and stir until you have a smooth, glossy sauce. Add more cream and syrup as required, being sure not to add too much. Simple syrup is better than agave and golden, as it leads to a less sticky sauce (though maybe you like that?), is easier to pour (unless you have a squirty bottle) and is far cheaper than agave.

Flavour ideas:

• Peanut Butter: Melt a spoon of smooth or chunky PB with the chocolate.
• Coffee: Kahlua or Tia Maria will give a standard sauce a good coffee kick. Both are quite sweet so you'll need less syrup. Add them after the pan has been taken off the heat so you can control the amount of liquid and ensure the alcohol isn't evaporated off. Garnish with chocolate covered coffee beans if available.
• Cherry: Use kirsh (Luxardo was vegan when last checked) to inject cherry flavour into the sauce.
• Orange: Using Cointreau (confirmed vegan). I've seen vegans using Grand Marnier, but personally avoid as I've not seen an email from the maker confirming its vegan status.
• Coconut: Add coconut cream in place of soya cream.

So as not to compete with: some fruit flavours are better carried elsewhere rather in the sauce itself.

Fruit

I know some people would disagree, but as far as I'm concerned tinned fruit cocktail holds no place in modern society. Tinned fruit can be good for some fruits if no fresh alternative is available (or you're lazy).

Personally I prefer fresh berries, either whole, crushed or made into sauce / compote.

Tinned lychee, pineapple, vanilla ice-cream, coconut cream and crystallised palm sugar however make an excellent sundae.

Think about which flavours work together in cocktails when coming up with new ideas.

Mousse

Soya whipping cream (soya too or granovita) added to melted chocolate works best. You can use silken tofu if you prefer, but soya cream leaves no tofuey aftertaste. A dash of liqueur is a welcome addition (Kahlua & Cointreau are obvious choices), but you need to be really sparing with it and add in small amounts, so as not to make the consistency too thin. You can add a small amount of icing sugar if needed for sweetness or to thicken the mixture. Chilling or freezing (for an hour or so) will help to firm it up.

Cake / Brownie / Cookies

If you've got any of the above to hand then add chunks to the mix. Heating brownie / chocolate cake slightly may help with moisture/gooeyness. Warmed icing is always good.

If making cookie dough for the purpose of eating raw then use your favourite cookie recipe without raising agent (bicarb, baking powder etc) and with plain in place of self raising flour. This will get rid of the nasty aftertaste. Chilling it will help make it easier to work with when serving, however freezing may make any bits (chocolate, nuts etc) a bit too cold and unpleasant when eating.

Syrup

Commercial coffee / cocktail syrups (such as Sweetbird and Routin) are available in flavours you may not otherwise think be available to vegans. Butterscotch is my favourite, poured over vanilla icecream, whipping cream and garnished with mixed chopped nuts.

See my previous post here for info on making your own syrups.

Garnishes

Squirty soya cream works well, topped with nuts, sprinkles and/or fruit.

If lazy use chopped mixed nuts as they come from the supermarket. If feeling energetic you can make your own praline: toasting chopped nuts under a grill on a metal baking, with brown sugar or simple syrup.

Crystalised palm sugar (Waitrose) can be used as a garnish - it won't dissolve into the ice-cream and has a good crunch (without cracking your teeth).

Mitsu has an excellent post on vegan sprinkles available in the UK on her blog. Most sprinkles sold have either gelatine, insects or their secretions in them, so take care!

Serving

Any sturdy glass will do, but sundae glasses can normally be found for £1-£3 each. If making a giant portion to share then consider investing in a glass serving bowl (the one I have I think is meant to be a fruit bowl!).

Long handled spoons (sold as either icecream or latte spoons) are important if using long stemmed glasses. I previously had a set of cheap spoons made by Stallar, but have recently acquired a gorgeous set of Alessi Big Love spoons, which are well worth the money (the bowls however look IHMO utter shite).

Layer the flavours together, being sure not to let the icecream heat too much in direct contact with a warm sauce. If serving to others then consider having the ingredients set out and let your guests make their own.

Coconut Lychee Mocktails

Cocktails don't have to be alcoholic to be good. Whilst having read this blog you could be forgiven for thinking I'm a raving alcoholic; in reality I make cocktails for taste not alcohol content and drink on average 6-10 shots a week.

Alcoholic drinks make good cocktails mainly because you can stock a wide range of flavours without worrying that they'll go off. Additionally the slight alcoholic edge causes you to sip your drink and enjoy it over a longer period (tasty non alcoholic slip down far too easily).

I generally find non alcoholic cocktails boring because they tend not to be very intense - mixing fruit juice together isn't very exciting. It is possible to find good examples however, so I'm blogging one I created recently (based on a dessert that I'll blog another time).

Ingredients:

• 5 Shots Lychee Juice
• 8 Shots Pineapple Juice
• 2 Shots Coconut Cream
• 1 Shot Simple Syrup
• 1 Passion Fruit

Coconut cream is the thick liquid you get when you don't shake a can of coconut milk (i.e. it's double concentration coconut milk). You can sometimes find it in cartons (blue dragon I believe). It's not the same as the blocks of creamed coconut.

It's possible to find lychee juice in cartons, but if not just buy lychees in juice and strain. The easiest way to do this is using a tin opener make a large hole on one side of the lid and a small hole on the other (for air). The following picture hopefully illustrates this:

Shake all ingredients (minus the passion fruit) with ice until your hand starts to go numb from the cold:

Strain and float the contents of a ripe passion fruit over the top. The seeds will eventually sink but you'll drink through a layer of passion fruit juice which is really rather good.

Strawberry Pimms Cocktail

A simple cocktail using the aforementioned sorbet.

This is really what I had in mind when I made the sorbet. It is however just as good eaten without the alcohol.

• 4 shots Mint & Strawberry Sorbet
• 2 shots Pimms (summer)

Shake the ingredients together and serve immediately.

At some point I'll experiment with getting some cucumber flavour in too :)

Strawberry Basil Cocktails

After several failed attempts I've found something actually quite drinkable.

I've been aware of the strawberry/basil combination for a while, but didn't become interested in it until they were both out of season. I like basil and I like strawberries, so why not? Luckily I picked up some sensibly priced strawberries this week and over the past couple of nights have been trying out various recipes off the internet.

Some recipes were just plain horrible; I'm not a fan of martinis at the best of times so strawberry/basil/vodka/gin was never going to be a winning combination. There seems to be a trend for using crushed black pepper and I can appreciate the extra dimension of taste that it brings, but it's not for me. Sugar syrup definitely brings out the taste, but makes the drink a bit sweet. The mojito recipe I tried sort of worked, but sort of didn't. Morgans Spiced (which I love in other drinks) completely overpowers the taste of the basil and defeats the point.

Eventually I found that peach schnapps and light rum goes pretty well, so here's the first combination I've come up with that I like and would happily drink again.

Ingredients:

• 3 Strawberries
• 3 Large Basil Leaves
• 1 Shot Peach Schnapps
• 1 Shot Light Rum
• Ice
• Pineapple Juice

Muddle the strawberries and basil until the strawberries have been puréed.

Fill the glass with ice and pour over the spirits. Top with pineapple juice and stir.

Serve immediately with a straw or strain and serve in a martini glass.