So, this ride on the gestational diabetes merry-go-round, I decided that I wanted to go even lighter on the whole dairy thing than I did when I was pregnant with Baby.
Okay. I don’t really want it. But, with my numbers looking like they live on a pogo stick in spite of the insulin shots, I’m willing to try nearly anything. (I refuse to try eel.) This isn’t that big of a deal. I limit my dairy intake to tiny amounts of cheese, cream cheese, and margarine. The killer is that I’ve been craving ice cream. I want cold. Creamy. Yumminess. It may be less than 40 degrees outside, but I want it. Plus, I got my ice cream maker for Christmas, and I want to use it, dang it.
So far, I’ve tried making three different recipes for actual almond milk ice cream. The first one I made came from the first recipe of the three listed and consists of almond milk, greenish bananas, cocoa powder and Splenda. That one’s really good…although it’s more of a sorbet than ice cream in my opinion. I’ve made it twice with the bananas, and then yesterday, I substituted 15 ounces of pumpkin purée for the bananas. (Pumpkin has a lower sugar content + higher fiber that seems to = lower blood sugar for this girl. However, the side trip to Pumpkinville is a topic for another post) That tasted pretty good as well, although I probably could have (read should have) made it a little sweeter. Pumpkin is pretty mild, but apparently when mixed with unsweetened cocoa, it morphs into an almost coffee-like flavor.
I’ve also made the “normal” vanilla ice cream base in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook just substituting almond milk for the dairy stuff. Good, but I still wasn’t terribly happy with the texture. Almond milk makes weird custard, apparently. Who knew, right?
Remember how I was pondering how to make instant pudding with almond milk last post? No? That’s okay…neither did I. Anyway, I gave it a shot today. Apparently, if you halve the liquid called for, it instantly achieves extra-thick pudding-y goodness. I made a double batch of white chocolate pudding using that method, then decided upon reflection that it was a little too thick. (It started strangling my blender, so…) I added an extra cup of milk, plus a teaspoon of almond extract and 2 tablespoons of Splenda, and BOOM! Great flavor without the wateriness of almond milk. I let it set for about 10 minutes, and then ran it through my ice cream machine.
My husband was really happy about his dessert tonight. So was I. I have all kinds of pudding boxes with various flavors in my cabinet…let’s hear it for finding a use for them!
Filed Under "Potpourri" 