As "free from" week marches on for Vegan Month of Food, today I was tasked with bringing you a great vegan dessert without any added sugar. For me, no added sugar includes NO maple syrup, rice syrup, dates, agave, Stevia, or anything artificial (not that you'll EVER find artificial sweeteners in my cabinet anyway). I still have a stash of fresh local mangoes here. They are in my fridge. This is to slow down their ripening as much as possible so I won't have to freeze them and I can still eat them fresh. I don't have as many as I'd like, and there won't be anymore this year as mango season is over, I will have to wait til next summer. One of the most delicious desserts I can ever hope to eat is mango ice cream. These mangoes are perfection, seriously perfection. I moved here thinking I hated mangoes (I've devoted several posts to mangoes in the past, and always say this one thing....) but I never hated mangoes, I just never had a real mango until I moved here. Those little orange orbs sold in the freezer case.... not mangoes. Those rocks sold in the product section of mainstream stores... not mangoes, not even when they ripen. Mangoes come fresh from the tree down here. You have to wait until they are just right, which basically is when they have some (or many) blackish spots on them, and the skin yields to gentle pressure when you pick it up. Another clue is the fragrance.... you'll know, trust me.
There's lots of ways to make mango ice cream vegan style, but my favorites are the simplest. The easiest way is to peel and cut your mango, freeze those pieces overnight, then make "nice cream" with either your high speed blender or Champion juicer using the blank. With the Champion you add absolutely nothing else, just fruit (you can do this with any kind of fruits, it's called a "fruit freeze" the places I'm familiar with). If you use your Vitamix, you may want to add a dash of unsweetened non-dairy milk, my favorite to use for frozen desserts is coconut milk. Today, all I did was cut and freeze 2 large mangoes last night before going to bed. I pulled them out of the freezer, plunked them into my Vitamix, and added a little unsweetened reduced fat coconut milk (I'd say roughly 1/3 cup), then blended. This will NOT work with a regular blender. After everything was mixed, I scooped it into my ice cream maker. The one I got second hand that I've had for years now. It survived Irma! No, my $700 mixer didn't make it through unscathed, but my $10 ice cream machine sure did. I froze my ice cream container last night, and today just ran it for about 10 minutes. As you can see, it's perfect!
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| This mango ice cream is exploding with flavor and is SO creamy! Look at the difference in the mangoes.... the one in the back is not ripe, its green and no flecks the one in the front is reddish and has spots... she's ready for breakfast! |
Even if you don't have an ice cream maker, it's perfect. It was softer of course out of the Vitamix, but the flavor is just as divine.
If I added sugar to this it would ruin it. On season ripe mangoes are so sweet on their own, plus the flavor just shines through so beautifully.
Mango sorbets are just as easy.... usually just fresh frozen mango and lemon or lime juice. Personally I wanted something creamy, not icy. It is still hot as Hades here. I know other people are considering pumpkins and mums, but I'm the tropical gal going kicking and screaming into pumpkin territory.
So, there you have it. And, as you can see from the photo, you'll note a few black flecks starting to pop up on my mangoes. I pulled 3 out for tomorrow already. Mmmmmm. No added sugar or sweeteners!
xo
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