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Ingredients
- Ingredients for the ice cream:
- For the ice cream...
- Pre-Preparation: Soak the cashews and dates overnight. Prepare your ice cream machine the night before if required.
- Preparation Time: 35 minutes
- Cooking Time: about 20 minutes
- Chilling Time: 4 hours
- Serves: 8 – 12 people
- 1 cup cashews
- 12 medjool dates, pitted
- 2 cup strong Malawi coffee (as a beverage, not the coffee grains)
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1 tsps of salt
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- For the raw vegan salted caramel swirl...
- Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes
- Ingredients for the raw vegan salted caramel swirl:
- 1 cup of medjool dates
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 1 tbs maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbs of water
- Ingredients for the decoration:
- a handful of whole Malawi coffee beans (optional)
- a drizzle of diluted raw vegan salted caramel (optional see below)
- a handful of dried cranberries (optional)
- a handful of black sesame seeds (optional)
Preparation
Step 1
The night before making this recipe, soak the cashew nuts and dates you need to make the ice cream (not the salted caramel!) in water and set aside (in the fridge). Also check your ice cream machine; the one I used needed to be prepared the evening before.
The next day, cut the sweet potatoes into 4 pieces each and boil until soft. Drain and set aside to cool. Once cooled, peel and mash the sweet potatoes so that they are ready to be used. T
Whilst the sweet potato is being cooked, prepare the Malawi coffee, making sure the coffee is strong and full of flavour. Once made, set aside to cool.
Drain the cashew nuts and dates. Pit the dates if you didn't already and place the cashew nuts, dates and half of the coffee in a high speed blender until smooth.
Then add the rest of the coffee, salt, peeled and cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (you should have about 2 cups) and vanilla extract and blend until smooth.
Place the mixture in your ice cream maker and churn until it takes on the consistency of gelato.
Whilst the ice cream is churning away, start working on your salted caramel swirl by first melting the coconut oil over a very low, gentle heat and then putting it, together with the (pitted) dates, salt, maple syrup, vanilla extract and water in a high speed blender until smooth, with a caramel like consistency. If need be, add more water.
Once done, set aside.
When the ice cream is ready, transfer about 1/4 into a loaf pan (I lined mine with non-stick baking paper). Use some of the salted caramel to cover this layer, then put some more ice cream on top, then another line of salted caramel etc. so that the salted caramel is like a swirl within the ice cream. NOTE: keep some of the salted caramel aside, to use as a topping later!
Place the ice cream in the freezer for 4 hours and remove 10 minutes or so before serving.
To serve, decorate with dried cranberries, black sesame seeds and whole Malawi coffee beans. I also diluted the left over salted caramel with a fair amount of water to create a salted caramel drizzle. YUM!
Tip 1: This recipe is a tiny bit fiddly but NOT difficult. Because it takes a bit of time to put together I suggest you make the quantity noted above, making it worth your while. But you can of course half the recipe if you prefer.
Tip 2: Do you need a high speed blender and an ice cream machine for this recipe? I haven't tried using a normal blender, but I think it should be fine. I also wondered whether you could mix this in a high speed blender and transfer to the loaf pan straight away, skipping the churning process. I think it might be possible, though I've not tried it. Yet.
Tip 3: The toppings are optional, but SO worth it. The cofee beans and black sesame seeds give it some crunch and the dried cranberries bring out the fruitiness of the Malawi coffee.
Tip 4: Sadly the salted caramel and the ice cream itself were the same color so there wasn't that visual contrast I had hoped for. This is why I thought about diluting the salted caramel, to create a lighter coloured caramel drizzle to pour on top. It's of course not necessary, but does add visual interest :)