Ice Cream Update

Around 25 local raw foodies found themselves piled into my living room and kitchen for a celebration of raw ice cream delights. The picture you see here is the only one that ended up in my camera : ( It was taken the day before the meet up while I was making creamsicles from Everyday Raw. This mixture was so delicious, before or after freezing. It was hard to resist plenty of extra taste tests!

I was delighted with the turnout, but I fear that after just two meetups, we've outgrown my little cottage and it's time to move onto a new, more professional, ample sized facility. I have a couple of options that I'm considering, so we'll see what unfolds. Our next event will most certainly be a group pot luck so everyone can roll their sleeves up and get creative in their raw kitchens!
At our tasting, we sampled these raw ice cream varieties:

• Creamsicles - Matthew Kenney
• Chia Seed Ice Cream - Penni Shelton
  
• Lavender Ice Cream - RFRW (Matthew Kenney & Sarma Melngailis)
  
• Blueberry Cardamom Ice Cream - Raw Freedom Community (Carmella & Heathy)
• Easy & Delicious Chocolate Ice Cream - Karen Knowler
• Mixed Berry Sorbet - Penni Shelton (see recipe below)
  
• Raw Ice Cream Cones w/ Banana Almond Butter Cup Ice Cream (Matthew Kenney)
• Mint Cacao Chip Florentines - Russell James

Here is the super easy and marvelously delicious sorbet recipe:

MIXED BERRY SORBET

2 quarts of fresh berries (I used local blackberries and blueberries from my dad's garden)
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 -ish of pure water

Juice 1 quart of the berries to help reduce seeds. Pour juice and remaining berries, agave and a bit of water into a high speed blender to make 1 1/2 quarts. Chill mixture for about an hour, if possible. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze for about 20 minutes.

Lastly, if you don't have an electric ice cream maker, don't feel as though you can't make wonderful ice cream at home. There are two other options that will also yield a great finished product with just a little effort. Once you have your ice cream base blended and chilled, you can put the mixture into a bowl in your freezer, stirring vigorously every few hours to keep the mixture aerated. Do this throughout the day until the ice cream is completely frozen. Or, if you have a masticating juicer, you can freeze your ice cream base in a large flat casserole pan (about 1 inch thick), then cut into long strips that you can feed into your juicer with the blank plate attachment.