Maca Ice-Cream & Cacao Crackle Sandwiches

Jun

2009

This recipe was heavily inspired by these. This time the cacao part is much more ‘crackly’ and the whole thing is very reminiscent of the choc-ices I used to have when I was younger.

Click ‘more’ for full recipe.

For the ice-cream

1 1/2 cups cashews
1/3 cup agave
1 vanilla pod, insides scraped out
3 cup almond milk
3 tablespoons maca root powder
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Pinch salt

- Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.

- Pour into an ice-cream maker. Alternatively you can pour into a container and place in the freezer to set hard. Once it’s frozen, cut into chunks and run through a juicer with the blank homogenising plate on. This gets rid of any ice crystals that may have formed.

- When ice-cream is soft enough to work with shape it into a cylinder (a metal ring is great for this) and re-freeze.

For the cacao crackles

1/2 cup cacao butter
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/4 cup agave
3 tablespoons cacao nibs

- Blend all ingredients except the cacao nibs in a high-speed blender.

- Use a spoon to drop small amounts of the mixture onto a non-stick surface, such as a Paraflexx sheet, to form circles only slightly bigger than the ice-cream cylinders.

- Leave to set hard.

Assembly

- Take the ice-cream cylinders from the freezer and let them soften slightly for a few minutes. That way the next stage will work better.

- Sandwich each of the cylinders between 2 pieces of the cacao crackles. You may want to return them to the freezer at this point so the whole thing freezes together as one.

Are you one of the people that have signed up for my free eZine?
Enter your name and email and I’ll also send you my 5 Most Popular Recipes eBook for free too.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

http://houseofthesunrawfood.com adam

OMG, they look so good, I have to make them.
I was wondering if you(Russell or anyone) have a conversion for cashews to cashew butter?
http://www.shoprawfoods.com Justin

Man I wish I could be eating your food every night. That looks amazing. Perhaps you should do a catering service? I’d order! Take care!
http://meghantelpnerblog.com Meghan (Making Love In The Kitchen)

Those look amazing! Could go for one right now. Why is the freezer always so slow to freeze. :)
Kathleen

I just found your recipes and your site is wonderful! Can you please come live with me? I’m sure my husband won’t mind, lol. Do you have an index of all the recipes somewhere on your site? Thanks for all you do.

From Russell: :-) You can click on the ‘raw recipes’ tab up the top or click here:

http://therawchefblog.com/category/raw-recipes

…which is the same thing. At the bottom of each of those pages there’s a link for older posts (recipes).
http://foodsnobdiary.blogspot.com/ Nicole Wagner

I absolutely love your blog. You are incredibly talented and I look forward to following your blog.
Kimmy

What does maca root powder taste like and is it required for the ice cream? Thanks.

LOVE your recipes.

From Russell: Maca has a very strong taste which is malty and which some people don’t like. It’s not essential for ice-cream necessarily.
http://anneliklinga.blogspot.com Anneli

I love your recipes! This one really made me drool.
http://www.veggie-wedgie.com veggie wedgie

They look delicious!!
Zack

I can’t wait to make this. Quick question – when you measure cacao butter, I assume it’s melted, not shaved? That stuff can be unwieldy raw, and some other recipes on the internet have caught me off guard.

This blog is nuts. Really incredible. If you release a recipe compilation in print at some point, I will buy it in a heartbeat (the ebooks are a little spendy all together in USD).

From Russell: All my recipes that have cacao butter are measured pre-melting for ease of use.
kris

Hi they look amazing finally inspiring me to use my ice cream maker!!! I was wondering if I could use cashew butter instead of cashews and is the measurement different and if I use cashews are they soaked? thanks

From Russell: You could use cashew butter but the blender might have trouble blending it because it’s so thick so you’d have to play around with quantities. If you use cashews they don’t need to be soaked but if you do soak them they will blend easier.
http://www.mivahn.om matt

Could someone please tell me what a homogenising plate is? I have a juicer, but I don’t have a homogenising plate and is there something I can replace this with? It doesn’t seem logical to put this frozen mixture into a juicer either…did you mean a food processor or blender?

From Russell: If you’ve got a twin auger juicer such as a Green Star it comes not only with a mesh screen for juicing but also a blank (solid) screen for homogenising. This is what you can use for making ice-cream.
http://www.renewnaac.com Lisa Erwin

Russell you are simple the very best! You’ve taken raw cooking from it’s raw form to simply a state of ART.

I love all your recipes and use them on a daily basis. They are easy to follow, with minimum ingredients that are easy to find and best of all they always come out PERFECT!

I look forward to your book coming out.

Lisa Erwin
Owner
Renew Natural Anti Aging Center
Addison Texas
Ludia

I don’t have a juicer and I want to have smooth ice cream. Is there something else I can do? Your advice will be much appreciated. Thanks!

From Russell: You could get yourself a cheap ice-cream maker, the mixture will work in one of those.
http://peanutbutteroats.blogspot.com/ Justine

Wow!! Your recipes look great!!

~Justine
Nicolle Gillis

Hi Russell,
Thank-you for such an inspiring site (and furthering my resolve to visit the UK which will include a course with you:)
I am presently 100% sugar free and can substitute agave nicely with water and stevia(+ vanilla/cinnamon) but am unsure as to how to substitute dates,figs,apricots, etc.(the thicker stuff). I am guessing with coconut butter but would love your oh so amazing input/advice.
With Gratitude,
Nicolle
Vancouver,B.C

From Russell: Thanks :-) It depends which recipes you’re doing. the best advice I woudl give is to make date paste by processing 1 cup soft dates with 1/2 a cup of water or orange juice and then use that as a substitute.
Shekinah Love

I noticed in a couple of your recipies it calls for melted cacao butter…but how do you melt it and still call it raw? Are you putting it in the dehydrator…in a sunny window…or just plain heating it in a pan?

Other than that…just thought Id say youre adorable!

-Shekinah

From Russell: Thanks :-)

I like to melt cacao butter in the dehydrator but for speed you can just melt it in a bowl within a bowl of hot water, being sure not to let the cacao butter get too hot.
Ludia

Oh, good I have one of those, thanks for the suggestion.
Wendy in Sunny SoCal

THANK YOU, I am eating one right now. This is my 2nd recipe I have executed from your instructions and I am a huge fan of your work. Thank you for sharing your talent! Best in good health, Wendy
http://www.rawprincess954.blogspot.com Cindy Cummins

Aww, thank you so much for sharing this recipe and these killer pics which I’m drooling and moaning over, lol.
kris

this icecream is so amazing !!! had a little trouble making cookies so I made balls of icecream and dipped in the chocolate sauce and made bonbons!! was a little weary about the maca powder cuz my man doesnt like it too much but he didnt even notice it being there thanks!
http://www.macaguru.com Maca Guru

Thank you for this great recipe! Ingredients you are using are also creating aphrodisiac effect. Real love food desert!
http://mychia-seeds.blogspot.com/ Hidalgo

you have a great list of recipe….. i’d love to try this one… for maca i only blend my fruits and mix one teaspoon on it
Russell

I have just made a batch of ice cream and ice crystals have formed is there anyway I can get rid of them once they have formed.

Thanks

Russell

From Russell: If you have a juicer like a GreenStar then you can use the homogenising blank plate to do that. Simply cut the ice-cream up to chunks that will fit in the shute and then pass them through the juicer with the blank (homogenising) plate on, then re-freeze.
Marieheinrich

Hey!

the “c” fx 1Â½ c cashews – what is that?