The New Scoop: Recipes for Dairy-Free, Vegan Ice Cream in Unusual Flavors
Alisa Fleming ~ … Plus Some Old Favorites. That last part didn’t fit in the subject line, but I didn’t want you to think that this ice cream cookbook lacked rich chocolate, vanilla bean, and strawberry flavors!
The New Scoop is the latest collection of ice cream recipes to hit the dairy-free culinary scene, and the author, Alina Niemi, wants to assure you that cool vegan desserts are anything but boring. The list of recipes in this cookbook is massive considering the focused topic, and the creativity is impressive. The recipe chapters open with classics like Mint Chip, Pumpkin, and Mocha Almond Fudge flavors, but quickly advance into more adventurous concepts like Chocolate Pretzel, Maple No-Bacon Pecan, Tamarind, Coffee Chai, and Tomato Basil …
Really, I could spend all day listing out the exciting flavor combinations and recipe titles within. Just a few more that excited my taste buds included the Apple Maple Walnut Ice Cream, Tangerine Sorbet, Carrot Cake Frozen Yogurt, Coconut Mint Lime Ice Cream (pictured on the cover), Okinawan Sweet Potato Ice Cream, and … I’d better stop now to keep things moving!
A quick rundown of some of the chapters in The New Scoop:
- Ample tips on making homemade ice cream, including directions for with or without an ice cream maker.
- An ingredient primer that covers the base ingredients used in this book.
- Recipes: The Old Favorite Ice Cream Flavors
- Recipes: Herbs, Spices, and Unusual Ice Cream Flavors
- Recipes: Sherbets and Sorbets
- Recipes & Tips: How to Make Yogurt at Home
- Recipes: Frozen Yogurts
- Recipes: Asian and Tropical Tastes (ice creams, frozen yogurts, sherbets, and sorbets)
- Recipes & Tips: How to Make Mochi Ice Cream
- Creative Serving Ideas and Inspiration
Some Quick Notes on The New Scoop:
- This is a black and white cookbook, with some black and white pictures for visual and instructional purposes. True, it doesn’t have those vibrant images, but from a practical standpoint, we all know what ice cream looks like, so the recipes are what I would pick up a book like this for anyway!
- I know some of you will ask “But is it free from xxxx?” This is a 100% vegan and dairy-free ice cream recipe book. In terms of other allergens, the author uses a variety of bases and ingredients to mix things up. That said, the bulk of the creamy (including the frozen yogurt) recipes use a base of either tofu + oil or full fat coconut milk. There are a few nut-based ones (often with oil added for richness), too, and of course the sorbets are fruit-based. In general, all of the recipes are either gluten-free naturally or can be made gluten-free with ease (yes, even gluten-free pretzels are easy to find!). I didn’t see any recipes that called for highly processed vegan ingredients like dairy-free sour cream, cream cheese, or margarine, which is a big plus for those in less urban areas. Non-dairy milk alternative is about as complex as the ingredients get!
The New Scoop by Alina Niemi is available to purchase on Amazon.
Tagged gluten-free, vegan
